Flowery

The roses had been hanging upside down in my laundry room long enough and the Japanese pot full of hydrangeas was looking feeble. I took half of them out and added my roses along with some of the dried flowers I bought at the farmers' market. I used Snapseed to give it even more of an antique look. 

Mike came to get the extra materials out of our garage and assured us that the deck looked great and was just taking longer than normal to dry because it doesn't see much sun in winter and it's been quite cold at night. He helped John move the cabinet off the porch (again) and on to the patio, so my project for tomorrow will be to paint it before the predicted chance of showers on Sunday.

I bound off the circular scarf I have been obsessively knitting, and discovered that it wouldn't fit over my head. Before I had a chance to figure out what to do, we had a visit from our HVAC people to talk to us about heat pumps. He was very helpful, and by the time he left we were very clear that it isn't the solution for us. It sort of reminds me of the Aga cooker, which I loved when we lived in Scotland, but realized would never work in a California kitchen because they had to run all the time. The same is true of a heat pump. There are a lot of other reasons why it doesn't make sense to retrofit our house with one, including prohibitive expense.

That decided, I sat down to read the paper and there, on the front page was a story about how PG&E set up a public meeting in Bennett Valley to address the fact that their power has gone out ten times in January alone. We know about it because two of our friends live in Bennett Valley and have been experiencing this ever since they retrofit the power to a given pole to turn off if a branch falls on the line. But, said the neighbors, no branches have fallen so something else is causing it. As the discussion continued, the power went out. There was a picture of the audience, and there in the front row, was our friend Tobi. She said the main reaction was hilarity as everyone made their way home with their phone flashlights discussing how they were going to cook dinner....

By the time I redo the scarf and post this entry, the sun will be setting and  the frog chorus will have begun. They seem to know when the sun is setting. so it is a perfect call to pour a glass of wine and watch the sunset....