Some of my earliest memories when Irving and I first began meeting up with one another and going places 70 years ago; doing simple things together, involved with walking about, and accompanying one another to the library.  The things that were important to us, visiting local parks for the sheer bliss of the greenery and towering trees, and reading books to be transported to other times, other places; links in the golden chain that bound us together. 

We had an early introduction to books and the pleasure, wonder and excitement that could be found between the bound pages of a sometimes-fancifully-coloured cover that attracted our attention. We remember the anthropomorphized-animal books like those of Beatrix Potter that first introduced us to the joys of reading, the cartooned and often very beautiful imaginary depictions of animals busy doing what humans do in the environment they construct around themselves. 

As we grew older, the topics that attracted us were meant for an older audience and we were introduced one way or another to the real world outside our own. The powerful draw of the written word has never abandoned us, and reading books of all kinds sustains our inherent sense of curiosity about geography, culture, history and other human beings through the allure of literature. Reading consumes our interests and our minds like nothing else does.

We often wonder to one another how it is even remotely possible that there are people who never read, have no interest in reading books, and whose lives are bare of the excitement we feel when picking up a book, balancing it, studying its cover, reading the blurbs imprinted on its dustcover, fingering the pages, opening them at random, allowing our eyes to devour the glimpse we take in of stylish writing elegantly expressed.

When we take ourselves down to breakfast in the morning the ritual of retrieving the newspapers awaiting our attention on the porch begins the process...as we sit leisurely over breakfast and well past that repast, we read the papers, point items out to one another, discuss things and digest both breakfast and the news. When we take ourselves up to bed at night, lie snug in bed, our bedside lamps illuminate books we reserve for bedtime reading. Our sleepy eyes graze the meadow of letters in preparation for sleep until the sentences no longer make sense, and down go the books, out goes the lights.

 

 

Last night , before we went up to bed, we peeked out the front door, and there was little Pepe, out on a frigid Wednesday night with the temperature falling steadily to hit -7C. He's certainly hardier than we are. We shooed Jackie and Jillie up the stairs to bed, and watched  the little skunk for a few minutes before heading upstairs ourselves.

 

 

 

 Yesterday afternoon Irving hung the framework of the new light fixture he bought to give us brighter reading light in the family room off the kitchen (actually called a 'great room' and it is in fact a very large room, its two-story height absorbing both sound and light). There were so many shapes of crystal to piece together in a precise order the process took the kind of patience that Irving has in abundance. Like most 'helpful' instructions those that came with the chandelier were somewhat less than entirely legible. Now it has to be electrified, an easier job than assembling it.

 

We've had non-stop rain today. A dark, moody day with the temperature stuck at 0C, but instead of snow tumbling gently over the atmosphere, there is cold, wet rain. So, sensibly, no ramble through the woodland trails today because the weather is fit for neither man nor beast. And truth to tell, neither man nor beast have much to complain about, since the alternative is a comfortable, dry and warm house. Jackie and Jillie assured us that this reflects their sentiments precisely.

 

 

Mind, we did go out briefly. Pet Smart had advertised doggy winter gear on sale.  We found nothing useful on sale, but did end up getting each of them a thicker, warmer winter coat than they have, and a firmer, larger harness than the ones they've been wearing, inherited from their predecessors. Jillie in particular needed roomier garments, she  long ago outgrew the size of the jacket and harness and Irving had expanded them with strips of velcro which sometimes come undone when she's being particularly energetic.