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March 28, 2007

Flown the Coop

I spent several productive days in Toronto, but was very glad to be home again today. All's well on the home front, but we have mysteriously lost two of our pheasants. When I left last week they were fine, but when Bob checked them yesterday, two had disappeared. There is no evidence to analyze: no holes in the pen, no chaos of feathers, no forced entry. We are baffled. If they were stolen, the thief was considerate enough to take them gently and lock the doors as he/she left. If they escaped, they are cannier than we are in figuring out the exit path. It's a classic locked room mystery. Who dunnit?

March 15, 2007

No Picking or Packing Peppers

I finally heard from the birthday girl this evening. Claire called from Brisbane to tell me about her brief but career-affirming experience on a capsicum farm in Stanthorpe, a considerable distance southwest of Brisbane. She drove up from Sydney in one long trip a couple of days ago, to check into a hostel overseen by a man she described as very ill-tempered. After her ten-plus hours on the road, she crashed for the night in a room shared with six other females, to be woken for the bus at 5:30 am. She was assigned an inside job sorting peppers (considerably more attractive than outside picking them in the Queensland sun), but there she was subject to crabby women yelling at her to work faster, better, harder. She says with the whole day sorting peppers, she had lots of time to think through her career direction and her next move in OZ. No surprise that she concluded that picking, packing or doing anything to peppers was not going to be part of the plan. She stuck out another day, then packed her stuff at the hostel, broke the news to Mr. Nasty Temper (who was none too pleased -- he plays a role in organizing the pickers), made some arrangements for her next adventure and checked into a hotel.

After a night's sleep in relative luxury, she sounded buoyant. She planned to head south about an hour's drive to Coolangatta, where she will start Sunday as a volunteer at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, a zoo she visited some weeks ago. She looks forward to some time back in the company of zoo animals, even sweeping out cages and shovelling you know what. Then she'll be set to travel a bit once her friend arrives from Canada in mid-April, before heading home at last (we hope) in June.

March 05, 2007

Here's the Other Half of the Story

I got home as planned to Owen Sound on Saturday. Drove through blizzards and drifting snow until I finally hit Grey County where the road conditions were much better (maybe we use more salt up here?). At last on the outskirts of Owen Sound it started to snow again, but I was steaming ahead determined to make it, until I pulled into my own driveway and got thoroughly stuck. Never mind. Bob and dogs and (a little) chaos looked pretty good to me. Bob dug me out and the next day as he left for Toronto, our neighbour with a snowblower offered to clean up the edges of the driveway, essentially clearing away everything that our driveway guy can't get at because he uses a tractor with a mega-sized snowblower attachment. Get the feeling our lives are all about snow these days?

March 03, 2007

Just Landed

Just got back (as far as Toronto) from another successful week on the east coast. I spent most of the week working in windowless rooms, but with great people, and every so often I'd get a glimpse of the Saint John harbour. Friday was a travel day and fortuitously a colleague convinced me that fish and chips from the market was really the only choice for lunch (thanks Karen!). Turns out that was my last meal for many hours as my plane had to wait for a takeoff window in the blizzard that settled in late in the afternoon. By the time I landed in Toronto, most of the ugly weather here was over.

Bob says there's still plenty of snow up in Owen Sound, but I'm coming home anyway. I'm hoping Mum will let me try her new snowshoes before everything melts.