Some odds and ends

Today is Candlemas day and yes we will be taking down our Christmas tree. Ellen is already busy taking down and putting away other Christmas things, like the front door wreath and the Advent wreath. Otherwise, we're just hanging out and keeping warm during a very cold spell. Looking back, I see that there are some unused photos. When we were at Jim and Mary's last week, they made a "mystery" meal - they were very secretive about it - just said it would be special. It turned out to be a seafood dish - five kinds of seafood cooked in cream: lobster, scallops, shrimp, cod and halibut. I think it replicated a dish described in the Master and Commander series,by Patrick O'Brien, one of Jim's favorite works. It was special indeed! And very photogenic as well as tasty!

Seafood galore!***********************
Mary Cay Brass has instituted a Tuesday special - she sends out a video from the River Singers archive of a song we sang in the past. She includes lyrics so we can sing along with the video. Yesterday it was the South African song Mangisondele Nkosi Yam. We performed it at First Stage in Putney. Haven't done anything there since the pandemic started - last time was probably Dec., 2019.

Singing Mangisondele************************************************ LATER While Ellen did some errands, I took the ornaments off the Christmas tree, packed them away, took off the lights, stored them on cardboard strips, put the tree out on the deck and swept up under the tree. It always feels sort of bare and bleak after taking down the tree. But it was getting pretty dry, though it hadn't dropped many needles.

Ornaments off and tree gone