Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings posts give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.
Welcomings will be posted at the start of each week (usually Saturday night with a Sunday date). To find the posts, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).
The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.
So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?
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NOTE: The comments page will split off after 20 or so left margin comments with the most recent comments on the current page. To see the older comments, scroll to the bottom of the page (right before “Leave A Reply”) and use the Pages Tool to view previous pages, shown here with 3 pages of comments available and Page 2 circled.
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Good “morning”, Motley Meese! The week begins …
Morning low of 55 degrees in the Desert Southwest 🌵 with an expected daytime high of 79. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
Wishing a Happy Solstice to everyone!
And have a great day, all y’alls!!
Good day Meese and Blessed Solstice.
Puerto Rico
Hurricane Melissa
Good morning. Crazy warm for this time of year, I ran the a/c last night. Just so wrong. I hope everyone has a good day.
Posted
Good Sunday morning, Moosekind, and happy Winter Solstice in less than an hour!
It’s cold (47 F.) here and I’m tired of waking at 4:30 a.m. Going to see whether a hot shower will wake me up. After that, I’ll deliver presents up and down the hallway. This morning when I opened my door I found that Bon-Bon, the little dog across the hall, had given me a small box of chocolates. Yay! I’d been hoping that someone would.
It’s a blue and gray morning so far. Need to organize the ritual, collect the cinnamon sticks, cloves, and whole nutmegs for the potpourri, and gather the red and green organza bags for the finished product. Yesterday I bought assorted evergreen sprigs in case no one else brings any.
I hope to Goddess someone shows up for the ritual this afternoon! A lot of people are out of town. Nora went to Florida with her BFF and her family, but will return the 23rd. How odd, for all my traveling, that I’ve never been to Florida. For today, nothing is more important than the ritual, and then to get dressed for my 5 p.m. dinner engagement with a member of the Drama Club. He’s also a member of the UUs and lived in Reston before he moved here, so I know his politics are acceptable.
Sings:
We wish you a merry Solstice, we wish you a merry Solstice,
We wish you a merry Solstice and lots of good cheer!
Happy Solstice/Yule! It’s 39 heading for 57 and sunny. At least at the moment. Yesterday we generated 7.18 KWHs and the m-t-d at 120.47 is back on track. Hopefully we’ll generate enough today to stay on track and add a little padding towards the next cloudy day.
Family will be over this evening for our Yule celebration. It’s not a solstice ritual or anything. Just eating together (they bring the food), decorating the den and the big front room picture window, and visiting. It’s only a few hours once a year but it’s a very special few hours once a year. (I’ve got good filters on my HVAC system, I run the HVAC fan constantly, have the ceiling fan set to draw the air up, have a window open. We’re as safe as we can be unmasked.) I’ll do my usual cleaning/tidying up this afternoon in the hopes the cats won’t mess it all up again before they get here. LOL. Also move some cat-related stuff out of the den until everyone’s left again. I am so very looking forward to it.
Meanwhile, there’s stuff to boost so I’d best be about boosting it. Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Thought for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Solstice Greetings to one and all: Welcome, Returning Light!
We will have a quiet (but tasty and “someone else is cooking it”) meal, reflect on what we want for the next cycle of the year and leave behind those things that drag us down.
Good morning, 44 and cloudy outside my windows today. I should be in the garage doing flowers now but I’m lingering with tea and music. Tonight we’re going to light the outdoor fire and candles and enjoy whatever Ron cooks for Sunday supper on the patio, chilly but fun. Best wishes to all.
Hope it went well, princess! We began our ritual standing around the firepit outdoors on the patio, but it was so cold and windy that as soon as I cast the circle we went inside. The poems the assistant priestess chose were just right! Then we mixed the aromatic magical potpourri with our good wishes for humankind and packed it into bags. Betsy’s gingerbread was delicious, and the Trader Joe’s cider I brought was good, even though we had no way to heat it up.
I do like seasonal celebrations.
Monday Meese. 26 going up to 38 here in Kingston. Snow predicted tomorrow.
Puerto Rico
Hurricane Melissa
Good morning. Did my walk. Even fewer people than usual in the garage. Warm enough for no jacket. Just wrong for December.
Good Monday morning, Moosekind! We’re having a clear, cold morning. Perhaps a little overnight precip. if we’re lucky. The weather person pointed to our area with his stick and said we’re in extreme drought. You don’t say! Duh.
Anyway, it’s 20 F. right now in Ashburger, going up to 46 F. later.
We had a pretty nice winter solstice ritual yesterday, although we didn’t have many participants. I read a piece on embracing the darkness because Gaia needs her cold, dark winter sleep, and B. read a piece about welcoming back the light. Then we mixed up a batch of magical potpourri, calling out good wishes as we did so, breathed our good intentions into it, and put it into bags to give to family and friends. For Cakes and Ale, B. handed out some wonderful gingerbread cookies she’d made, onto which she’d iced sunny faces; I brought spiced apple cider from Trader Joe’s.
Dinner was enjoyable. It turned out that my companion had once been a student at a Jesuit college. Then he went into physics, then he became a lawyer. And I thought I was changeable!
I must seek a ‘flu shot that isn’t grown in eggs. That’s why I can’t have the one offered here at the home. I think I’ll also start masking again. I need to stay as healthy as poss.
Don’t want to think about the outside world till Boxing Day. Woke up at 4:30 this morn. UGH! Physical therapy at 10:30 in the building 8 minutes away, so better start getting ready.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond, without anyone’s being eaten by a shark.
It’s 52 heading for 63 and cloudy at the moment. Widget says it’s supposed to clear off this afternoon. I hope so. Yesterday we generated 7.3 KWHs and the m-t-d at 127.78 is on track. But not by much.
Yesterday’s family gathering was wonderful. They forgot the table so we improvised with a door we happened to have in the carport closet and a couple of bar stools for legs. The also forgot the wine to mull so a couple of over-21 folks (Josh’s mother & Sky’s girlfriend/partner) went and got some before the rest of the folks and food arrived. Dinner is less dinner than a nosh fest. Yes we had turkey. And baked potatoes to go with it. The rest was pickles, olives, cranberry sauce, sardines, cheese, cranberry-orange creamcheese spread – and lots of desserts. Chocolates, cashew fudge, “puppy chow”, sugared pecans, and the grand something or other with a French name I don’t remember that’s basically chocolate donut holes (homemade and GF) clued together with chocolate ganache and stacked to form a sort of Christmas tree (a cone anyway) and drenched (I expect it was supposed to dusted) with powdered sugar. I probably had more sugar last night than the rest of the year combined. With the possible exception of Thanksgiving – cooked by the same part of the family who did Yule. And now my wreath and den windows are very merry with ornaments that go all the way back to when Lang was 5 and made them in Sunday School. And the front window is decorated with not just the baubles and bells I can see inside but a Christmas tree made of red and green lights that can be seen from the street. Very happy time, now a happy memory to join 19 other happy memories of the family Yule gathering “at grandma’s”.
Meanwhile, life does indeed go on. I need to take Cloud to the vet today for his OA injection + blood work to see if his various levels are OK while he’s on the thyroid meds. And I’d be about my boosting. Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Thought for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
That sounds like some feast, Barbara! Could that stack of chocolate in a pyramid shape have been a croquembouche? Usually those cone-shaped delights are cream puffs stuck together with caramel sauce, but this sounds like a chocolate version of it.
I’m not avoiding sugar very successfully. Sniff.
YES! That’s exactly what it is. Or a chocolate version of it. And this is not the time of year one can successfully avoid sugar. That’s what New Year’s resolutions are for – getting back to a safe, sane, healthy eating pattern after the holidays. {{{Diana}}}
Good morning, 48 and cloudy. We enjoyed an outdoor solstice dinner last night but with wind gusts and rain it was wet chilly fun. The candles and fire in the stove made us feel cozy regardless. My grown up grand girls are coming today to help me set up the dining room for our family Christmas Eve dinner. Their enthusiasm helps me keep me going. Best wishes to all.
Late check in, I will read and admire everyone’s comments tomorrow.
See all y’all then!
Tuesday Meese. The weather forecast here are wacked. One say snow – the other says no snow.
Puerto Rico
Hurricane Melissa
jan – my gamecocks just signed a 6’7 french recruit :)
Wow! Those French players are very tall, I think Malonga, the Storm draft pick last year, is 6’7″.
I am looking forward to the Unrivaled season – 13 days!!
Good morning. My internet is out at home so I’m in the office. Rather put out about that. I posted in the apartment complex FB group to let me know when internet is back AND the contractor has left because I don’t want to want to yell at him. Happy Tuesday.
It’s 65 heading for 74 and sunny at the moment. Yesterday we generated 5.77 KWHs and the m-t-d at 133.54 is still on track but lost a smidge of ground.
We had our “overnight” – as in between sundown yesterday and sunrise today – low of 54 about 7 pm last night while we were out looking at Christmas lights. Since I can’t drive after dark I haven’t seen any other than the few houses on my block that still do lights. We walked around the Square, which is totally over the top as far as the lighting is concerned but no longer has some of the things I remember (Shetland pony rides, camel rides, horse-drawn carriage rides, kettle corn stands, pretzel stands, and the like), then we drove around the Historic District. It was beautiful.
I’ve definitely had too much sugar the last few days and it messes with my energy levels. And concentration levels. So I’m moving a bit slowly today. But I’m moving. Off to start my boosting day. Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Thought for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good Tuesday morning, Meese! We have a cool, dark, drippy-droppy morning that They allege will clear off eventually. Daughter, hubby, and the girls (Chihuahuas) are driving down from Massachusetts. Daughter said it was snowing as they drove through New York.
Had a vile night’s sleep, must make up a little of it before tottering off to the barbershop. Need to pick up a few things at the Giant. Have physical therapy at 3:00.
No dinner plans as yet, and probably won’t make any until I find out what Daughter wants to do. Had a really good time at the UU dinner last night—lamb chops with roasted Yukon potatoes—and then a dry, not very tasty breakfast this morning of hard-boiled egg, whole-wheat toast, and half a grapefruit.
Must…snatch…some…shuteye. Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
Good morning, 48 and cloudy in Bellingham today. I’ve got flowers to finish, cupcakes to bake, and Ron is making the beef borguignon so the endless list is nearly done, yay! It was fun to set up the house with the grand girls yesterday. Seeing their enthusiasm and sharing memories helps me remember why we are doing this. So I’m feeling weary but very grateful today. Best wishes to all.