Maggie Turner: Page by Page

It is snowing this evening. We have had some lovely sunny days over the last few days, which I have enjoyed no end. There is something soul quenching about sunlight streaming into a room. We have been getting a lot of freezing rain, ice pellets, snow, and associated bad roads this winter. The freezing rain and ice pellets are particularly tiresome, and dangerous for those who need to travel. The snow, although it seems to keep on coming, also melts back frequently this year, so the accumulations are not overwhelming. We are now well into February, with less than five weeks until spring. Spring, here at Mist Cottage, sends envoys of hope into the month of March. Something to look forward to in the very near future! Life has been relatively uneventful since my last entry. The days flow by, gently. One benefit of having to make all food from scratch is that food preparation becomes a vocation, perhaps an obsession. I am back to baking our daily bread. My bread baking has been intermittent since I was working at several low-paying, short-shift, on-call jobs. That was awful. That is a lifestyle that a lot of young people have to … Continue reading →

I am noticing something in the Netflix offerings. A few programs they are creating are offering personal growth up as a desirable (albeit mysterious and confusing) outcome. This element was missing in the offerings celebrating dysfunction, violence, intrique, etc. etc. etc. Just months ago we couldn’t find a single new offering from Netflix that we hadn’t already watched, that we enjoyed. And suddenly there are several new one season series that we have enjoyed. So far we have watched Russian Doll, which is black and funny, interesting and intelligent, and going in the right direction from our perspective. Presently we are watching Cuckoo, which is silly, and horrifying in some ways, and yet moves towards people being true to themselves and kind and tolerant of others while doing so, at least so far, we have only watched a few episodes. Around the time Princess Diana died (1997), I noticed a lot of contempt-for-the-disadvantaged, greed romanticization, and mean-spirited-selfishness used as the unspoken underbelly in many of the ads on TV, and the premise of many programs at that time and since. It was disturbing at the time, to observe the culture going in that direction, and it has degenerated into some … Continue reading →

Sometimes I just feel like writing. There isn’t anything exciting going on, no drama to record, nothing at all to write about except the joy of being alive and feeling my fingers bring my thoughts and feelings into plain view. A small miracle at my fingertips. The sun is just struggling to come out. It is just after 11:00 a.m. Predawn this morning freezing rain was falling from a dark and apparently overcast sky. Everything is slippery out there. The temperature has risen above freezing now, and the snow and ice are melting. There will be more cold weather to come, more snow, more grey and dreary skies, but I doubt we will see more of the extreme cold that the polar vortex brought deep into the continent. I’ve been working on cleaning out the refrigerator freezer. There are some mystery items in there, and some surprises. One of the mystery items was a container of applesauce, which had no label. Judging by the plastic container it was in, it has probably been in the freezer for about ten years. It went into the compost bin. A happier discovery was a container of whole cranberries, and they are in very … Continue reading →

What a difference a day makes! The extreme cold has departed, it was part of what the weather people call a polar vortex. it is a balmy -5C today. That was the temperature of the interior of our country house, the early winter when we had no source of heat. Not particularly comfortable for indoors, but downright balmy for a February morning! I’ve been thinking about snacks. Snacks are tough. What I would love to eat for health are chocolate bars, potato chips, french fries, cheesecake, ice cream… well, you get the picture, all those decadent empty calories that pave the path to poor health. I -L O V E- sugar. I come by this honestly, my Grandpa was the same way. I remember watching in fascination as he took a large slice of sweet fruit pie, poured heavy cream over it, and then sprinkled white sugar generously over all. He also smoked his whole life. He was lean and fit all his life, and lived to be 90 years old, in good health until the day he stopped being alive. I too love sugar, but unlike Grandpa, when I eat a lot of it my blood pressure begins to … Continue reading →

We have just come through another very frigid night. The furnace chugged away, doing its job without fail, so that Mist Cottage remained comfortably warm while we slept. I am sitting in my easy chair, in a pool of sunshine. How glorious it is. It is Friday, and Attila will be very glad to see the end of this work week. The weather people say that by Saturday the temperature will rise above freezing. Such a contrast in the weather from one day to the next! This morning I read a very interesting article about slavery in Canada, historical in nature, including the enslavement of both aboriginal and black individuals. The details were new to me, but I was not surprised in the least that a great many prominent Canadian historical figures, people wielding power in governments, and having affluence to protect, supported slavery. The article asserts that when the investment in human flesh offered tenuous returns, the practice of slavery declined. The article also asserted that it was the activities of humanely oriented individuals that eventually eroded the profitability of slavery, weakening its hold on economic infrastructures. Some humane people did what they could, when they could, and eventually … Continue reading →