mumma yaga

 nov. 28 Snow, and a blue sky this morning. The plow guy even came before we arrived yesterday. ***** Yesterday: We went in the ditch. Drove home from Toronto, left early to be sure and arrive in the daylight; the traffic was light and the drive was uneventful until we stopped to check the mailbox on the road. K pulled over onto the verge and went past the edge of the road - the snow, several inches have fallen here, had been plowed across the edge of the ditch and hid it. We were caught in the snow on the steep slope of the ditch, which is about five feet down. The car came to a stop but we couldn't recover safe traction back onto the road and the car teetered as if it might tip over at any moment. Foresters are know to be high and tippy. We didn't know that before we purchased it, though we love it still. I crawled out the driver's side after K, not to get stuck in the ditch and perhaps have the car come over on me, and we pulled our winter coats out of the back seat. The

 Nov. 8 A cord of firewood was delivered last week and K stacked it over the next two days, "In case it rained", he said, though we had a tarp for that eventuality. Zen and the art of perfectly stacked firewood! We were supposed to leave the stacking for Tal to do, but when he came on Sunday, there was (were?) only the shavings to rake up. * (Does "zen and the art of" need a footnote?) ***** We have achieved laundry! You may remember that we have had no washer or dryer (more on that...) since we came here in December, 2020. I washed things by hand and hung them to dry. I did one run to a laundromat in Magog. (A very long way away!) Then my vaccine reaction (or whatever it is) hit and since July 20 things have just piled up. Once our plan to stay another year was settled we sprang for a washing machine. Then it didn't fit through the washroom door. Then our land agent and her father-in-law, a carpenter something, came and installed it. Then she showed me how to w