What I Did on My Day Off

[Dried hydrangea, Belmont MA; 1/19/12]

I did not get around to cleaning the house, athough I did spend the morning balancing my checkbook, paying bills, and other online odds and ends. Maybe I'll get to the house cleaning tomorrow. It really could use some feng shui-improving clutter clearing and cleaning.

I took a short drive over to Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary, a sanctuary for my soul ever since starting my job 5 1/2 years ago, even before I moved here. I haven't been there much lately. Climbing the steep hill up from town during my lunch breaks was too much for my back this summer, and work demands got in the way this fall, so I opted for shorter, flatter walks in the pretty residential neighborhoods near the office. But with the day free, the woods and meadows called to me.

[Reeds, off the Highland Farm Loop]

While I did not want to waste my two precious days off from work spinning my wheels and accomplishing nothing, neither did I want to fill it up with chores and tasks. I wanted to recapture a bit of that relaxed freedom I used to feel when I worked from home and could choose how to spend the hours of my day. So I set no specific schedule, other than to get outside while the sun was still what counts for high in January in these northern parts. On the way back, I stopped at the grocery store and shopped, as I used to, among the elderly and the housewives with young kids instead of the harried after-work crowd. And I came home and puttered in my kitchen.

[Cone on a string, on the Red Maple Trail]

You can see a few more of my pics from today's visit to Habitat here.

I'm still trying to keep up with this month of Small Stones. This afternoon's tweet:

Day off. House no cleaner, but I saw the klatsch of paper birches at the edge of the meadow, their graceful ghostly limbs.

 

Comments

[Roberta]

That sounds like a perfect day off to me.

[Jean]

Beautiful place. Beautiful photos. I love the subtle forms and colours.

[Leslee]

Roberta: Yes, and I'd like a few more of them.

Jean: It is beautiful there. And thanks. It's a time of year for subtle.