Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Keeping sanity in the family...

Until the last of the snowbanks have melted, I've sworn to endure this pre-spring spring by living vicariously through my friends who actually have travelled!





I've tried to keep a nice wide variety of friends who come and go to exotic lands in swing shifts, so to speak. Therefore, I'm always being entertained by someone just returning from someplace I wished I had been. Stay with me on this!





One particular set of friends, Lisa and Mary, went to Mexico, returned to a late season snow storm, then fell into a deep depression. I was the smart one. I stayed home, let them pay for those fantastic pictures, and I was elated to hear of the wonders. See my mind game here?





I have my mind getting a reprieve from the long winter by being told about these wonderful vacations. I, almost a third person here, become elated by the stories as if I, were there. This is almost always a plus! To them, it's a horrible realization that they didn't stay away long enough.





Some would argue that they, the "returned", at least have their tanned bodies to show for the time away and that my body, which has the colour tone of a miner who's never seen the surface, is almost translucent in tone. My rebuttal to that statement is that yes, while they are tanned, it is I who looks normal when I get that cold and look horrible, a tanned person with a cold just looks out of place. Don't you agree?





If you don't agree, keep it to yourself, I'm trying to construct my own sustainable reality here and so far it's working.

Monday, April 20, 2009

spring runoff

Well, we may not be like those poor victims of the Manitoba floods, but we do get some rise in our water levels.



It is fair to say that we do have rising waters... but only for a couple of weeks and then we're back to normal. The water running through our property, which is normally a nice crisp (ice cold) clear running stream, has become an island mud colour! This too will resume it's normal state and become a clear look in about a week. It is not a time of the year that I'd suggest for hiking, unless you know the area you're going into, and you own hip waders!

On the plus side, fishing season has started and even I have the urge to head out to the river banks for a day's fishing. Then, when I look at the guys sitting on the bank next to the melting snowbanks... I rethink my devotion to the fishing experience!

Don't get me wrong, I've done the 4 am trek through the muddy fields with my buddies so we could be down at the best spots along the river, on the first day of fishing season.

The memories come back to me now. The last time was a frosty morning after a heavy downpour the day before. It made for a mud consistency that would halt a bigfoot truck! I don't think it would have been too bad had I not been loaded down the backpack with beer!

I was doing well slopping my way through the rain soaked plowed fields, until I had to maneuver my body over the barbed wire fence. You can see where this is going, can't you?

As I put my weight on one foot, I soon recalled my basic junior high school physics lessons, in that lifting one foot only increases the weight per square inch on the only remaining foot. Into the mud I descended and thus lowered my crotch on to the barbed wire. There I was, caught up on barbed wire in the pre-dawn hours in the middle of a farmer's field playing a tug of war with the fence. Lucky for me I have the strength of 3 fishermen at that time of the day and I just went for the whole nine yards and lept over the fence while doing what equated to some sort of exquisite dance move.... all the while using my crotch as the center of balance because it was the pivot point at that moment!

As I gracefully landed both feet on the far side of the fence, I realized that in tipping forward, my beer landed out in the mud. This was only a preview of the rest of my day. Let's just say, picture it raining, the woods being too wet to start a fire for warmth, and too stubborn to leave. Lucky for us we salvaged the beer!

Due to there still being a lot of ice on the river, we didn't really get any fish... but we gave it a great shot! I was never so glad to get home to a hot shower, as I was that day. After that.. I didn't go for opening season. I gladly wait until the temperature has warmed up the river banks so that I can sit there enjoying ... the bugs!

Friday, April 3, 2009

post winter pre spring on PEI

Okay, I've put this off for as long as I could. It is at this time of the year that you find a great number of Islanders heading to other Islands for a few weeks!

It goes without saying, although we like to think of OUR Island as THE Island. You could easily convince anyone to swap for a few weeks...just until the mud lanes dry up. LOL

It is the only time of the year when you can have your car covered in Island red mud while driving through a snow storm and leave muddy footprints in the snow!

I'm crossing my finger but there could still be another snow storm before the end of April! I'm a true optimist though, I've got my seeds ready and my eye on the greenhouse every day when I come home. You'll find a large number of Islanders enjoy home gardens. The soil is great but the growning season is short. It gives us something to work for I guess.

There is an annual Garden Show in the small community of Crapaud (if you pronounce it with a french accent, it sounds sooo much better) this weekend. I think I'll dig myself out of the snowbank and visit just to remind me that summer is only a few weeks away.