November’s Quiet

We’ve been sick.  I seriously had no idea how often we would be sick once our children began their school years, but the answer seems to be summed up neatly in one word: constantly.  Fortunately the illnesses are of the annoying variety rather than being incapacitating.  We sniffle and sneeze and whine and wheeze our way through each week and just when we begin to feel better, perhaps a day or weekend goes by before we succumb once again to an illness.  I am fairly certain the manufacturer’s of Puffs Plus will not need any help from the bailout; we are keeping them well profited.

There is a good side to all of this sickness in that it forces us to slow down.  Our non-school weekdays are spent on the sofa next to the cheerfully burning woodstove with stacks of books on the table before us and quilts tucked cozily around our legs.  My knitting is never far from my hands, and the tea kettle (its whistle broken, sadly) is nearly constantly making a fresh pot of boiled water for our tea and cocoa.  My fire building skills have vastly improved over the last few weeks and I am now proud to state that I can successfully begin a long lasting fire without filling the house with smoke…most days, anyway.

With the leaves now gone from the trees the bright light of winter has begun to fill our home on sunny days.  The patches of sunlight work their way around the house as the hours tick by and we shift our seating arrangements accordingly, with Charlotte (our beagle) being the member most concerned with catching this solar warmth.  The world outside of our windows is looking more wintry with each passing day, but in the tiny little garden beneath our chimney my clematis has one brave bud still basking in the late-autumn sun.  The rest of the plant’s leaves have been caught by the frost and the other blossoms have long since faded, but this one bloom refuses to die back.  Nature, even at the end of it’s season, contains the audacity and willfulness of life.  Our November days are are warm and quiet, and we savor them knowing that soon the holiday season will be upon us with all of its chill and cheer, followed by the deep freeze of the early year.  It will be a long time before new leaves and buds make their appearance on the clematis, so today I am thankful that just one blossom has held out its neck to reach for the sun.