Before The Playoffs

When I posted about my movie weekend last Monday, I said it might be a year before I watched movies again - or maybe next weekend. It was the latter. I'm blaming it on the cold, hibernation inducing, weather, but before a weekend of playoff NFL games, two more movies were watched.

The first, on Friday night, was a Masterpiece production we recorded more than a year ago. It was great, as all Masterpiece productions are. Based on Jonathan Smith's book, The Churchill Secret: KBO*, it is the story of concealing from the world, the stroke Winston Churchill suffered in 1952. This was a great production, timely watched, as I hope to see Darkest Hour, the Churchill film currently playing in theaters. A bit of irony, Romola Garai was in this film, too, as she was in the two movies watched last weekend. (*KBO - Keep Buggering On - a Churchillism)

My second movie was Genius, the British-American biographical movie based on the 1978 National Book Award winner, Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg. I liked this movie so much. I was hoping one of my libraries had the book so I could read it. Unfortunately, neither does. The performances by Colin Firth, Jude Law and Nicole Kidman were wonderful, as was Laura Linney's who played Perkins' wife.

Two more football playoff games this afternoon and evening followed by the Golden Globes. And since we are not GG watchers, the weekend will end with one more movie, an Aurora Teagarden mystery, Last Scene Alive, on the Hallmark channel. No, it won't match up to the first two movies, but it will be cute, and I really did enjoy the Aurora Teagarden books by Charlaine Harris.

Do You Putter? Or Potter?

One day, not long ago, I wasn't doing anything particular, just moving about the house. Bud said, "What are you doing?" To which I replied, "Just puttering around. Or do I mean pottering?" "Which way do you say it?", I asked him.

That, of course, sent me to the computer to look up puttering and pottering. Which term is correct? That may depend upon whether or not you had a British grandmother.

I love this photo of my Grandmother (Bessie) Lynam on the ground, listening to her Grandmother Agnes (Hull) Richardson. Grandma Aggie's mother and father were born in Yorkshire, England.

To putter, or potter, is to occupy oneself in a desultory, but pleasant, manner doing a number of small tasks or not concentrating on anything particular. Also, to move or go in a casual, unhurried way.

Potter is the British term for putter which is more widely used in the United States.

But if you had a Grandmother, whose own Grandmother was English, you could have, like me, grown up hearing both terms interchangably.

Saturday morning with nothing particular to do, guess I'll just potter putter around.

A Long Time Cold

It seems like it has been COLD a very long time - really cold, below zero for 70 hours straight cold. It feels like forever, like the longest winter on record. Other than stepping out a few minutes to take some pictures, mail a letter and take garbage to the dumpster, I haven't been anywhere in more than a week.

But what do I have to complain about? I am inside. I am warm. I have food, books, TV, a computer, a comfortable bed. The pipes haven't frozen. The sunsets have been gorgeous. All I have to do is wait and it will warm up. Already the light is lasting a little later each day.

The ones I think about when it is so bitterly cold and miserable, are the less fortunate, the homeless, the animals, the people who have to repair those frozen pipes and broken water lines, the members of law enforcement, the EMTs, the firefighters. It is humbling to be so fortunate, to be able to stay inside where it is warm. I am grateful.

(One of those gorgeous sunsets I stepped out in the cold for last evening.)

The Hunter - Mr. Brushy Tail

He was running across the icy pond when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. By the time I grabbed the camera, he was already at the bank....

....and onto the dam, where he paused for a moment.

Then trotted on. I zoomed in on him and his brushy tail.

Moving....looking....listening - something over the bank.

What beautiful creatures are foxes - unless it is your chicken house they are getting into.

Right after I took this shot, the fox jumped up into the air and came down out of sight below the bank. How I wish I had caught him mid-air. And how I would like to know what his prey was - and if his hunt was successful.

Russia Concerns

As a child who grew up during the Cold War, I fell asleep many nights convinced that I would wake up the next morning and see Russian soldiers in our yard.
One of my clearest memories, when I was nine and a half years old, was listening to the radio and hearing of Stalin's death. The rest of my family was in the kitchen when I burst in gleefully announcing, "He's dead!" (March 5, 1953) To me that meant two things: the end of worrying about the Russians and the end of the Korean War. (Which did end on July 27 of that year.)
However, there would still be worries about the Russians - for instance the Cuban Missle Crisis in 1962 - and the preceding nuclear arms build up and threats. I remember my high school English teacher telling our Junior class that he firmly believed his two little daughers would not live to twenty years of age because there would be a nuclear war between Russia and the United States.
You might think that the current name calling and bragging about whose nuclear button is bigger between our country and North Korea is the impetus for this blog. It is not.
My current Russia concerns lie much closer to home. As close as this blog. I've never been concerned about how many readers I have. I didn't start my blog for fame or fortune, only as a means of leaving some of my memories, thoughts, and family history for my decendents. I know I have less than 20 regular readers. I rarely check my blog's 'Stats'. But for some reason, maybe because it is a new year, Monday night I did look at my stats. And one in particular caused me concern:

The map of 'Pageviews by Countries'. I have more readers, or at least page views, by people in Russia than in the United States! What?!

With all the news about Russian meddling in our elections, etc., I'm wondering if I need to be concerned about Russian meddling in my life/blog?

I have considered making my blog Private before. Now, I'm really considering doing it. So, if you someday look for my blog and can't see it, you will know that I have made it private. In case I do, thanks for being one of my readers.

First Full Moon of 2018 is Super

The first full moon of the new year and it is on the first day of the month/year. Not only that, but the Wolf Moon is a super moon.

In one of the photos I took as it rose last evening, the moon appears to have a crack in it.

While one taken slightly earlier looks as though it is surrounded by thorns.

It was COLD out there taking those photos last evening - around 5° below zero.

And even COLDER this morning when I was taking pictures of the full moon before it set.

It still amazes me that my little camera will take this kind of close ups. This is one of the moon this morning - so a different limb making it look like there is a crack in the moon. Or could it actually be cracked?

There will be another super full moon on the last day of January - a 'blue' moon, but also the full Snow Moon, stolen from February which will not have a full moon this year. That doesn't seem fair. January and March will both have two full moons. I wonder how often that happens?

Movie Weekend

I am much more a reader than a watcher. I prefer books to movies. But I do enjoy good movies once in awhile. Whenever the premium channels offer a free movie weekend, I see if there are any that sound good and then record them even though it might be a year or more before I feel like watching them.

And sometimes I know I can't watch a movie until I am in the right mood. Suffragette was such a movie. I knew it was going to be hard to watch because I know how deeply the subject matter has always affected me.
I watched the movie Saturday morning. It did not disappoint. I felt the feelings - anger, revulsion, fear, sympathy, sorrow - and thankfulness for the strong women before me. It is a movie I wish every young woman could see. I think there are far too many who don't appreciate what their grandmothers and great-grandmothers went through to give them the privileges they enjoy today. Some don't understand where their right to vote came from.

After a day and half of non-stop football, we were ready for another movie last night. This one I knew nothing about when I recorded it except that Benedict Cumberbatch was in it. I'll watch anything he is in.

The movie is about the fight to abolish slavery in Britain which occured years before it did in the United States and was accomplished without a Civil War. It was a very interesting movie to watch and to learn where the song, Amazing Grace, came from.
Besides Cumberbatch, another favorite actor of mine, Rufus Sewell, is featured in this movie. Also, because of her unusual name, I noted that Romola Garai, was in both these movies.

I still have several movies recorded to watch, but it might be another year before I'm in a movie watching mood. Or it might be next weekend. I can only hope one or two of them might be as good as these two were.