Bitten, Smitten and Blessed

Okay, I've been bitten. Or maybe smitten is the more correct word.

My husband and I took the plane trip to Victoria for six days last week to see our new baby granddaughter, a trip we greatly anticipated. How could we know, however, that our lives would actually change the moment we held her? That something deep inside would rise, unbidden, to claim her as ours to cherish and protect from that moment on? I was first to get her on my shoulder, to feel her soft weight against my neck and to drink in her baby smell. Her dark wisps of hair felt like silken embroidery floss, so soft to my touch that I felt, for the first time, that my hands were large and rough. Chelsea cuddled into my neck, her eyes closed and her breath a rhythmic lullaby.

When her grandfather held her sleeping body he, too, fell asleep and I have a wonderful picture of her tiny body cradled against his shoulder with his right hand, while he propped his own head up with his left, a contented smile on both their faces. Yes, he is in love. Proudly he struck out down the street with her stroller on our first walk together and I caught that moment as well.

Her parents were very good about letting the two of us hold Chelsea whenever we wanted, a circumstance we loved to exercise whenever we could. The six days went way too quickly and last Tuesday we flew away, not to see our darling until sometime in June. We were sad throughout that day, through two flights, three hours waiting in Calgary airport, and on the car trip home from London. We would like to be able to visit Chelsea whenever we want but it is not to be. We have to content ourselves with photos and Messenger visits. Our need to get videoconferencing set up on both ends is paramount. With all our modern technology we still feel the wound of separation. I don't even want to imagine what the first settlers to this country felt, knowing they would never, I mean NEVER, see their families again. We are blessed.

Snow Outside but Building Inside

Last weekend we had a powerful snow storm which kept us housebound for Saturday and we didn't get shoveled out until 5 minutes before we were leaving for church on Sunday morning. Oh, how we love living in a condo where OTHERS do the shovelling! Here my teddy wreath is looking rather droopy. He's probably freezing.

While the storm raged outside we spent Saturday morning building a closet in our new basement bedroom. We are almost ready for drywalling--saints be praised!--and are very excited about our progress so far. (We are not all that handy.) Here is the door we hung a few nights ago and it's straight!

Here is the wall we built complete with anchoring screws into the cement floor.

Here is the wall that was already there before we started and the door out of the bedroom which we used to know how to hang the new one.

And here, yes, HERE, is the the studding for the closet measured for the lovely doors we've already purchased. Say a prayer that it all fits when we're done, please.

While we were hammering, cutting, screwing (no comments!), measuring and pondering, the weather outside was pretty frightful to be out in but lovely to watch. I opened the front door at night and took these two photos:

Yes, that's snow falling, not a dirty lens!

In the morning we were packed in, but snug and warm so didn't mind. Here is our deck with almost three feet of snow.

And this is out our front door. The street is plowed but our driveway and walk are still waiting.

Here is the snow in front of our garage and I apologize for the lack of artistic quality but it couldn't be helped if I wanted to get a picture of the snow bank there!

Today is Friday and I am really hoping there will be no new snow this weekend. Our winter has been decidedly white--good, usually, but I'm ready for more sun and temps above freezing.

Sun and Fog

This morning we opened our blinds to foggy daylight--hoarfrost, my husband said--and I thought of my camera snug in my purse as I drove him to work. We passed a wonderful old cemetary on the way and I noticed the games the sun was playing as it burned off the mist.

This is one time my automatic photo enhancing buttons on my software ruined the effect rather than improving it. I loved the pink glow lighting the icy frosting on the branches.

When I turned away from the east I got sharp and clear shots and the stark black of the trees cut through the soft snowy ice on the branches.

This is the first picture I took with the sun barely skimming the horizon.

And, yet again, I turned to the glorious trees standing strong and still watching over the graves below.

Everyone is having challenges trying to keep the snow plowed for access these days, such a snowy winter we've been having, and the cemetary is no exception. The banks are high and the parking area is substantially reduced with all the piles of white stuff. We are all having to be a little forgiving as the streets have snow piled out into the right lane making four-lane traffic almost impossible. I loved the tree below with its icy crust.

Back in our condo development I took this shot of the sun trying to get to me, so eerie.

And, finally, just to remember the sky a few days ago, here are the same trees just down the street from us. They are bare and frisky in the winter sun, waving at the passing clouds. Under that brilliant blue I felt the same way!

Sunday I had quite a time trying to get my pictures uploaded and after the third try gave up, so I have some more to display another day. See you then!

My Awesome Day

This week has been a milestone one for me although few people know why I am celebrating. Since last April I have been working on my most ambitious writing project ever--a novel. Yes, I have stepped out, up, all over the place to write a historical fiction piece centered around the Loyalists in the American Revolutionary War.

For those of you who don't know the term, Loyalists refers to those who remained loyal to the British in 1776 and beyond, eventually finding their way to Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario for the most part. My forebears were among that number; hence, my interest in just what happened or might have happened.

This has been a huge project for me, someone who likes to do short creations for the rush on finishing and the excitement of starting the next new thing. I started my journey by buying a very helpful book about the nuts and bolts of writing a novel and getting it published after our trip to Hilton Head last March, where I found in a wonderful Borders store the perfect how-to book. I needed to know about chapter length, spacing, organizing, types of books, and a million other detail-oriented topics, not to mention about finding a topic for my creative outpouring.

I am a lifelong lover of the creative word as many of my readers will know--remember my 1500-book library?--so that this is a natural progression for me now that I have the time to do it and have learned not to let life get in the way. I remember very clearly sitting on my porch reading a wonderful Children's Lit book by Jean Little and feeling tears welling with the absolute need I had to be able to write like her. And, of course, I did little about it, even having taken a writing course and having had excellent feedback from my professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo. I was a teacher, a mother of two wonderful kids and wife to my very own Prince Charming, all of which filled my life. I had no time to write.

Or maybe, more likely, I didn't bother to make the time to write. You know, we women are pretty good at filling our lives doing things for others, and I was no exception.

Over the past year, after my son said to me last March when we were discussing my dream, "Mom, you're sixty years old, you're healthy, you have the time. If you don't do it now, when will you?" all that changed. I have since learned to guard my morning writing time and have stuck to writing three pages a day, five days a week as much as humanly possible, although I did take a three-month hiatus through the nightmarish move time last fall, only starting again in January. Mornings are my best time to write and I absolutely love the energizing feeling of accomplishment I get when the day's pages are done. Conversely, when the muse forsakes me and I just cannot do it (a rare thing) I beat myself up for the rest of the day. I am a person who needs accomplishment for self worth.

This writing marathon has meant far less time for writing my beloved blog and I am sorry for that as marrying my very own pictures to words is some of my best fun.

For today, then, the announcement is that on March 5, Wednesday, I completed my first draft, a wonderful length of 100,623 words or 384 pages in its rough draft format and I am elated. Following the advice of my how-to book and, by now, my own intuition, I printed, saved and saved again, stored one copy offsite and am now going to let it sit for three months before I go at the revisions. This will allow me to get some perspective when I reread the thing and I'll know better what needs to be revised. In the meantime, I am working on short pieces which I will begin submitting to contests and publishers. The most exciting thing? I have no fear of the inevitable rejections I'll face; in fact, I welcome them as necessary steps along my path to publication.

Walking In My Neighbourhood

This winter has been unusual for all the snow which we've had and for how long it has stayed--since December! On one of my neighbourhood walks I found this johnny-on-the-spot which proves we're living in a new area. The 'convenience' is right beside a traffic circle and that's an empty lot behind it, probably to be built on this summer. This blue blot on the landscape brings a whole new meaning to 'freezing your butt off'!

Just down our street is a man-made lake, frozen in this picture and hard to see, but it is a lovely spot none-the-less.

Here is our end condo unit the highest elevation on the block allowing us to overlook the small park opposite our front window.

Below I've tried to get a sweeping view opposite the front gate to our condos but I really only managed a glorious winter blue sky and glistening white snow. If you look closely you can see a green flag or two at the gates, flags which have been sorely buffeted about in the wild winds we've had a few times this winter.

I finished my walk approaching our condo from another angle. This end unit is ours with its back deck and trees suffering through winter.

So what do these pictures have in common? Three things, actually. They are all of our condo, there are piles of snow in every one, and--perhaps best of all--the sky is that welcoming, heart-warming colour of blue that is so well offset by snow. I love it! And you won't hear me complaining too much about winter, only about mild, rainy or overcast days. Never about days like I've captured above. Talk about a breath of fresh air!

A Winter Interlude

The weekend before last my husband and I accompanied friends to their favorite bed and breakfast near Midland Ontario. What glorious weather we had with sun shining and sky beaming blue the whole time. Perfect for snow shoeing and taking pictures.

One lovely surprise was the flock of skittish wild turkeys stealing food from the feeders by the house. I have seen these before a couple of times, but never in such numbers or this close. Very cool.

Here the turkeys sensed me and started to run off.

I love trees in the winter as their wonderful structures are so evident as they parade naked for all to see.
Not being a birder I don't know what this is but he/she flitted back and forth from another feeder on the property. The colours are very striking.

Finally here is the house in which we stayed. They have a separate wing for the guests with three lovely bedrooms, a breakfast room and a fireplace sitting area, outside of which is a private hot tub in a cute arbor-type arrangement. Of course we had a soak on Saturday night although the west wind chased us indoors fairly quickly.

Donna was the name of the chatelaine of this lovely home and she well deserves the title. The food was superb, the accommodations very comfortable and the setting very restful. A great weekend getaway.