A dear colleague and friend died last night. It was shocking and unexpected to hear the news, even though he had been struggling with a rare debilitating disease for many months. Christian was the most alive person I have ever met. He would always greet you with genuine enthusiasm and delight, full of ideas and wit and ready to whoop with laughter at the slightest excuse. He inspired me to want to work for him and always gave me reason to value my efforts. I think he invested himself in every single moment of every day, the way we are all supposed to, and even when fate turned his body into an unresponsive machine, his smile lit up the room and his greeting was as warm as always. Just when you thought life was ordinary, he would start to talk about possibilities and you would feed on the adrenalin and the confidence and leave recharged and full of purpose. I will miss him very much.

Posted by lynda at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My computer tells me it's minus 8 degrees outside and I have no reason to doubt it. I just chatted with my daughter on the other side of the world where it was a sunny 27. She showed me (via webcam) the luscious bromeliads in the garden she was calling from. In return, I showed her the snowy wonderland that is our backyard, looking quite charming in the floodlit night.

Warm weather is definitely my preference, too, but this winter is already very different. The snow doesn't turn to horrid sludge so quickly, as it does in the city, and the mornings are quiet and fresh. When I finally found the sunflower seed stash in the garage (that is, what the mouse hadn't eaten yet), I filled a couple of feeders and made several chickadees quite delirious with excitement.

We arrived at this house at the very end of the gardening season, so things were left to naturally decline as the cold weather set in. The seed heads left standing in the garden now make graphic statements on the snow from every angle, and serve as standby snacks for the birds.

Posted by lynda at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If there was any doubt that we had moved north, it was dispelled this week by the snowfall of the last few days and, for me, by the appearance of two snowmobiles zooming up the street one fine morning. The dogs are very enthusiastic about the white stuff, especially Tiger. She heads purposefully into the deep drifts to bury her face as if she's truffle hunting.

No chance yet to try out the wood stove, because our gas furnace installation is underway this week and everywhere we turn there are parts of ductwork and tools. Lucky we have so many boxes for the workmen to pile their tools on.

Posted by lynda at 06:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In response to pointed remarks from two loyal readers of this blog, I am finally posting again. Yes, lots of major things have happened and, yes, they turned out just fine, for the most part. We have moved, chattels and livestock, stuff and more stuff, in a two-phase operation that went off pretty much the way we planned it.

We are now proud citizens of Georgian Bluffs, a township adjoining the city of Owen Sound. It took about three months to get here, with Bob pioneering at our new digs with basic amenities and all of the dogs, then me finally following with all of our furniture and about a million boxes. We moved in completely just over three weeks ago and have reduced the box count to thousands, but it's feeling like home. Our new wood stove was installed yesterday and already we have a kind neighbour offering to fetch a cord of wood for us. The only downside to that is the fact that the garage can't hold it yet -- did I mention we downsized from a four-bedroom house with double-garage to a three-bedroom bungalow with a single garage? The garage currently holds all the stuff that wouldn't fit into the house. There is some chaos to come next week when the gas furnace is installed, but after that, we can take our time getting things sorted out in each room.

The house came with personality and lots of odds and ends -- came across a wooden parrot in the garage today. Of the seven pheasants we started with, we now have six. One was a determined renegade who eluded Bob's best efforts to recapture him and probably ended up as lunch for a fox.

Through all of this we have both been working, thanks to high-speed internet and clients/employers who don't care where we are, and I have bought a new car. My old civic came down with an expensive illness just before Xmas, so there is a shiny silver Honda Fit in the driveway that is great fun to drive.

Posted by lynda at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)