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

plastic

It figures… after days of beautiful dry roads today it had to snow. Mom and I had made plans to spend some time together, maybe poking around the mall and getting some steps in, but since I am a giant chicken when it comes to driving, we have rescheduled. So now, I’m sitting on the sofa watching giant snowflakes swirling around.

It just goes to show how long it was since I last wrote… last time we had just had supper at Jo Ellen and Don’s, this time we had them here last night. Curried potato soup was on the menu again. I made it a bit spicy hot, but I guess everyone enjoyed it.

Sunday night we had Pat B., Trudie & Leo for supper. We had gnocchi with mushroom sauce which is one of Carm’s favorites. It has been a while since I made supper without the instant pot!

The days are still blending into one another as the winter carries on. I don’t know what I do with my time.

Well… all that above was yesterday! I got distracted from finishing by the arrival of my repaired tablet! We got the call that it was ready not long past noon, and Carm, being my hero, drove into town to pick it up. So I spent some of my evening setting it up, vainly trying to get it where it was before the crash.

I spent some more time today and I think it is mostly recovered. More things will show up missing as I go to do something, but for now my morning routine is taken care of. Database updates, and I think blog entries, are settled.

There were a few very sad moments as two (so far) apps didn’t recover, and I can’t find them on the app store. Of course these are two that I use multiple times a day :-(  I found stand-ins for them, but it remains to be seen if they do the job or are just irritating. Or maybe they’ll be better! Gotta keep an open mind.

This whole exercise has shown me that my brain lacks plasticity. Switching from tablet to tablet is hard, it is like learning something new all over again, and the learning process is sticky. It doesn’t come easily. I need to start doing some brain exercises to flex those learning muscles some more.

All of this aside… I had a lovely walk and cuppa tea with Christina this afternoon :-) A more pleasant challenge for my brain.

is it a skien?

There have been flocks of geese honking overhead and a gaggle has made ‘homestead’ their resting spot. Homestead is one of the little hills on our property and it got its name from… you guessed it… the foundation remains of the original homestead. The flooded creek winds its way around the base of the hill, making it an ideal spot to shelter and rest for the next leg of their trip.

Some red-wing blackbirds have been seen in the vicinity as well. Their cheerful song seems out of place with so much snow around. Speaking of snow, we’ve had a monster melt and the laneway is ICE FREE!!! Hurrah :-)

Yesterday we enjoyed a day of sunshine and warmth: I was even outside in a t-shirt to walk around the house. The snow has crystallized; the earth is now a giant snowcone, mostly unflavoured, but little spots of ‘lemon’ scattered about :-p

The weather is due to turn though which I guess is fine; we’ve had a lovely taste of spring, and best of all, the ice is gone.

We had a lovely supper with Jo Ellen and Don last night. We’ve been taking turns at each other’s houses which is nice, although honestly, I don’t mind being the cook!