First Light Of 2019

My intent was to post the last sunset of 2018 yesterday and the first sunrise of 2019 today. But both were entirely unremarkable! But I am posting this just the same. I love the view of the trees from my conservatory and I love to see the darkness give way to light at the start of a new day, even if the clouds are too thick for any colour.

If it wasn’t this, I would have had to have posted pictures of today’s decluttering project - shoes! I’m not really a ‘shoe woman’, and the pairs I wear regularly are in single digits. Still, there were some buried on shelves and in drawers that I’d forgotten about. I got rid of over half of my collection and I’m even doubtful about half that I kept. Except for a couple of pairs of boots and also wellies and garden shoes, and a couple of pairs that live permanently in the Campervan, my entire collection now fits in a shoe rack hung on the inside of my coat closet. I call that success!

I also made a giant pot of ‘hamburger soup’ in the slow cooker, and I’ll have several meals ready in the freezer for cold winter days ahead. While getting that ready I cleared out some of my food that was WELL beyond the sell by date. I’m not a slave to the dates but there comes a point...

So - a very productive first day of the year! I did take a break and had went down to the lake for a walk just in time to finally see a teeny bit of colour in the sky.

Wishing all of you a very happy and healthy 2019 ahead!

Yikes! I almost forgot to mention the skiing! It was day 3 of the Tour de Ski with more sprint races, this time from Val Muestair in Switzerland. The women’s race was particularly exciting with Sweden’s Stina Nilsson coming first as expected, and the US claiming BOTH second and third places with Sophie Caldwell and Jessie Diggins both crossing the finish line 2.27 seconds after Nilsson. Jessie Diggins is now in first place in the overall tour standings. All exciting for the American team in a sport dominated by the Nordic skiers. Today’s course had 2 laps for a total of 1.3k, with a steep climb on each lap as well as some ‘camel bumps’. All very exciting to watch but with some unfortunate falls for some of the skiers. Things change very quickly in the sprint racing. Tomorrow the tour continues in Oberstdorf in Germany with the mass start races.