Ok, it’s safe to come back to KnitNut.net: There will be no more death posts for awhile. I might not be where you come for your daily dose of sunshine, but I won’t be your source of death and despair either. At least for now.
So. Did everybody go outside on the weekend? Mock Summer was glorious, especially following on the heels of that snowstorm. I went up to the Gatineaus for a hike on Sunday. I saw some practically naked people on the ski hill. Good thing the blackflies aren’t out yet.
I saw lots of birch trees on the hiking trail. Birches are my favourite tree. When I was a kid, weeping willows were my favourite tree.
I heard more wildlife than I saw (mostly birds, including a pileated woodpecker). But we were sitting on a rock by the marshy Lac Brown, which is about 3km from the Wakefield Mill, listening to the birds and frogs, and I saw this snake.
After that we hiked back to the Wakefield Mill and went to the Earl House for that Great Canadian Tradition: the first patio beer of the year. (A tip: if you want to make that first patio beer of the year taste even better, go hiking first and don’t take any water with you.) And then we came back to my place for that other Great Canadian Tradition: the first barbecued burger of the year, with bacon and cheese and hot peppers and onions. Yum. (It was so good I had two.)
Sounds fun. Yeah we were outside too, but not hiking. It was great, but wasn’t the wind tough this (Mon.) afternoon!
We spent the day working around the yard…trimming dead branches off trees, picking up dog shit (Rob did), getting the boat ready for fishing, setting up our new patio set, having the first (and second) beer of the season on the deck under our new patio umbrella. Great sense of accomplishment at the end of the weekend.
Weeping Willows were also my favourite tree when I was a child. There was one in a verdant hollow I could spy from the balcony of my father’s apartment. It protected a small English-style cottage and I fantasized that some day I could live there forever and ever under that willow tree.
The wind was crazy Gillian! I got caught walking through a sandstorm on Coventry Road, and that wasn’t as much fun as it sounds.
Deb, you’re so smart – I should have had two beers!
Patti – welcome to my blog. Did you just admire the weeping willow from the balcony or did you ever get to go down and sit under it? I think what I liked about them was that room-of-one’s-own feeling that I got whenever I was ‘inside’ a weeping willow.