AstroGypsies

Will it ever arrive I have been saying to myself the last few weeks. Maybe I was getting ahead of Mother Nature, but today, we could see the gravel all the way out the laneway. A stark contrast to a week ago when it felt we might be mired in Winter forever! And while I appreciate the beauty of that snow covered lane and the banks of clean white snow, well, I’m very over it;) ha! Come on Spring!

I decided it was the time to peer back through my old diaries I had kept from the age of 11, right into my 20’s. This is the time we spent sailing around the globe with mother, siblings and a wide and varied cast of marvelous, colorful crew. It’s the first time I have sat down and seriously put pen to paper so to speak, fingers to the keys, and it has taken it’s toll in a way I hadn’t expected. Today I gave myself the day off to relax, visit some lovely friends for lunch (isn’t that a treat we can do that now) and deliver a birthday coconut cream pie. It has been weirdly stressful reliving the angst and chaos as we started the sailing trip. We were not prepared in any way to start this trip, what my mother thought might be her skills at sailinh and navigating turned out to be woefully naïve. So many things forgotten, memories jogged by these very detailed writings of how an eleven year old saw the world, astonishing actually that we survived, and…turned out OK, at least one friend of our mother’s family thought so anyway…see we are OK! Ha! I won’t ask my sibling what he thinks…

My letters back to my grandmother must have been quite colorful, if I wrote them in the same way my diary was scripted. I learned she had tea, or maybe something a bit stronger, invited her lady friends over and read them aloud…if only I’d known…ha! Maybe better I only found out many decades later.

The photos also need going through, they are scattered in many books, some need to be tossed, the aroma of mildew and cat urine from the decades of my mother’s hoarding isn’t something I need to live with anymore. It would be nice to have some chronological order to them all, for me anyway. We have no kids, they will probably go to the dump when I am gone but for the time being, it is my life. But enough of the past, today was supposed to be my day off from that, seems I’ve been clenching my teeth reliving it, so far, just to Panama, so I’ll leave it there but I will keep you updated as I get along with the adventures.

The squirrels are out in full force, their snow tunnels are rapidly melting and it has been exciting for the Traveling Mewberries to stalk them, no casualties yet, and even an esteemed chipmunk has been seen, out from it’s long Winter’s sleep poking about in the grass! Gamora has come off the deck as the snow has receded, it is now fit for princess paws:) I may even be able to see the dock and canoe in the morning!

Walking is now a treat. No ice in which to slip and slide on, and no snowshoes needed! I check our mail every day, it’s a kilometer walk out and another back, sometimes I wander down the Long Lake Road for a few kilometers, watching what is emerging from the banks of snow. The tiny birds nests have me wondering just who they belonged to and the spent American Bittersweet husks a colorful reminder of what will grow back. Every Paper Birch along the road is a unique individual, like us.

I was sad to find out a younger barn friend from our past had unfriended us, and blocked us as we disagreed on the current events it seems, truck convoys, school closures and who knows what else. Perhaps this pandemic has made us all a bit more thin skinned than we might have been. I respect others opinions, ideology, religion or whatever groove it is that you choose to follow. It doesn’t mean I won’t add what I believe though, silence is not something that sits well with me;) It seems to be happening the world over, instead of agreeing to disagree, families are torn apart by ideologies that differ. Will humans ever be able to coexist peacefully? I’m not sure they can some days, when it becomes too dark a cloud, I try to remind myself of the amazing gracious people I have encountered in my life and I am always thankful for getting to share a bit of their life, or a place and a time because our lives are not infinite.

All this walking gives you too much time to think! Ha!

Better to sit and photograph the birds:) Things are starting to change! The Grackles and Red Winged Blackbirds have arrived and what the symphony they create in the morning! Squeaks and grunts and well, grackling, like raucous cymbals in the hands of a two year old, well, let’s call it bird jazz! Hahahahaha!

It’s a welcome noise, a sign the land is waking up, so far no ladies, but the gentleman birds know they’ll eventually show up, this is the dress rehearsal!

If we all stopped to smell the rich earthy odor that is the ground emerging from it’s cover of snow, we’d all be a bit better off most days. Slow down, listen more, less me, more us, this world would certainly be an even more spectacular place to live than it currently is. Saludos y abrazos amigos, I’ll post a picture of the canoe and dock when I can recognize it! For now, just the joyous reflection of the sky on the surface water as all that ice below slowly melts, maybe it is Spring after all:)