blah...blah...blah... Ginger! » blanket night http://baddog.com expats in the Yucatan Sat, 04 Feb 2012 21:32:59 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 Blanket Night 2011 http://baddog.com/2011/10/22/blanket-night-2011/ http://baddog.com/2011/10/22/blanket-night-2011/#comments Sat, 22 Oct 2011 22:59:58 +0000 Jonna http://baddog.com/?p=3879 I’m seeing a trend here, the first Blanket Night was on the 17th of October 2009, last year Blanket Night was on the 18th of October. This year we made it all the way to the 21st of October before putting the down comforter on the bed. We’ve had a cotton blanket on [...]]]>
I’m seeing a trend here, the first Blanket Night was on the 17th of October 2009, last year Blanket Night was on the 18th of October. This year we made it all the way to the 21st of October before putting the down comforter on the bed. We’ve had a cotton blanket on the bed for over a week but I decided last year that only the comforter counts. I am not celebrating the night that I give in and put the electric blanket on my side, that’s my private excess.

In looking for the dates from previous years, I was struck with how much the palm tree on our bedroom terrace has grown in just one year. I needed something for perspective as it is hard to tell how tall the tree is, I can comfortably stand under the low branch on the left now and I’m 5’8″. In another year or so it will have outgrown that terrace and we’ll have to move it.

The humidity has dropped along with the temperature, that’s nice except it takes a bit for my sinuses to adjust.

I’m not really complaining (yet) about the cold, it feels good to sleep under fluffy warmth and the cats are snuggling happily into the comforter. My flannel pajamas finally wore out last year so this week I need to go and buy some good flannel and have another pair made. I’m dusting off my Ugs and getting ready for cold nights.

I was in CostCo the other day and the electric heaters and fake fireplaces are all out on display. If electricity weren’t so expensive here I could see getting a heater for the living room. We’ll just make do with the live video of a fire that Canadian TV puts up every year. You can hear it crackle and every hour or so a hand reaches in and adds a log. It’s kind of soothing and makes you feel warmer.

The other thing that has returned after 2 years are the leafcutter ants. Mimi was trying to catch Mancha the other night and saw her staring at something on the ground. It was a line of big ants carrying leaf pieces like flags. We’re lucky to have caught them so early, they had only eaten about half of my big jasmine plant.

We got the Trompa out on the wall right away and they immediately started hauling it off. They were on the opposite wall from the last time, coming from yet another abandoned yard. It must have been a small colony because we have not seen any since that first night. They took all the bait home and it seems to have wiped them out. That’s a win, I only lost half a 6′ plant instead of all of that plant and a bunch more.

Just in case you want to run right over to CostCo for a fake fireplace/electric heater, I’ll leave you with this picture.

© Jonna for blah...blah...blah... Ginger!, 2011. | Permalink | 7 comments | Post tags: ,

]]> http://baddog.com/2011/10/22/blanket-night-2011/feed/ 7 a new holiday http://baddog.com/2009/10/19/a-new-holiday/ http://baddog.com/2009/10/19/a-new-holiday/#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:21:31 +0000 Jonna http://baddog.com/?p=1859 First Blanket Day, or maybe we should just call it Blanket Night?  I’m talking about the night you first put a blanket on the bed.  It should be one of those rotating holidays established by the mullahs or whatever that sit out and spot the new moon so muslims can eat.  As an aside, [...]]]> First Blanket Day, or maybe we should just call it Blanket Night?  I’m talking about the night you first put a blanket on the bed.  It should be one of those rotating holidays established by the mullahs or whatever that sit out and spot the new moon so muslims can eat.  As an aside, how do normally sane and logical people accept these things? I’m including easter and all of the rest of the religions in this as well.   Never mind, it is the ultimate conundrum, logic in some things, total fantasy in others, all happily (?) wrapped up in a human brain.

Moving along.  Last night was Blanket Night here at Casa Ixchel.  It’s a bit overdue this year, but perhaps appreciated more?  Yesterday afternoon Mimi noted that she was chilly.  gasp! I wasn’t because I was working, potting and moving stuff.  A bit later though after working in the pond I realized I too was a bit cold.  I don’t think the high yesterday made it into the 90°’s F and as I sit here today at 1pm it is a chilly 82° F.  Ack! Winter is upon us and we haven’t put in the wood or bought heating oil or cleaned the ducts in the furnace or… oops… let’s not get carried away here.

I did take a long hot shower and put on my flannel pants and my wooly slippers though.   Then I got the cotton blanket out and put it on the bed.  A ritual is born.

In what may have been a sign from the almighty, we found a dead bat in the pool this morning.   A symbol of the importance of the day.

Let’s all face the equator, make the sign of the bat and pretend to shiver… Blanket Night occurred on October 18th in 2009.

the omen

the omen

© Jonna for blah...blah...blah... Ginger!, 2009. | Permalink | 8 comments | Post tags:

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