it had nearly failed

Glum… the perfect word to describe another dreary “spring” day. We did have a few days of warmer weather, and even some sun on one or two of the days, but the spring showers to welcome May flowers have descended.

Good news though: my cold is mostly over leaving a slight cough. Bearable, and I feel like I can join the human race again. I even got myself out of the house for a trip into the city yesterday. A bit of shopping (scored some great sandals that will be good for cruising and also around the house this summer, assuming we get summer).

After all that shopping I even had to energy to have Trudie & Leo over for a last minute visit after supper.

In the past the trees have been close to bursting forth with leaves and flowers threaten to overwhelm the senses with their beauty and fragrance.  But this year, the trees barely have buds (there have been some years that we’ve thought for sure it would be an early green day), and the tulips are barely up with no signs of bloom. There is no sign of apple blossoms. The garlic is about 6 inches tall. Everything is delayed.

I slid open the camper slides yesterday - too many asian beetles and dead flies to deal with at the moment. I’ll drag the vacuum out the first warm day and get the place ship shape for our upcoming trip. The grey skies are like a curtain between winter and summer and seem impossible to shift.

3:45 Cheeks red, eyes watering and a bit of an earache… yes, I was just outside around the field for 5 minutes. The dogs didn’t mind, but the spitting rain and cold wind was not my idea of spring, has it forsaken us? Or have I been asleep for half a year?

“With so many trees in the city, you could see the spring coming each day until a night of warm wind would bring it suddenly in one morning. Sometimes the heavy cold rains would beat it back so that it would seem that it would never come and that you were losing a season out of your life. This was the only truly sad time in Paris because it was unnatural. You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintry light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person had died for no reason.

In those days, though, the spring always came finally but it was frightening that it had nearly failed.”
― Ernest Hemingway

the proof is in the pudding

I made a terrible discovery today… I can make passable rice pudding in under 30 minutes using the instant pot. It isn’t nearly as good as the glop from Country Kitchen (I think it needs more cream for that), but it is a reasonable facsimile.

When I finally dragged myself out of bed yesterday for some supper I had a hankering for rice pudding. The creamy concoction seemed like it would perk me up and somehow make me feel better. But alas, I didn’t have the heart to send Carm out to the store and it didn’t occur to me that I could make my own. Not that I would have had the energy to anyway. But this morning I was feeling more capable and made a go of it. Now I have heaps (Carm is not a fan), luckily Grace likes it so she’ll help me finish it up… burp.

Today is a BEAUTIFUL day!!!! It was hot enough for me to drag one of the lounge chairs out of the barn and soak up some rays. Surely a bit of vitamin D will help me through my misery. Looking out the window it is almost impossible to reconcile that just one week ago we were fresh from the Caribbean, without power, and everything covered with a thick layer of ice. How could it be that one week later I was in a camisole with flip flops enjoying the sun. Crazy!

I was reading back in my blog that some years we have our first camp on May the first. Well, that isn’t going to happen this year. We haven’t even put the slides out for the inaugural washing of every surface to clear away the flies and asian beetles. Usually by now we would have at least one supper in the villetta, usually with a bottle of bubbles. I’d normally be itching to get out there, but this year I can’t even be bothered to put the lantern back. Maybe tomorrow I won’t be so wiped out by coughing.

I think that because I’ve been sick, and the ice storm with its power outage, I’m having trouble repositioning myself back into reality. Cruising is weird as we are living in an alternate reality. There is nothing about it that is like home and I feel that I’m in a bubble or perhaps a happy twilight zone. Coming home to an emergency state was another twilight zone, that one not so happy. And here I am, back at home in a regular way, but still I feel buffered with cotton wool. One of these days I’ll be back to reality, maybe tomorrow.

Then I’ll get the slides out and start preparing for our next adventure!

Carm has gone to the driving range in prep for his first golf day of 2018 tomorrow.

“She turned to the sunlight
   And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbor:
   "Winter is dead.” “
~A.A. Milne

thar she blow

A cup of green tea laced with sweet honey steeps in front of me. I hold a faint hope that it will soothe my throat and calm the wicked cough that is threatening to overcome me. I am exhausted: partly from being awake much of the night and partly from the cold meds I have been taking. It is day 9 and I’m ready to be well again… or at least let me sleep without hacking my lungs out.

Wednesday we visited our accountant to sign off on our taxes and then did a giant run through Costco. The fridge was pretty empty but no so anymore. So now I have the ingredients to cook and am just lacking the will. Well stocked freezer to the rescue! We ate frozen soup last night and I’ll pick out another variety for tonight. Add a kale salad and supper is ready.

Yesterday was ‘record store day’ or something to that effect. I was reminded of the first albums that I bought with my own money. It was in the supper of 1975 at the KMart at Portage & somewhere, in Winnipeg. I bought two albums and they couldn’t have been more different. 10cc How Dare You album was alternative rock, while the Partridge Family’s album was kiddy pop - I was never truly conventional.

The weather has turned! It actually looks like spring out there, although I haven’t even ventured the tip of my nose out yet (still in pjs). The sun is shining and it looks like the temp is rising up to 11C. Wowzers.