I haven’t seen her since December...and then only from a distance...
We haven’t acted like a “normal” granddaughter-grandma “team” - eating ice cream or popsicles together - since last summer before she started kindergarten.
Hopefully we’ll be able to sit close to each other again before long. Can’t wait for this pandemic to be over...
So glad we are able to talk to each other via FaceTime!
Happy birthday! Hope you have a wonderful year ahead!
Last year I noticed that the college near our house had built a new pond for spring runoff.
This year I discovered that a path runs around it...
A lovely new place to walk!
Spring has come early to our part of Canada...
Early spring flowers are blooming. Our front yard hellebore plant started the season off with its four yellow flowers.
This was followed by a bushy yellow hellebore on the west side of our house.
I didn’t have much hope for the two other hellebores in the west-facing garden bed. But both are now beginning to bloom as well...
In the meantime, a few other flowers have also appeared... Blue Scilla (in the top photo) and this little white flower which may be a hyacinth...
There is also a mass of tulip tarda in the back flower bed...
Plus a group of tulips in our front garden bed... (I notice one has already been snapped off... by a squirrel, I suspect!)
All welcome additions to our yard!
Last time we were there, The weather was a little cooler.
It looked like it might rain.
The ducks and geese didn’t mind...
(From now on, I’ll think of this part of the park as “Turtle Bay”!)
Another time, I’d like to walk a little further past the marina to the point / peninsula in the distance.
Not long ago, this was all snow-covered. And Terry and I walked on the frozen river, watching kite-skiers being pulled along by the wind!
The past two mornings, I’ve awakened to find snow on the ground.
I had to bring in the two geranium plants I was “hardening” outdoors!
We’ve had a lovely early spring in Ontario, so I shouldn’t complain!
Fortunately the week ahead looks warmer - though I notice one night of below freezing weather. I’ll have to protect my plants from the cold again!
Last spring, during our first Ontario Covid-19 lockdown, Terry and I often drove to a park on the Rideau River where my youngest son played soccer in his high school days.
There we would walk ... and reminisce...
We haven’t been there in a while, but recently we headed over again...
The trees were beginning to bud...
Not sure what tree or bush this is...
This might be a red maple...
There were more people in the park than I remember from last year, when children weren’t permitted to play outdoors for fear of spreading COVID-19.
We walked onto the bridge to look down on the river, which seemed to be a lot lower.
The river here is part of the Rideau Canal waterway. Air smells fresher near the water!
Always good to be back!
My daughter lives in a first floor apartment. Her kitchen window overlooks a roof where the eaves trough is overflowing with leaves.
Now the eaves are also full of twigs and small branches, my daughter recently commented... and a pair of Canada geese have built a nest...
You’re joking! I replied when she told me... So she sent me photos.
The top one was taken from her kitchen window...
The second one, from the parking lot...
Soon there may be goslings running on the roof!
A friend recently introduced me to a book entitled Contemplative Knitting...
I’ve started to read it.
I’m not sure what contemplative knitting really means. Hopefully I’ll find out as I progress through the book.
I often knit when I’m by myself... quietly sitting in a favourite chair in the evening.
I usually bring along knitting when I’m travelling by plane or train. I don’t feel I’m wasting my time if I’m knitting. My mind is active... Does that mean I’m contemplating?
In the introduction to the book, the author, Julie Cicora, mentions that doctors have explored how knitting and other artistic endeavours contribute to well-being and happiness.
Knitting complimented “ medical treatments and helped decrease stress levels and symptoms of depression. Knitting was even found to delay memory loss and slow the onset of Alzheimer’s.”
Lots of good reasons to keep doing it!
Ontario Residents are currently under a month of stay-at-home orders because of a dramatic increase in COVID-19 cases that are inundating hospitals.
I’m relieved to see the government do this.
Hopefully there’ll be a sharp reduction in cases - until the positive effects of vaccinations will be seen.
In the meantime, it’s a wonderful season for walking...
Sitting at the park - watching geese stick their heads underwater for food - it occurred to me that I enjoy travel because of the lovely places I get to visit...
Since we can’t travel... Time to appreciate the loveliness of my own part of the world!
