safe home

hello hello and hello a late merry christmas to all!

I'm up in Maine with family for the holidays and it's been eating eating eating since the moment we got here. I'm not going to fit in the car to go home!

The days here are muffled by snow and you come to think of the house in a whole new way. It's your protector from the whirling wind that calls you to come dance. The house keeps you safe and silent and out of danger- a little shelter you built yourself (though I know I didn't really)

And when you survive the storm, resist the call, you go out and survey the result and build lookout perches from the rubble

Stumble inside tired but happy into that house full of food and animals and fire warmth and family and white cats curled up in the chair by the stove. And pie.

Cat's sneezing in my lap now...
There'll be more pictures to follow- Happy Holidays
photos

that last bit

What an awful day.
It was one of those where you just don't have any more strength when you come through at the end. You try and try and you give it all you've got and then you give just a bit more and it's that last part that kills you.

It's one of those where your heart is far too worn out for emotions. It says hush now, go away for a bit and let me sleep.
shhh shhh, quiet a bit longer dear heart, just stay a bit longer.

"You can do nothing more for me. You stupid tenacious child, don't you see? You can't fix this like one of your clocks that you pull apart and fiddle with until they chime again!"
In a breath it looked to his eyes as if she deflated. Head still held high, she was smaller, something delicate to be blown away by an impatient sweep of the eyes. She shuddered
"But you said- you told me... You said." her mouth accused
"I lied. Don't you see? It was a dream- nothing more"

the very best word

What is the best word anyone has ever called you?

When I was fourteen, the boy I had a crush on told me I was 'unflappable'
I thought it was the greatest thing anyone had ever said to me.

fog thick as stew

the fog rolled in tonight. driving along the roads by the shore, it was so thick you could knit a blanket from it. "thick enough for stew" grandma would say. familiar sights and places became strange and twisted, wrapped up in ghostly grey tendrils of mist.

on the road home, headlights from cars carried miles in the fog, illuminating the cloud from within. but once the car passed, it was just me and the mist.

in a small coastal town, when the mists come, it's no joke. everything shuts down- everyone goes inside. inside it's bright and cheerful against the chill, but once you step out, you wish you hadn't. things crawl in from the sea. you can never see them- they're good at staying only in the corners of your eye- but you feel them there. things that aren't meant to be touched. they brush up against you when the mists come in.

i had to jump over the threshold with both feet so the sprites wouldn't catch hold of the foot left behind and sneak a ride into the house to cause trouble. you never know on nights like these...

winter dancers

hello again- haven't written in a while (blame it on the schoolwork) but hopefully I'll be able to get back into the swing of things now that all there is left to do is sit and wait...

winter is here. the first snow fell in the tiny town I call home and although the flakes didn't stick, the feeling did.

all I want to do is curl up by the fire and watch the flame fairies whirl and flicker through the burning twigs, quietly touching each one until every branch joins in the dance. that dance will be the last thing they do, but oh what a way to go. If you aren't careful, you might lose yourself in the dance. Then when they beckon and call you to join, you might forget that you mustn't answer and they'll have you. They mean no harm I'm sure, but all the same...

Can you see them? Can you see the little dancers at their games?