Happy New Year!

     My local paper was just delivered.  It is Wednesday evening so the mid-week information is there.  I also like the crossword puzzle.  I do it in ink and see how far I get.
        Happy New Year!  I've taken down what is left of the Christmas decorations except for the big wreath I bought at Lowe's in Billings last fall.  The red berries brighten up the dull days.  I left the lights on until the battery runs out.  That is the one thing about January that I don't like -- the dullness that seems to come after the bright lights of December.
           I needed a new floor lamp so I went to a new local antique shop and bought one.  There is much to like about it, even the fact it has a clock built in to the lamp!  The clock used to be a wind device, but now it is battery operated.  Not quite as sleek, but who is counting.  I asked one of the retired men in the church to put a new cord on it for me and touch up a couple other things and he obliged.  I really appreciate those who will help out an 'old lady'.  Now I have some good light to do my knitting and reading.
            Between Christmas and New Year's I started reading several books by Nicola Upson.  Using Josephine Tey as her character she has written a series set in the 1930s.  Tey was a noted author of mysteries -- one of the grande dames of mysteries.  Her book The daughter of time is one I think is excellent.  Upson creates that time period in London so well.  That pre-war period is also picked up in Jacqueline Winspear's books with Maisie Dobbs as the main character.  They evoke a time that we don't understand -- World War I had been devastating and England was hard hit.  The Depression followed and the jobless and poverty were everywhere.  Almost immediately the rise of Fascism followed and it was tough.  These books talk about the lives of the women -- the classes in that society.  I just find them fascinating and I learn a great deal of social and cultural history.
                It has been devastatingly cold here over Christmas as I am sure you have read.  One of the coldest days I was out trying to clear snow. None of my equipment was working as it should. I was warmly dressed, but I could hear Dad's voice in my head "dumb, dumb".  I have cleared my back driveway three times and I am about ready to hang it up.  The other day some of my machines started smoking when I plugged them in.  They had frozen.  So I brought them in the house to thaw out and hopefully they will be ready for the next go around. Temperatures for the next week go as high as 39 degrees and then start to drop off again to 12 degrees.  I will keep my long underwear handy to pull on as needed.