The Heart of Winter

 

In the Northern Hemisphere, January was synonymous with the fallow field before the coming of spring. A time of rest and rejuvenation before all living things expended considerable energy in growth and rebirth.

While we think of winters in Medieval Europe as frozen and unbearable, in 900 AD, they were often mild compared to the Little Ice Age that began in the 1300s when the Baltic Sea froze twice, and many cities held fairs on frozen rivers. By comparison, during Revena’s lifetime, Iceland was colonized because the weather allowed easier access.

There was always work to do, whether serf or sovereign. 

Daily life involved plenty of physical labor, such as gathering wood for the constant fires needed to stay warm and caring for the animals that kept everyone alive—homes needed repair, as did clothing. The continuous need for agricultural labor decreased for this brief time before fields required turning.

For a moon’s span, there was time to relax, tell stories by the hearth, and even play games.

Revena and the people in her world were fond of dice and anything involving gambling. The church and government would begin instituting laws to curb rampant betting in the next century.

They enjoyed snowball fights, skating using blades of bone, and just enjoying the purity of the scenery, as captured by the art of the time.

Indoors, they played board games. To find out the name and rules for one of the most popular across all levels of society, sign up for Nessa’s News by putting your email address in the subscribe form on the tab/page above called Subscribe.

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Flash 55 - 5 Thoughts

Dear Diary (c) Vanessa V. Kilmer 20140214

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Interesting that we commercialize a day of LOVE on a day whose HISTORY is full of DEATH.

TURN OFF THE BOOB TUBE…

Yes, I’m finally sick of snow!

My list of “Mortal Enemies” remained empty my whole life until 2013.

2014 adds up to 7 which we all know is a very, very lucky number.

Play with the G-Man and treat him better than I have.

The Sky is Falling

* comments closed on journal posts *

Snow. We have a snow storm bearing down on us again. This one may even produce the amount of snow forecast. Previous storms were nothing to us. It’s 07.24. The clouds are heavy and large flakes are falling. So far the ground is just wet.

QV is sick. Has been since Saturday morning. He’s not a very good sick person. He doesn’t listen. I have to browbeat him into taking his Airborne and cold medicine to stop him coughing and help him sleep. He felt better Sunday afternoon and actually ate something. I wonder if I brought something home from the hospital. I have a sore throat but mine didn’t start until during the night last night while I was sleeping. I’m going to say he brought something home. It’s all QV’s fault.

Saturday night around 22.30, my father couldn’t pee. His bladder got distended and he was in pain. My parents did not call us. At 04.30, my father drove himself and my mother to the emergency room. They called my brother at 06.00. Oh, their heater went out during the night, too. My father got a new catheter. Doctors said there was a clot in his urethra. They all went home. My brother got them settled, had the heater man out, heater fixed. Then my father had two “accidents” so my brother feared that he had another clot. Back to the emergency room. The balloon around the catheter was only inflated one inch when it should have been inflated three inches. I’ll be calling my parents in about a half hour to see how they made out.

I drove myself crazy last week trying to think of the word “routine.” I have dysnomia, so I often have trouble thinking of the exact word I want for things. It’s why I don’t go on Jeopardy. Between that and my dyslexia, writing can be a challenge and time consuming. The dysnomia is another reason I am not a very good conversationalist. People get bored when every other word is thingamajig or doodgmahicky. Did you know that they are actual words? Spell check recognized them.

My routine got knock completely out of whack last week and I was not happy. I just got done setting it up and had plans to follow it to some successful writing last Monday. Instead, I spent the week in and out of the hospital and doctor's office. Maybe I can start over today.

At the bottom of my posts, I had the star rating system. Someone gave my post entitled “RRRrrrrrrrr!” one star which means “I hate it.” I was so obsessed over that one star all weekend. I couldn’t figure out who gave it or why they hated it. Because I couldn’t get it out of my mind, I took the star rating out. It didn’t seem very helpful and I refuse to allow myself to be tortured by someone in a hood without the balls to say they didn’t like it to my face.

I will never go to the grocery store on a Sunday again. Those people were vicious. The place was packed and they all acted like they were the only ones in the store.

I think it’s time to re-read the Harry Potter series. I do it every couple of years. It’s like visiting a friend you know so well you don’t have to speak. You look each other in the eyes and laugh at a shared joke.

Wordless Wednesday

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Wide-eyed Wednesday

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20130127 (c) vanessa v kilmer

Flash 55 - Stalked By Kermit

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Driving home from work, 
I contended with icy roads, high winds,
 careening SUV’s, and manic snow plows. 
As if that weren’t bad enough, 
imagine my fear when I looked into 
my rear view mirror and 
saw I was being stalked by 
Kermit the Frog. 
Or was he running from the white van,
 screaming in terror?

Write a story in exactly 55 words.

 Hosted by G-Man @ Mr. KnowItAll – Click Here

Merry Meet and Blessed Be

Flash 55 - Remember When

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The Little Ice Age which lasted between the 16^th and 19^th centuries in the Northern Hemisphere was caused by lowered atmospheric CO₂ emissions from the decreased population caused by the Black Death and by Christopher Columbus not following proper import/export regulations. Based on this, we can say that today’s global warming is because of antibiotics.

My latest book review on 

"The Girl..." 

can be found at 

Nessa's Reading Room.

Write a story in exactly 55 words.

~ Hosted by G-Man @ Mr. KnowItAll ~

One Single Impression - Insomnia

One Single Impression

cold seeps into my veins thickening

my limbs restless in over extended

exertion numb with thoughts unbidden

unceasing ramblings toss and turn

over wrinkled sheets of white pebbles

pocked and lumpy ticking tock

talking awake roused alert and

exhausted wide open mind

Flash 55 – Footsteps @ The “other” Chrysalis Stage 

     

Flash 55 – So Sorry

I asked for snow, that’s a fact

I’m really sorry about that.

We couldn’t see the roads

Snow fell by dumpster loads

It made people sad

I was far from glad

In future, I’ll take more care

when putting my wishes out there

Now, I’m asking for Spring flowers

Who knew I had such powers?

Flash 55 is hosted by G-Man (Mr. Knowitall). The idea is to write a story in exactly 55 words. If you want to, take part pop over and let G-man know when you’ve posted your 55. You can click on his graphic, too (I actually figured out how to link to a url in a picture.) Thanks G-man for hosting.

Flash 55 – Priorities @ The “other” Chrysalis Stage

Wishes Come True @ Esoteric Uncovered

3 Word Thursday – A New Old Fairy Tale

Today is Thursday so we use Quilly’s three archaic words to tell stories.

Today's words are:


facinorous: extremely wicked
extirpate: destroy completely; wipe out; surgically remove
hebdomadal: weekly; every seven days
Thumbelina had a hebdomadal routine that the Snow Fairy interrupted. That facinorous fey caused a blizzard to ravage Thumbelina’s neighborhood. Thumbelina looked out her window at the storm keeping her inside. She spotted a bird lying on the ground. The Snow Fairy had tried to extirpate all living things and it looked like she had at least one victim. Thumbelina wondered if she could bring the bird back to life.

Hans Christian Andersen’s Thumbelina.

I’d like to thank everyone for understanding the concept of yesterday’s post. 

It gave me the willies to let it go on air with all of the mistakes it in.

13 Random Feelings and Thoughts @ The “other” Chrysalis Stage

Disputing Questions @ Esoteric Uncovered

Snow Daze

This is how much snow we got in December 2009. My husband (Vinnie, a nickname he got growing up with Italians because he is a blond haired blue eyed German / Irish – go figure) was quite upset because he did not get to use his new mega snow blower (being spinally deficient and all.) He sat on the porch while a friend used the machine on its maiden voyage. I’m sure you men out there sympathize with Vinnie.


Big snow like this doesn’t happen often in New Jersey. Another big snow storm is due to begin this evening. Send good wishes our way that Vinnie gets to play with his toy tomorrow. If he doesn’t, I’m afraid he may cry. That wouldn’t be pretty. Real men don’t eat chiche and they certainly don’t cry (unless their football teams win or they are out of beer.)


Flash 55 at The “other” Chrysalis Stage

Chewing on Your Dreams at Esoteric Uncovered

One Hundred Words #2 - Frosted Folioles

"Frosted Folioles"
Photograph by Vanessa V. Kilmer © February 3, 2009

Frosted Folioles

White wind whipped around the bamboo. The narrow, evergreen leaves lifted in the frozen tempest despite the thick glove of snow.

Sparrows and squirrels hid from the blowing weather in the pavilion made by the frosted stalks and folioles.

Jenny sheltered along with the other frightened summer creatures during the storm. She snuck in the back garden during the night. She stayed into the daylight hours, warded within the womb of the weald.

She hugged her gravid belly. It rumbled in hungry response. The vagaries of life had brought her to this venue but she vowed to survive Winter's worst.

The Wild Hunt

The Wild Huntsman, Woden, sat atop his snorting white horse, his knees gripping the beast’s shoulders. The air rocked and lightening shot to the ground each time Ehwaz struck the clouds with his iron hooves.

The old female elf, Slattenpat, naked, wrinkled skin rolling with her movements, darted in and out with her knobbed cane, attempting to gather the dead to her. The phantasmal group behind the stamping steed was herded away from the collector by ghostly hounds.

Ehwaz rose up on its back legs and lunged out at the nefarious fairy. Slattenpat decided to break off her pursuit of the lost souls in Woden’s care.

Long breasts thrown over her shoulders, Slattenpat ran into the swirling mists to escape her pursuer. Woden threw a thunderbolt that struck his quarry in the ass and cracked her into millions of pieces.

I woke in the bright morning sunshine to find shards of crystalline snow covering the earth.

ABC Wednesday - F is for Fudge, Flowers, Fur and Finally Flakes

This is the Fudge cake I made for my brother's birthday.
These were my Valentine's Day Flowers.
This is The Codes with snow flakes on his fur.
And we Finally got snow.

Find other ABC Wednesday participants at Mrs. Nesbitt's Place.

Get a belly laugh at Humor-Blogs dot com.