Layer upon layer

Gérard's photo of snow layers

Gérard says (on Facebook) about the layered pile of snow outside his house: "It's just like in the Arctic... Looking at the side gives you a history of the time that has passed. The only difference is that this is for this winter only ..."

The last few days have been extremely cold with wind chills in the minus-30s, even minus 40 at one point, but I'm proud to say we've been out of doors every day, well wrapped. I've been wearing two layers on my legs and arms, two layers of underclothes, not to mention the overclothes, double pairs of socks, two pairs of gloves, a furry hat under my hood and a scarf that comes up to the top of my cheeks and gets all wet from the moisture in my breath. It takes a while to get dressed, but it's worth it. Even if my eyelashes freeze, I keep warm. When we were down town yesterday a TV crew, randomly interviewing passers by, asked Chris what he thought of the weather and got a lengthy reply! I've no idea whether it was broadcast. I added that I didn't mind the cold so much. Yesterday was a blue sky day.

There's layer upon layer of thoughts in my head too, mostly thoughts of responsibilities, the dreaded To Do list combined with concerns for my mum (who's >3000 miles away aged 94 and worrying about living on her own) and for other people I fear I may be neglecting. Sometimes the thought layers overlap as I'm lying in bed at the end of the day:

buy more shampoo ... should I order a box of groceries for Mum? ... she needs to talk without being offered advice all the time ... water the pot plants ... why haven't my new pillows been delivered yet? ... I must edit that article for the University Women's newsletter (who was it that wrote the first draft? Judith, no?) and get that Facebook page updated... have also got to download the material for the Rockcliffe Flying Club's next newsletter and talk to Nathalie about a poster for the recruitment evening at the club in February in case I'm still away ... need to publish Crosswinds this month ... where on earth did I put that bag with my indoor shoes in it? ... I haven't chosen enough reading material for the German group ... get our accounts up to date ... would my grandsons manage OK at school if the family moved to another part of the UK or would they get teased for their London accents? ... will Lolan and / or Greta be able to give me a lift to the two meetings on Thursday? ... I ought to keep practising that piano part for Erstarrung in case Chris' new singing teacher asks me to play it (can't do that at the moment without making an awful mess of it) ... make appointment with the piano tuner! ... I promised my aunt I'd send her a book of family photos soon, have to compile that ... must remind Chris to book that hotel room in Brighton for February ... we still haven't done anything about the lights on the ceiling of our living room ... I need to make some more photo cards for sale at the Diplomatic Hospitality even on the 17th ... still have a few people to send Christmas letters to ... what are we going to have for supper tomorrow? ... put the washing on first thing tomorrow, don't forget, and we need to collect Elva's vegetable order from the Chelsea Smokehouse ... am glad I didn't have any side effects from the Prolia jab ... I wonder why Chris doesn't like Shakespeare's Falstaff ... hope it won't snow too much while we're driving home from Kanata tomorrow night ... didn't George's garden look wonderful on Skype today? So warm and sunny ...

I received two books of poetry during the holidays and have been reading the poems. In the modern Canadian anthology there were at least two about insomnia, a common symptom of our restless times.