cardinal sin

Bang. Crash. Flutter… and on and on it went, starting at the crack of dawn and continuing through the day. Huh? A resplendent male cardinal has taken up residence in the tree outside our bedroom and is fighting with his reflection in the giant picture window. We’ve tried an outline of a predator bird, a life size photo of a person’s face, closing the blinds, but nothing has helped. I’ll have to start going to bed early if I’m going to be awake at 6:30 every morning :-(

Fur flew the other day when the poodles lost their heavy coats. Puffy poodles are now sleek hounds with only their heads puffy. Both dogs prance more now that they are cooler. Maybe they are just trying to stay warm, but they do seem perky.

Last night we had the annual birthday dinner at the Keg. It was early as Bruce & Carm’s birthday isn’t until March 27, but travel plans necessitated a change. Ummmm… large quantities of meat and unquious potato and those lovely little fried onions… errrrr… stomach ache all night. It was worth it though and we especially enjoyed the company.

I’ve been thinking about my writing lately and am not sure where I’m going with it. I no longer rush to put words down on the page: it often seems like more of a chore. Is it the fog in my brain? Or am I out of practice and have lost the discipline? There was a time that I’d do writing practice every day which consisted of 10 minutes of constant writing of whatever came into my head. I stopped doing that over a year ago.

I often don’t feel that I have anything to write about. I have become less mindful, moving through my day without noticing things. Writing was good for becoming more aware of what was going on around me. There was much that was good about writing a daily blog, even if only to detail the pleasures of the day.

I think I’ve talked myself into giving writing another go. I’ll try to rediscover the joy that I got from expressing myself.

Speaking of pleasures: Carm brought home some lovely orange yellow tulips that have been brightening up a corner of the kitchen. Their bright faces are like little suns in the murky indoor light (it hasn’t been sunny all that often lately, but wait, that’s not a pleasure!). With temperatures above zero the snow has been slowly melting. I love the feeling of my boot stepping into a pristine patch. The snow ‘gives’ under my foot in a most pleasing manner.

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”
~Anaïs Nin