When You Get What You Wish For....

Got some snow this weekend.
Ahhhhh.    Nothing like that warm satisfying ache in your arms when you come in the house from shoveling.  And.....then taking the dogs out for a romp! 

Sweet. Easy. Fun:

• Our friend Max is visiting for a few weeks.   
• Made a jigsaw puzzle for the first time this decade.   
• Filled up the CD player with NeedToBreathe..all 4 CD's and Sunparlour Players.
• Cleared lots of snow.
• Went to a great seminar.
• Off to work today after a great break.

Good, simple times.   

Cloudy With a Chance of Mmmmuffins!!

 Late this afternoon the chronically gray sky finally cleared and showed a few patches of blue.   Dear British Columbia  you can have your winter back!!!  

_IMBY

Simple.  Little birdie feet.

Shapes of Nature

 We went for a hike on Sunday.  Through hill, and dale, water and bush.   So much to take in and see.   Amazing simple things to see.

It's about to get really busy again over the next few months.   I hope life can stay simple.  
We also have fun things in the busyness.  Hard to think of all the work that has to be done before the fun gets off the ground.   

Yes I Love It

I just came in from outside.  It is 5 degrees in the sun on the deck.  The sun is bright and the sky is clear and blue. You can shovel the snow in your spring jacket!!  How many things can you think of to stay outside to enjoy the sun?

• Count the finches...
• See the house that Joe built...
• Sniff for fun organic things under the feeders...
• Enjoy the sunshine in just a sweater...
• Listen to the twitter of the birds as they flit between feeders and branches...

So many fun things on the go.   Gotta "focus" on the fun things. Get it?

Wanderlust

 I should be doing some campaign work.   Does this happen to anyone else?   Work calls....but the sun is out, it's 11 degrees on the 11th of January.  I wonder how warm it will be on the 25th?    It would feel like spring if I wasn't trying so hard to remind myself that it's winter!   I have been hoping to get off the field and into the swamp once it freezes up a bit.     But I found this little elbow of the Sydenham at the back of the lagoons and  just followed some game trails through the brush.
 
 I wonder... as I wander....a beaver?   I could not find a dry way across the creek to get a little closer.   Too bad.   It was very sandy on the creek banks and a bit wetter and muckier in the low spots. 

 Game trails abounded and in some spots it was more like a game highway where it was deep and wide and forked off in multiple directions.  At one point we hear a couple of deer crashing through the bush about 150 feet away from us.  I saw their movement...white tails and ears....but not their whole bodies or exactly how many there were....   On the way home I spotted a dead one laying on the bank of the tracks, a dent in her side and a snapped leg.  A casualty. Instant. I hope.  Life is dangerous.

And now we are ready to do some pledge processing and then some spreadsheet reconciliation.
I think...

First Up

I haven't been writing lately and it feels like my head and my heart are stuffed.

So today...I want to start because the stories, thoughts and ideas should flow and not stagnate.   No more waiting for something deep to strike, unravel, or expound upon.

Instead of trying to reflect on the previous year, I'm looking forward to this one...and offering up simple glimpses of the simple things.  I'm trying to celebrate each new day by doing something that's decidedly not work.   Something creative.  Something relaxing.  Something outside. 
Celebrate and simplify.  Feed your soul.   Take some pictures.   

A couple of thoughts:

• We've had some snow, but not nearly enough.  My body needs sunshine, but it prefers to sit on the couch.  Shovelling gets me out.  On one walk we found a spot where 3 deer were bedded down when the snow fell.    And then a few days later....a deer carcass.  Someone must have field dressed it this fall.
• But I baked the first batch of blue berry muffins for 2012.  A friend of Craig's noticed a serious shortage of muffins in the house.  Really!   
• We've had mild weather.  7 degrees on January 7th!  The parsley in the garden is quite happy.   Apparently.   
• And who knew that January would hold so many spectacular sunsets.  Today I drove to work and saw the sun rise through the clouds. If not for the seasons, I would never see a sunrise.  God knows me so well!
• And Blix?!.....she and I have been out in the field almost every day.   It's sandy and dry as a bone.  Yesterday we saw a flock of white snow geese (maybe even tundra swans...too far away to tell for sure.) Then we sped to the lagoons to see if that's where they headed....instead I took a photo of the little lane between the ponds.
• We love the other side of the tracks.   We live on the wrong side :)
• Today I'm looking forward to our family reunion this summer.  We've been trying to settle on a venue and have finally narrowed it down to.......PEI!  I loved that one of my nieces, who lives abroad, is looking forward to gathering on the Island.  She gets homesick for the PLACE, just as one gets homesick for the people.   I thought I was the only one.  It happens.  

So today these thoughts are dancing a little jig in my mind.