Absolutely no idea...

I was out walking Brio (wrapped in layers so only my eyeballs were showing), trudging through snow that clung to my boots like hoar frost, it was so cold. And I looked over, and the little boy next door was standing down by the creek behind the townhouses, wearing only a pair of sweatpants and no shirt. His torso was pink with cold, but he didn't seem to notice. He had a rock with a rope tied around it, and he was throwing the rock into the creek with a splash and then hauling it back up by the rope. Pretending he was ice fishing? Actually trying to club a fish? I have no idea. I hurried inside to get warm and left him to it.

Some excitement

 Sunday afternoon I walked Brio over to the conservation area, and there were about fifteen kids playing hockey on the lake. There are now four rinks cleared. Felt like something out of the 1950s, watching them play, while Moms and Dads sat in folding chairs on the edge of the rink to watch. Lovely. I don't typically like winter, but it's exhilarating and energizing here.

Tonight I got an email from Paul and Mary letting me know they had put some interesting historical stuff on a memory stick for me and left it in their mailbox for me to pick up. So I bundled up and walked briskly to get it, but the sun was setting, and by the time I got there, it was pretty dark. Felt a bit eerie on the dark road with only a few scattered glowing windows of farm houses to light my way. There aren't many street lights around here. As I was hurrying back, I saw in the distance several dark figures slink across the road, cross a snowy field, and disappear down toward the creek. They were big, bigger than dogs, and moving in a pack, and my first thought was wolves or coyotes. My second thought was "I'm stupid to be out here in the dark on my own. This isn't the city." My third thought was "I'm glad I didn't bring Brio. He'd try to chase them." And my fourth thought was, "How fast can I run to that house over there and will they let me in?"

But I kept striding along, trying to look bigger and more confident than I was, and when I reached the point where I'd seen the animals cross the road, I saw in the light of a lone street lamp...hoof prints. It had been a small herd of deer. Whew! Hurried on home, feeling silly. But it's true I shouldn't go out after dark by myself. There isn't much traffic, but there also isn't a sidewalk to walk on, and there are also farm dogs running loose here and there. Lesson learned.

Ox in the Mire

I got halfway through crocheting a sock and realized I didn't have enough yarn with me to make a second one. Had to go to Plan B. Before my hubby headed back to the city, I dashed to see if the dollar store in town was open -- and it was! And they had socks that will do.

As members of the LDS church, we're taught not to do work on the Sabbath, and I try not to shop on Sunday. However, we are also taught that if your ox gets bogged down in a mire on a Sunday, it is okay to dig and pull it out. In this case, the only alternative to going through two weeks of winter without socks was buying socks on the Sabbath. And doing that is probably more aligned with the principle than spending my Sunday frantically working myself into a tizzy trying to crochet socks out of dental floss and duct tape. 

Absentminded

 Or in too much of a hurry.  I realized this morning that I forgot to pack socks. I have only the one pair I came in. I will have to wash them out each evening and hope they dry by morning (shouldn't be a problem -- the humidity is only about 20% up here right now). That, or I need to start knitting really fast! 😀

Winter is here!

A blizzard the other day left about four inches of snow, but since then it has been too cold for further snow (about -25 in places). Today I bundled up with every bit of fabric I had and walked down to the lake (I'm back at the church for a couple of weeks). I could see someone has been cross-country skiing on the lake, ploughing neat furrows in the snow. Further down, a man in a red coat was shoveling the snow aside to expose the ice, piling it neatly at the edges to frame a large hockey rink. While he worked, his floppy dog raced and leaped around him and sometimes took off running joyfully across the lake, reveling in his own awesome personal playground. Brio watched this with great interest. 

It was beautiful, the sunlight a glorious colour filtering through the trees, casting fascinating shadows across the undisturbed snow. But half an hour was enough for Brio, so I dropped him back at the church to get warm and I continued to walk for a while longer. Reluctant to leave that wonderful sunshine.

I am hiding out here at the church to get away from the Covid numbers and risk for a while. I've got my stack of books and a pack of pudding cups and I'm snug as a bug. I intend to work on my novel while I'm here, though today I've been distracted crocheting little pink hearts for Valentine's Day. Not sure what I'm going to do with them, but I liked this new pattern. Maybe I'll "yarn bomb" the maple tree outside.

Windows again

We got a quote from that company that has lots of experience doing church windows. Just for the plain glass windows on the outside -- not for restoring the stained glass -- they want about $3000 a window. (!!!) Back to the drawing board.

Change of Plans

I had planned to stay at the church for a couple more weeks, but there's a stay-at-home order in Ontario, and there's no knowing how long it will go on, so Hubby wouldn't have been able to come bring me groceries if it went on for long. And with the predicted polar vortex bringing temperatures of -40 next week, I don't need to hang around to watch for flooding issues in the basement, because it will be too cold to rain or snow. And the critter-catcher was able to get rid of the squirrel without setting traps (which would have had to be checked over a series of days) and blocked the vents in the roof so it can't get back in. And Hubby hurt his back and I thought he may need help at home. So anyway, I packed up and came home earlier than expected. I'm hoping to go back up again in a couple of weeks, but we'll have to see how the stay-at-home order pans out.

Frankly, with the craziness happening to the south right now, it's probably best to hunker down with family at home anyway. I suspect I'm going to need some comfort as things unwind on January 20th. Sending loving thoughts out into the universe...