EARTH DAYS

This week we commemorated ANZAC Day for our Australian friends, and tried to honour Earth Day by rakin' and diggin' and cleanin' one little corner of this beautiful planet. Unfortunately it started out as cold as the trenches in Gallipoli a hundred years ago. Snow flakes fell like tiny white flags of surrender. And who needs sunglasses or keys to the ragtop when it's cold enough to freeze the birdbath!

But the bird migration doesn't stop for a little cold. April's  Early Bird Special includes a serving of sparrow, a feast of flickers, a garnish of goldfinch and a topping of towhee. Don't forget your jar of junco!

Back indoors, the tempting smells of roast chicken or lasagna or even spaghetti makes a man fondly remember his mom's kitchen. Add a pie in the face and the nostalgia grows along with his belt size...

By week's end the early bloomers coloured the earth's days from drab to rad. Intense pinks, blues, purples, and yellows made those sunglasses seem needed after all. Like the local ferry in it's new logo, all of us are travelling in good spirits...

NEITHER HERE NOR THERE

Spring has sprung with no going back --- but we're going back and forth and places in the middle too. Early sunrises in Kemble bring long shadows and pink clouds, like cotton candy for the angels. The bees are as busy as bees collecting first pollen --- how did they survive the arctic cold?? And over in Chatsworth the Master Gardener is passing down The Knowledge: even country kids need to know where their food comes from!

The Toronto home also needed attention. The beach is thawed but still deserted, waiting for this year's Pam Anne Games. Owners on Wineva Avenue do the annual spring cleanup: rake, gather, bag, and plant the tiny "yard". Windows have to be cleaned of winter grunge and lanes swept of the last dead leaves.

The treadmill up north broke down last week after years of going nowhere fast. So the one in the apartment is going up to replace it, with help from Alec next door. Might as well make it a full van load of other stuff too! ...Like today's title says, we're both here and there and in places in between.

YOU WANT ICE WITH THAT?

A major change in the air and on the ground this week, including 3 ice breakers! The bay was still covered in ice so the Coast Guard Ice Breaker Samuel Risley cut a swath to let the cargo ships leave Owen Sound harbour. Pat was ice breaker #2, determined to clear the lane up the hill (tough work!). Breaker #3 chopped and pushed the ice in the pond to aerate. Two fish out of 30 have survived the brutal winter.

Then a rainstorm quickly melted much of the ice we worked so hard to remove. Then an all-day windstorm roughed up the bay and power lines. Most of our county lost electricity for 11 hours. This was really bad for us because we had just loaded up the fridge/freezer for the season. Two solutions: "dinner" was cooked on the Coleman camp stove (yes, note that the room was ventilated). And Ice Breaker #3 (see above paragraph) scooped out some pond ice (in the dark) to fill the coolers.

By week's end 99.9% of the ice was gone. The Samuel Risley again led a ship out, but what does an  Ice Breaker do when there's no ice to break? Anyway, regular chores have begun --- the fun to enjoy up here in the sticks...

As usual, the male turkey wants to break the ice with some females. But for the rest of you, it's your last chance to get ice with that...

HOME VIA NIAGARA, RIO, TORONTO, SNOWHILL

A week of many miles and many smiles. It was spring blossoms driving through the southern states, bare trees further north, and a cold welcome in our home and native land. Niagara Falls had frozen over in the brutal winter and it was worth a stopover to see the ice, like the cubes in a giant ice tea.

The bad car news was that the Mustang windshield was whacked by a flying stone on the highway. Could have been worse, could have been better, but still big dollar$$ to replace. The GOOD car news was a stop enroute to pick up Pat's cute 2010 Kia Rio5. Negotiated online sight unseen in March and turned out to be better than expected.

Then stopped in at Toronto; everything still OK, even caught up on some movies. And finally arriving at our heartfelt home at Kemble. The bay still covered in ice, the hill still covered in snow, the pond still frozen. A pipe had burst in the record cold so we had to heat water by the fire a couple of days. Then a warm spell brought rain and some melt.

In our absence the yard has been a deer toilet. There's one of them looking guilty over by the fence! Pat will work those brown beans into the garden, but she got to work right away clearing a path on the hill.

The pond may have frozen all the way down, about 4 feet of ice. There is evidence that all the fish, frogs, salamanders, and some plants have died. To help out what may still be alive in there we started the bubbler to inject some oxygen and release some pond gas. Wish them luck! On the other extreme we have seen spring life in the form of migrating birds, chipmunks, robins and even a butterfly. Called the "mourning cloak", it wintered somewhere in the bush. How does it survive??

Happy Easter today! Amazingly, the early crocuses (croci??) have imitated the Christian story of rebirth. Our friend the Easter Bunny made his annual appearance but was somewhat confused by the brown "eggs". No worries ---- we still scooped up a mound of real chocolate! Sunrise this morning created a fiery cross in the sky and pink floes in the bay. We're happy to be home safe and warm: we wish the same glow to all of you...