Monday 20 December 2010

Stalled by Snow

Monday 20th December


Day 243


Last night’s snowfall - the deepness and completeness of it - stalls my day. I put off wrapping Christmas presents and making mince pies. I cancel supper plans and my father’s doctor’s appointments for tomorrow. I hover in and out of the kitchen, distracted by the mounds and blobs and drifts and layers of snow draped over the garden - smooth and thick as royal icing. I forget to unload the washing machine and burn the pecan nuts on top of the flapjack.


In the afternoon I lose myself in a novel set in the 1950s while upstairs my husband wrestles with a knotted mess of tax returns.


Now it’s way beyond midnight and sleep still evades me. Tomorrow will be the longest night of the year. Outside my window the frozen garden, the roof tops, and my restless heart belong to the kingdom of the moon - luminous, still and silent.

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