January 3, In Retrospect

Last year, on January 3, 2008 we were staying at our friend’s house, here in California. He was off in Spain, we were staying home with some nasty flu bug.

Apparently, 2007 wasn’t a very memorable January 3 for us, as we stayed in Glasgow over that holiday. It was … cold. We can be certain of that. We can also be certain that it’ll be very cold when we get back after this holiday, with forecasts for the worst winter in 25 years, and one of the coldest in the past 100.

January 3, 2004 found us buying a new sink, for the remodel of our condo in Benicia. That same day, we got around to putting in some firm structural supports for our espalier pear tree (5 varieties, each on a different branch). The condo is gone, along with the pear tree – both were practice for when we pack up and leave Glasgow, hopefully to move into a place to stay put for awhile.

In 2000, we were gardening? That’s got to be when we developed the roll of film! It was a great garden, but we couldn’t have done it in the middle of winter, even in California! It’s amazing, looking at these pictures, to think that we used to wait months and months – until the roll of film was full – to be able to see what pictures we took. Picture developing was a surprise and an adventure, because you never really knew what was there: the roll may have sat in the back of a drawer for years, waiting to be taken in.

Were we actually silly enough to visit Holland in January? (No… November! -t) Again, this must be when the film was developed. We’ll have to check our physical photo album to see when we were there. 1999 sounds right … but who knows? In some ways, the people who put the little date-stamp on their photos had it right: you’d know when the picture was taken. Unless you didn’t remember to set the date, when putting in new batteries.

Today finds us doing a bit of tidying, a bit of laundry, and preparing to go cook for some friends. They have a Meyer Lemon tree, so we’ll be making up another batch of lemon marmalade. We’ll probably also make a few batches of cookie dough, to go into the freezer for while we’re not around.

Our time in the US is winding down: we have 1 more week, and then it’s back to the cold, and the work. This week’s shopping goals include finding a white noise machine, and a lot more cardigans…!