First off, 18 degrees and steaming ponds to walk around; a good flow of waters,

low smokelike clouds on the Smoke Creek,

frozen leaves on frozen ponds but morning’s sun

flattened to overcast before noon so

sodden skies all day ending with a cold and quiet visit to the chairs.

Friday followed the same pattern, pretty much,

maybe warmer but closing in a little sooner so by 2:30, as Lee was leaving, snow flurried.

Overnight the batteries crashed and with nothing to refresh them the next day was characterized by no pump no fridge no internet no phone…warm and dry, though, with wood

and propane stoves. At day’s end I charged devices and made calls from Dave’s but Sunday’s

opportunities for renewal appeared even more dismal.  Nonetheless by hauling water

by hand and keeping the fridge off there was enough juice to retrieve mail and texts, one of which was a reply from Seth saying he and Sonny would be down Sunday to see about salvaging

the system, which was also perked up by a brief bit of afternoon sun [not shown].

Well we’ll see…or did and so survived another night.

Monday with more sun, continuing conservation and an afternoon tour of Storm Queen,

the ever photogenic sculpture park [“Crackle”, below,

“Necklace”, below, then “Hercules”,

“Galileo’s Telescope’ [with “Refugium” in the background]…if you like that sort of stuff]

was edgy but survivable.

Another day gone…doggone.  Well actually no dogs, dogs gone this time.  Tuesday saw

clear skies at last albeit sufficiently high pressure to stop the wells flowing but, sunshine

predominant, gorgeous encouragement for batteries. Waters or not [it’s always somethin’]

once the last watercolors of 2022 were duly done and pinned up

I walked to the road to see

what the county had been working on all day [gravel]

and after a last visit to the studio [finally habitable after day of sunny warmth]

tempted fate, plunging into the night with the fridge plugged in…overnight will tell, well.