polar express

Hurrah! Today was my first swim of the year! I had to channel a polar bear to give me the courage to get in using the ladder but I managed to even dunk my head in the end. The water was a sparkling 66.5F/19.5C! I went in twice! The weather is meant to be raining tomorrow but I'm counting the days till the first outdoor shower after my morning workout - that will be absolute bliss 😊 

I'm enveloped in my favorite music while Carm and Pat watch Reacher… it's a bit too violent for me but they are sure to alert me to the shower scenes ;-)

Speaking of music, I tend to listen to the same stuff all the time while Carm gets tired of music quickly. For me a familiar song is like changing into my fluffiest pyjamas and curling up with a hot tea and buttered toast with honey - it really is that level of comfort.

Thank goodness for earphones! I love the earbuds that came with my phone. They have a noise reduction setting that blocks 99% of the sound. I only hear a faint mumble when Pat and Carm talk. He has to physically touch me to get my attention! 

Oh, so as you can guess with the swim, summer has blessed us for a few days. Sunday (Mother's Day) was gorgeous. We met up with Carm's siblings at the funeral home his parents are in and then went to Mom's for a visit. I was having a bad day and should have taken my emergency meds but for some stupid reason didn't think to 🤔 But it was a lovely day anyway.

Monday we danced and sweated the morning away at zumba. We scoped out the plant situation in the village and I browsed a local dress shop (I might have to go back someday not directly after zumba!) on our way home. The moment we arrived home there was a call from Trudie asking for some help. I won't get into details except to say that in the end everything worked out okay.

Tuesday the dogs had their jabs and then we took Trudie to the hospital to visit Leo - by the time we got home the day was done! It was another gorgeous day :-) Wednesday we got caught up around the house which left us time to clip Lupa on Thursday… and here we are! Time flashing by.

Carm skipped cutting the grass this morning so that we could hit up the nurseries before the long weekend, this time with money in hand… I got a few hanging plants and some herbs. Carm got some tomatoes, zucchini, and cucumbers! We aren't sure when we'll stick all this in the ground… Sunday night is forecast to be 4C which is too close to freezing to be comfortable!

Awesome!

“first swim!!!”

“pink flowers”

“did I mention first swim?”

driving miss Daisy

Spring is still teasing us with the occasional warm day interspersed with lots of cold days with and without rain. The ground is waterlogged in places… but the trees have thrown out leaves and some are starting flower buds - I figure we are a good week behind!

Has it really been almost 2 weeks since I last put my fingers to the keyboard? Time flies even when I'm dragging myself through life! I had several days of complete fatigue but slowly I've been getting my strength back… I figure it was the fallout of so many months of mood struggles, but every day has been better - both strength and most happily, mood! I've had several days in a row of feeling pretty much normal! Hurrah!!!

Last Friday I drove myself to Kirsten's to spend a few nights - we were signed up for a horse driving clinic! I almost turned the car around as I was so exhausted that day but I kept on driving… and I'm SO GLAD that I did! We had a fantastic time Saturday learning how to harness and then hitch. After that we got to ground drive the single horse that we were assigned to, and also a pair of huge percherons. The lines seemed to go every which way but I eventually figured out the steering…

They served us box lunches in a covered arena. It was good to be out of the wind… I froze all day even though I was wearing a t-shirt, sweatshirt, fleece jacket, all topped with a wind-breaker jacket! But it didn't ruin the day at all :-) I was however, very happy to get into a warm car at the end!

After lunch we got to drive! It was pretty cool and brought to mind my first time in the cart with Pat Wolfe, behind his two Fjord geldings - I was hooked on Fjords after being behind those lovely horse haunches!

Have you read anything by Ann Patchett? I checked ‘Truth and Beauty’ out of the library the other day and am enjoying it immensely… there are so many quotable passages that I find myself reading over and over, and sure enough, when I looked her up on GoodReads, there are hundreds gleaned from her many books. She reminds me a bit of Alice Munroe but much less depressing!

I'm hoping that she'll rub off on me a tiny bit!

Writing is a job, a talent, but it's also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend you drink your tea with in the afternoon.

Ann Patchett, Truth & Beauty

Awesome!

“ground driving a massive team of percherons”

“driving an actual cart pulled by an actual horse!”

“going back to liquidation to find a second pair of the jeans that I bought last week and finding a pair”

“rose-breasted grosbeak at the feeder”

“Carm getting the garden dug and the pool open… although we are likely ages away from swimming”

water woes

It's 11am on Monday and I'm sitting on one of the black plastic (ugh! plastic), adirondack chairs on the back deck. I can't really see the screen with the sun glare but I'll revisit when I'm back inside. So yes!!!! It's sunny and warm. I'm still in my workout shorts and sports bra but I'm hot :-)  Maybe I'll get a tiny bit of sunburn or at the very least a huge dose of vitamin D!

A while later… hurrah! The tiniest haze of pink adorns my beluga white body and vitamin D is coursing through my sun starved cells. The tendrils of summer have pushed aside the dregs of the dreary winter for a few hours… 

We have been without running water since supper time on Saturday - take note of how often you turn on the tap or flush the toilet! Luckily we had some jugs of drinking water (which Carm refilled yesterday from a neighbour) and the pool for flushing. We put a big black bucket of water from the pool on the back deck for a sponge bath later today. We both have a doctor appointment this afternoon so have to somehow get cleaned up. If the pool water was 10 degrees warmer I'd jump in to rinse away a few days worth of living, but alas… it's only in the low 50s F. I am not that hardy! Or desperate!

The boss of the plumber workers dropped by this morning to assess the situation but the guys who do the actual work are on another big job today… our fingers are crossed that they'll have enough time to fit us in. The pressure switch is broken which he thought was due to the bladder in the tank twisting so that might need replacing as well. 

Yesterday we met up with Francine & Ken for supper at a local restaurant. The difficulty in doing dishes was a good excuse to go out! I ordered chicken parmesan, hoping that it would be like the veal parm that they made years and years ago. Alas, it was a poor facsimile although perhaps the simpler tomato sauce and lack of breading made it a bit healthier. HOWEVER! I was not looking for healthy! I wanted the cheesie, salty, fatty version of old! If I wanted healthier I would have ordered the salmon…

Who knows, maybe we'll eat there again tonight if the water situation isn't sorted today.

The lilac tree outside the window is looking a little more green today. I suspect that the heat today will hasten the greening of the fields. Maybe it will even dry up the ground a bit so that farmers can start to get into their fields.

I got Carm to take a few ‘after’ photos of me but he doesn't look at what's in the viewfinder so I have a light sprouting from my head and a bucket emerging from my side. He needs Olaf to give him a little course on looking and seeing! Also, they are at weird angles and since I'm not an experienced model, they all have me standing in really weird ways and none of them flattering…

Way later in the day… the plumbers were here and gone in a flash, leaving just as we had to dash out the door for our appointment. It was the switch so an easy (although expensive) fix. Yay for running water and hurrah for a hot bath!

Awesome!

“a sunburn”

“running water”

“finding 2 pairs of jeans my size at liquidation”