Avalanche of Celeste

The weather is strangely warm for December--in the 40s--but dark and damp, with a gusty wind tossing the bare branches. We went out for a walk and enjoyed the unsettled wintriness of it all. We're reading (or re-reading) The Wind in the Willows, and have just come to that great chapter where Mole rashly decides to check out the Wild Wood without taking Ratty along. Our woods, of course, are perfectly safe and quite small, and also it didn't start snowing. The downside of so much safety is that we never barked our shins on Badger's door scraper.

I got a call from Madame. She is agitated. It's pretty much what it was before Christmas: she wants someone to come and get her and take her back to her house, she thinks no one knows where she is, she thinks she has parked her car somewhere nearby but can't remember where. I'm sure it's worse because some of the staff is probably on vacation, making her residence less interesting and more solitary. She needs distraction. Needless to say, I did not volunteer to come and pick her up. I texted Mademoiselle to let her know what was going on. She probably is aware already. She did not get back to me. Madame still has a horrible cough, but the cold seems to have mostly vanished.

We went to church and came home to a dinner of leftover meat pie, mashed potatoes, and brussels sprouts. The pie was so good this year. The Diva's piecrust is excellent, and the pie itself is more like a terrine. Still very tasty. The Diva texted that they had arrived home today. She was getting ready to make another round of Black Cake! The discovery of the season!