Sunday bog walk

The dogs and I had a nice bog walk yesterday morning.  It snowed earlier, then rained.  There's still snow in the bog but Tess found open water and took a dip.  They were rat pigs and ran away on the way out of the bog.  I found them later down the hardtop, at Brousseau's a mile away, trotting down the road.  Guess I have to keep a leash with me on every walk and harness one of them on the way home each time.  What creeps.
I stayed home on Friday, sinus and asthma--the maples are blooming which always bothers my allergies.  Bothers my allergies?  Well, I have an allergic reaction to the maples and the birches (which will bloom later).

It sure was nice to be home 3 days in a row, even though I slept for most of Friday.  I had a hot fire going all weekend so I didn't have to turn the heat on.  It was mostly pretty miserable all weekend but at least it wasn't REALLY miserable.  Totally OK.

I had book group last night in Wilmington.  Just 3 of us, the die-hards.  We had a good time and some serious talks.  Even spent a little time talking about the book.  M'lou gave us tons of chocolate, which was very generous and wonderful.  I brought some to work this morning, froze the chocolate rabbits for Linda, and have stashed the rest.  Yum.

Quiet week ahead, not much going on.  There's a board meeting tonight but I don't know if I'll stay for it.  Yes.  No.  Yes.  No.  I like to attend them so they know someone is keeping track, but it won't start until 4:30 and might last a while since they couldn't get a quorum together for last month's meeting.  Oh boards are really something.

Saturday evening I went to a fundraiser for the Upper Jay library.  I went with my friend Julie and we had a good time.  The food was amazing and we actually did know a few of the people there.  It was at someone's house and this woman had put together an incredible spread of all kinds of food.  We wanted to eat like pigs but there were too many people hanging around the food for us to really go to town.

Went to the dump on Saturday, and took the long way home so I could listen to my book.  It's Me before you and is a novel about a quadrepalegic (or however that's spelled).  I'm enjoying it.  I'm almost to the end so will have to come up with another book to listen to.

This posting sounds about as boring as my life is.

Nice walk to the lake yesterday after our bog walk.  The ice is actually going out and there's open water along the shore.  It was a fairly dreary day, with snow in the morning.  Sunnier today but still not very warm.

Bog

No sign of life in the bog but it sure is pretty.

Successful trip

I had a very nice trip to Rhode Island, leaving on a Saturday and returning on Tuesday seemed to mean that there wouldn't be as much traffic.  I thought I might have some Boston marathon traffic, but I only saw one group of runners at the rest area, proudly wearing their marathon medals. 

We sat on the deck on Saturday when I got there, warm sunshine with no real breeze.  That was the only time it was really comfortable doing that, there was a cool breeze the rest of the time.  Mark & I took the dogs to the beach Easter morning, in Galilee, and there was no one else on the whole beach.  That was great but Tess felt cheated because she couldn't make any new friends.

We had our ceremonial breakfast on Sunday, of lox & bagels courtesy of Mark.  Yum.  He cooked the lamb roast I took down there with great success.  It was tender and flavorful.  On Monday I took Liza to town to do some birthday shopping for Mark, then we got lobsters, clams & mussels for dinner.  When Mark got home from work we went pansy shopping.  There wasn't as great a selection as in years past but I think they sold a lot of them on Sunday.  I got some for me and some for Pat.  very satisfying.

I came home on Tuesday, leaving early and getting home around 2.  It was an easy trip.  I'm listening to Me before you, by JoJo Moyes.  Who knew it was about a quadrapalegic?  It's good and passes the time traveling.

My house was in good order when I got home, no issues with anything.  The water is fine, the sump pump has been pumping away, the driveway is dry enough to drive on and there are daffodils in bud.  Not much in the way of crocuses, though, which is a disappointment.  Not sure if someone ate them or they just gave up.  I have mole hills all over my lawn.  ALL OVER my lawn.

We've lost our snow so now it's gray and brown and looks like November.  There are small buds on the soft maples but we didn't seem to have any pussy willows this year.  The ice is not close to going out.  There is a little open water by the Beach House but none really along the shore elsewhere.  Tess has usually had her first swim of the season by now, but not this year.

No big plans for the weekend, other than a rainy dump run.  I'll work on my house and try to figure out if book group is Sunday.  I think it is.  We read The dressmaker, which is a lot about the sinking of the Titanic.  Nicely written.

Last night I spent some time at the mall passing out free books for World Book Night.  People are funny when you try to give them something for free.  Suspicious, some are, grateful, others are, ignoring you still others do.  We did well, though, and gave out a lot of books.

Now it's back to life in the North Country.  I'm off to Canandaigua in 2 weeks for training.  I'll stay with the Nadals, which will be exceptionally nice.  They've even offered to house the other 2 librarians who are going with me.  Yikes: 3 librarians in one house.

 We had great luck dying eggs this year--we finally figured out the secret.  Shhhh...it's a secret

We have too many wind-up Easter toys--this is only a sample

Tess had a good time at the beach, she only had to share it with Treasure

 Easter table, with Mark's arrangement and our baskets

 What Liza's yard looks like right now.  It gets green, very green later

 She needs no introduction

 Treasure found the whole thing sort of boring

 Mark's pond, with Liza inspecting the grounds

 Liza's bloodroot, very pretty

My favorite perch.

Crocuses and daffodils

I have a patch of crocuses coming up, near a patch of early daffodils.  It's hard to believe that so much time has passed--probably because I haven't been anywhere but here since Christmas.  Yikes that's a long time.  I'm going to Rhode Island for Easter, leaving Sat. and returning Tuesday.  After that I'll be eager for spring to advance.  They have green grass there, though the forsythia is not blooming yet.  Last year at Easter I took a picture of riotously yellow forsythia in bloom at the park.  I guess everyone's a bit behind this year.

Things are going along.  Dogs are well but they disappeared for 3 hours on Saturday, which really distressed me.  Especially since they were seen at P&J's, on the other side of the hardtop.  I guess my pattern is, once a week I let them both out at once and they take off.  So that pattern will be changed post haste.  Since then they've been great.

I went to the Mirror Lake Inn with the Holts for dinner Sat. night.  It was great fun, as always.  We were celebrating Annie's retirement and birthday and feeling quite festive.  The food was good and it was a nice evening.  On Sunday I went to their house for pie after dinner and we sat in Rush's observatory to watch the nearly-full moon come up.  There's a nice winter view of the lake from there, but too many trees with too many leaves to afford a good summer view.

It's amazing to think that people will start coming to Hawkeye in a month (or less).  Each spring Ken & I would marvel at the fact that we lived through another winter, and that's a habit I've kept up. 

I had to have the satellite dish repairmen come to adjust my dish on Tuesday.  I park my car at the end of the driveway to keep people OUT of the mud, but these two smarties drove around my car and got their van stuck up to the muffler in mud.  Honestly, sometimes I wonder what people use for brains.  They fixed the dish easily but finding a tow truck was far more complicated and time-consuming.  They got out, though and now I have 2 huge ruts in the driveway.  At least they weren't done by me this year.  I'm not sure when I'll be able to drive to the house--not for a long time, at this rate.

I'm looking forward to my Easter visit with my mother and Mark, hoping for good weather.  We always go pansy shopping at Easter, which is very cheery.  What color should I get this year?

Back to winter

Not really WINTER, but we had snow last night, about an inch, and it was 17 this morning.  Too cold, after we're starting to get used to those above-freezing temps.
Nice warm spring sunshine today but it's still cold.

This is what OHR looked like Sunday, which was a sunny spring day.

This is what the dogs did on Sunday--lots of sniffing the ground.

This is what I look like today.  New haircut.  Big nose.

 

End of the week

And I get paid!  Amazing how cheerful everyone is on a payday Friday.  The sun helps, and it's warm enough to be outside not bundled up or even wearing a jacket.  YAY.  I think it's supposed to be even warmer tomorrow, with more sun.  Go sun!  Melt that snow!  The snow is probably still 2 feet deep around my house, but that's a big improvement.  The top is so crusty that the dogs are able to walk on it.  Oh how Tess likes being a Tall Dog.  She's frustrated in her efforts to roll in it, though, it's not fluffy enough.  She flops down and rolls around to no avail.

It was a good week.  At least I think it was, I don't remember much that wasn't good about it.  Well, wait, I had some dark moments this week, thinking about my brother.  I wrote to his college friends, sending them some things and an explanation.  They were very very sad when he died (Lory said "I don't believe what you're telling me," which I thought was nice).  Anyway, Lory sent me an email when he received the stuff, and it was touching.  So touching that I cried and cried.  Henry really liked these friends and would see them periodically.  They live on Lake Ontario, a few hours from here.  So I had a couple of dark days.  But now it's all back where it's supposed to be and I'm feeling good.  Looking forward to the weekend.

There's an auction tomorrow that I've been thinking of going to.  It's more than an hour from home, though, and doesn't start until after noon and I have to be back by 5:30, so it all just seems too complicated.  It's the remnants of the life of a friend of a friend, and Linda desperately wants something from the auction.  I was really hot to go last week, but now it just seems foolish because I DON'T NEED ANY MORE THINGS.  I'm supposed to be divesting, not adding.  So I probably won't go.

I'm having dinner with the Holts Sat. night at the Mirror Lake Inn (again).  We do enjoy going there, and we laugh a lot.  This time we're celebrating Annie's retirement and her birthday.  It'll be a good time.

I have to stain the 2 Easter baskets I made last weekend.  That's an easy thing to do but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to do it any evening after work this week.  What's up with that?  Doesn't take long, sure isn't hard.  Oh well, I'll get it done tomorrow, they'll dry, then I can deliver them.

My co-worker (Fred hates it when I call her "my clerk") is on vacation for the next week so I'll be doing lots of typing, checking out books, checking in books, pulling things off the shelves.  It will keep me busy.  Do I mind?  Not really but by the end of her vacations I'm sure ready to get back to MY work.

The dogs are doing well.  They go out one at a time and seem to accept that.  They like to go out.  And come in.  And go out.  And come in.  They'll sit on the deck staring into space and smelling spring.  With an occasional bark.

People keep asking me "Do you have bare ground at your house?"  Well, yes, there's some.  Where the plow moved the snow around.  That's it, though.  Since I haven't been anywhere else, this is all I know so I'm not frustrated, the way I usually am by this time.  I'll be in Rhode Island next weekend for Easter, where there are spring bulbs coming up and there's nothing but bare ground.  Let's see how I feel when I get back from there.

Mud--I've got mud.  As much as I will later complain about mud and mud season, right now it's delightful.

I 

I have plenty of wood left--there's all of this plus 2 cords stacked outside of the wood shed.  Thank you, New Stove.

Seems to be spring

We had good weather for the weekend, though Saturday was a bit cool and cloudy.  Yesterday was a banner day.  My only complaint is that the sun was too bright on the snow.  Blinding.  Ah, but it was definitely a spring day.  We're not losing snow at a rapid pace, but there's a definite trend going on.

I finished the 2 baskets I needed to weave, and they turned out well.  One is a bit better than the other, but I had a good time making them.  I started thinking about getting back into the business, gently and gradually.  I really did enjoy the process of weaving, and I think I might be able to sell my baskets (wholesale) to a gallery owned by friends.  Who knows, this may just be a passing fancy.  Right now I'm interested, but all it will take is one failure and I'll be off this kick.

I emailed my friends in the Midwest to tell them that I won't be joining the reunion this summer.  I couldn't decide whether I would go or not, but finally decided it would be better for me to stay here that weekend.  It's our annual meeting weekend, and I like to be here to offer a voice of reason to the collected group of cousins.  And my sister will be here in America, maybe here in the Adirondacks.  Anyway, it feels good to have made a decision. 

I wrote to my brother's friends and will walk the letter to the post office at lunch.  It's a nice day for a walk, and I feel good about communicating with these people.  The last time I saw them was in the seventies, at my brother's first wedding, but Henry had been in touch with them and visited them several times in his last years.

The dogs disappeared Saturday morning, which was upsetting.  I couldn't figure out where they were, gone for a few hours.  Very distressing, and now they're grounded.  No more joint ventures for them.  It was a tough day.  Yesterday was way better.  Today is fine.  Let's keep it up.

Smells like spring

We had 7" of heavy snow last weekend, but this morning I noticed it SMELLS LIKE SPRING in Hawkeye.  It's been a warm week, with some snow melt and...bare ground showing in some places.  Not around my house, except where it's been plowed and plowed and scraped.  There's some mud showing, which portends an intense mud season.  I'm parking at the end of the driveway already because the town plowed a chunk of snow across the bottom of the driveway so I can't get to the house anyway.  It was 18 this morning, more like a winter stroll than a spring walk, but it smelled wonderful.  Melting earth.

It's been pretty quiet at work.  The director is out ill for 2 weeks and everyone has their noses buried in their work.  Or playing games online.  Or emailing.  Or something.  Me, I've been weeding the fiction like a mad fool.  I think I may even finish this project soon.  Wow.  Then I have to finish weeding the non-fiction, which isn't nearly as much fun.  I have a row of biographies to get through.  Those, actually, might be vaguely interesting.

The dogs are fine and have been behaving well.  They're still on limited outdoor access, only allowed out one at a time, and that seems to work out OK.  They're used to the routine now and don't try (much) to sneak out together.

I shut the heat off in the living room last weekend, though I turned it back on during the week.  I've had good fires doing at night but am not keeping them stoked during the day.  Lots of warm sunshine keeps the house toasty.

We had book group on Sunday, but only Marylou and Lin came.  That was fine and we had a good time, with delicious pizza made by Lin.  I made a disgusting egg/chees thing in case the gluten-free member showed up, but she didn't.  So now I'm stuck with a big hunk of it leftover, which I'll divide between the dogs and the garbage tomorrow when I get ready for the dump.  My gluten-free carrot cake was not very good but I managed to get rid of most of it through Marylou.  Thank you, M'lou.

I think it's supposed to rain tomorrow and be nicer on Sunday, maybe even a sunny day at 45 degrees.  Yowie that would be grand.  I'll go to the dump tomorrow then will weave Easter baskets.  I finally have all the supplies I need and can get these 2 baskets done.  I'm looking forward to weaving, which is a great thing.  The only thing I don't look forward to is the mess it creates on the floor and the way it takes up all the space in the living room when I spread supplies out.  When we built the house we saved one room to be my studio, which would have been grand but that's now my downstairs bedroom.  It would be a good studio, but I admit I like to watch TV while I weave, and that wouldn't have worked out.  Maybe I should change my weaving habits and weave upstairs while I ... what?  listen to music?  listen to a book?  Well there are worse things.  I may try that this weekend.

I'm listening to a really good book by Nancy Horan, about Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife Fanny.  It's based on their real lives, is well narrated and very interesting.  It piqued my interest about Samoa, where they spent some time.  I have a huge complaint about the book, though, and that is that she refers to SARANAC while they're in Saranac Lake taking the cure.  Boy that's a big mistake. 

Not much going on.  Will shop today during lunch--I have to get goldfish food because I took the fish from work home last night, after dumping her on the floor when I dropped the container I was transporting her in.  She seems to have survived and is quite perky at home.  I bought a second fish to try perking her up (she was totally sulking all day long) but the new fish was picking on her so I separated them.  Now the new fish is swimming merrily around and gives me something to watch as I ponder life's great puzzles.  Or maybe just think about cataloging.

It's the 10th anniversary of my brother's death this weekend.  I dream of him often, and he's always happy, and it's a good dream.  I miss him terribly and think of him often.  I wrote to his friends, embarrassed that my only contact with them has been a phone call telling them of his death.  These are friends of his from college, and I think of them from time to time and feel guilty.  So now I'm taking care of that with a letter explaining more about Henry's death, and I'll include a couple of nice pictures of Hank.  I have a wonderful photo here at work of him waving an American flag, I think it's from the Bicentennial.  He looks as cute as can be.  It never seems fair that he died.