seasons

here is a day

~ carin ~ 6 Comments

It begins with the light.

Different this morning, although not really anything you can single out. The sun comes up, shines; the sky is blue, the trees are naked.

The grass still shivers and the only blooms are the brave-hearted snowdrops. But something has changed.

It’s spring.

No matter what the calendar says, no matter if there’s a blizzard tomorrow—a corner has been turned. The squirrels know it and so do the doves, the neighbourhood stray and the fly that landed on my arm today as I sat reading on the patio. It’s like hair. One day it’s perfectly fine, like it’s been for weeks or months, and the next [and you will never know how this can happen] it’s changed and it needs a cut and it will not be fine again until you cut it.

Spring arrives like that. Overnight. And suddenly everything is different. Regardless of weather, it will not be winter again until the last month of the year.

So we go for a walk on this beautiful spring day, Peter and I.

We walk to the grocery store to buy some baby food for Jake The Cat who’s a bit plugged up with shedding-his-winter-coat hairballs; my cat book recommends a recipe involving a veggie/meat blend along with melted butter, psyllium husks and water.

It’s about twenty minutes, if that, through a ravine and a park where, amongst all that loveliness, somehow people decide to just drop things and carry on.

We carry bags to scoop up the debris.

Back home again, I bake what could be my favourite thing in the world— today I use (local, frozen from summer) cherries.

And while I do, the sun shines in on my beach glass [and sunshine on my beach glass makes me happy…]
I read outside.

And I read inside.

I vacuum downstairs, but not upstairs.

I write a little. Not a lot.
And too soon the sun is on the other side of the house and making those end of day shadows on the guy across the street’s garage door and the wall in the living room and I put chicken wings in the oven and shrimps on the barbie…

— and Peter pours glasses of wine and today’s light will soon be gone but it was here and it was spring light, and before it fades and turns suddenly too cold to sit outside comfortably…

…I sit comfortably.
Happy spring.

Note:  Jake The Cat ate his ‘recipe’ and, later, things cleared up nicely. [In case you were wondering.]

mad weather soup stock

~ carin ~ 1 Comment

Includes snow-covered celery.

This, thanks to erratic temps. Plus ten one day, minus twenty the next. Rain, snow, heatwave, snow. The poor plants haven’t known quite what to do. Up, down, die, live?  It’s been all happy confusion. In fact, until recently I was still [amazingly] snipping the odd bit of greenery—arugula, parsley, thyme, celery leaf.

Alas, I think the foraging party may be over. Seems the gardening season has finally, officially, and abruptly, come to some sort of pause.

making a list

~ carin ~ 3 Comments

Of course the holidays aren’t about gifts. Who said they were?? Gifts shmifts. We’re above that, right? It’s all about feelings and togetherness and kumbaya, man. Yessirree Bob it surely is. Still, I have the feeling that if a few gifts don’t cross a few palms there will be some questionable vibes floating around amongst the joy and the shortbread crumbs.

Having said that… there’s no rule about what the gift should be and between you, me and the lamppost, I don’t like shopping and most of the people I know already have too much stuff. (Books don’t count. We all need books.)

So for the past few years I’ve been moving to non-stuff gifts (except for books, which, just to make it crystal clear, are NOT included in the ‘stuff’ category, not in any land or galaxy because, among other things, and unlike stuff, they’re fun to buy).

I was, therefore, super chuffed when a friend recently sent me a list of “Out of the Box” gift ideas. Nothing especially mind-blowing, but that’s the point: to consider some of the basic things that everybody needs but don’t treat themselves to. Like new underwear, only better.

— gift certificate to an art supply store
— or hair salon, barber
— garden centre
— car detailing (someone to clean my car—they do that??)
— lawn mowing service
— snow ploughing
— ski hills/trails
— restaurants, cafes, diners, bistros, a really great mom & pop breakfast joint
— house-cleaning for a day
— window washing service for spring
— eavestrough cleaning for fall
— local art, pottery, scarves, jewellery, etc.
— subscription to local theatre
— membership to museum, gallery
— chimney cleaning

Lots there to appeal to mums and dads, grandparents or older friends/relatives who have mown enough lawns and cleaned enough gutters that the lustre has faded a little from those particular DIY jobs… and it helps support small businesses.

Then there’s food: homemade preserves, baked things (markets sell this stuff year-round), or (for people you really like): Community Supported Agriculture and similar farm programs that deliver baskets of fresh veggies all summer. There’s magazine subscriptions and favourite charities of course. And donkeys… You get the idea.

In fact, if you do get any ideas, or come across other sites that are doing unusually fun gifty things worthy of note, please let me know.

So here’s to keeping out of the malls and, as much as possible, supporting community and independent retailers, book shops… and always, always… FARMERS!

Happy trails!

Via Melwyck–— give the library!

Via Eating Niagara –— give ice and rock climbing, outdoorsy adventures, nudist dining, and more!

love... it's all in the detail(ing)s

since i was up anyway…

~ carin ~ 6 Comments

 

Lovely as it is to have this extra hour today, I kinda like dark mornings and lighter nights and wonder why we switch back and forth anyway.

Didn’t it have something to do, several thousand years ago, with an agricultural lifestyle — farmers and children needing to get up to feed livestock or walk twelve kilometres to school, every single one of them getting crankier by the day as they bumped into low slung beams and fell into wells until someone with a bit of clout said: I have an idea, let’s rearrange the daylight by mucking about with the clocks.

To which I say fine, but the world is less agrarian now and the lightbulb has been invented and everything. And furthermore, I prefer dark mornings and lighter evenings so I’m often tempted not to Fall Back… but one must conform in these things or one finds oneself missing many buses. Still, if anyone out there is taking a survey, would you please put me down for LET’S JUST PICK ONE TIME FOR PETE’S SAKE AND STICK WITH IT.

Until sanity prevails however… Happy Return to Bright Mornings!