Charmion, our temperatures have been in the 70s, forecasters are telling us this is about 15^o above normal. We had an early hard freeze, because the weather can play dirty tricks on gardeners, but since then it has been fairly warm most of the time. I have to mow the lawn again because the weeds have grown tall.

Somehow I'm not motivated this year to throw myself into the flurry of holidays. Family is arriving this week and we'll do our delayed event a few days from now, so I need to make a couple of types of cookies to give a somewhat normal appearance to the festivities. I smoked salmon for the kids, a thing that has become an annual tradition (though their dad has bought a high-quality farmed fish that is okay smoked, it isn't as rich and as lean as the wild-caught fish) and I need to find the stockings and put them out of harm's way from the 30-pounds of destructive puppy teeth I have living here now.

I learned yesterday that I have had to declutter my address book of the names of some old dear friends this year, a weight that also affects the holiday season. I had a conversation with the youngest son of two of these friends and it was a trip down memory lane even while he has pointed out that now we are the oldest generation in our families. I was aware of that many years ago; my parents died in their 70s, his in their 90s. (They died within six weeks of each other, one three weeks before Thanksgiving and the other on Christmas Eve). Those holidays are going to involve some heavy emotional lifting for their large family for a few years to come.

Time to get moving around here - I'm going to test my theory that the steam cleaner I use on the carpets *might* work to scrub the tile floor in the den, though I'll pick up a couple of more mats to use inside and outside before I test that theory.