Happy Easter

Magnolia

As you can see, spring continues in full swing just out my front door. Last year at Easter, the blossoms on our magnolia trees were locked up very tightly, weeks away from blooming. This year, they have shown up in full glory and are inspiring me to dig out a large and bedecked Easter hat from my collection to wear next Sunday to church....

I'm just not sure my love of large hats is one shared by the collective fashion consciousness of Nanaimo. I may have to settle on just enjoying the magnolias.

Neighbourhood walk

On Friday, I walked downtown to meet a friend for lunch. The walk from our house is about 30 minutes and can feel quite miserable when it's grey and raining. On day like this, it's not a chore at all.

Difference of a week

Last weekend, this was the view out my kitchen patio door just after 10AM. Understandably, falling snow did absolutely nothing to build my motivation to start spring clean-up in the garden (not that it even takes this much for me to procrastinate such work).

Thankfully, the view outside was much more welcoming this weekend.




The plum tree at our front door seem to be much happier as well.

Joy Ride

Jeff's first love lives in our garage. "She" has had a good life and been in the family for several decades longer than I have. Not everyone was gifted their first set of wheels from their Grandpa and inevitably, she has a pretty soft spot in Jeff's heart. When we were dating, he asked me on the phone one night if I would like to contribute to an auto restoration project. I think for Jeff, that question was a prelude to a proposal and I fully expected him to want to use it as our wedding car.


Jeff's 1972 Malibu was not our wedding car because after a decade in the garage, she needs a little bit of work. Last weekend, Jeff insured her for a day to get her out for a full tune-up. When he got home late afternoon, he cheekily sauntered up to me and asked, "Baby- wanna go for a ride in my muscle car?!" After we both busted out laughing, I could hardly refuse.

Thankfully, the snowy-sleety rain of last weekend let up for an hour so off we went. I'm not sure if it was the contagious love Jeff has for this machine, the lure of a country drive or just the thrill of (after two and a half years of marriage) my husband asking me out on a date , but it was GREAT.

Jumped the gun

I spoke too soon. It was lightly blowing snow this morning and is already freezing tonight. My sandals were taken out of "regular" rotation and placed back on the bottom shelf of my shoe closet... despite all of my hope and very good intentions. I actually sat here tonight wondering if I should go pick all of those daffodils, putting them out of this misery and bringing them inside for warmth.

Sandal Season

There's no question- with the arrival of daffodils and hyacinths, spring has sprung. While I'm not entirely ready to send my socks into exile, my sandals made their first functional appearance this week and my toes have become very happy toes. It never fails to surprise me how good bare feet and bright sunshine can be for the soul.

Where are you from?

I have been lucky to do more than my share of traveling. For a long time, there was no better adrenaline than the surge I felt, headed off for a trip. I used to dread coming home to the monotony of "real" life and do my best to hold onto the excitement of traveling for as long as possible. I'm not sure how or when this shifted but I was as excited to come back home this afternoon as I was when I set off last week. Maybe that's an inevitable part of growing older?

My mom thanked me for coming "home" to visit this weekend and while Saskatchewan is a place I've spent lots of time, am very comfortable and certainly hold dear in my heart, I have never actually lived there! I know my Mom was speaking figuratively and there is something very special and unique about sitting in her kitchen (no matter where it moves!) but taking off from Vancouver at dusk, looking out over mountains and ocean- that feels much more like "home" to me now.

People ask me where I'm from and I'm not quite sure what to say anymore. Maybe that's an inevitable reality of living in multiple places- "home" becomes more about a stage in life, a period of time and the experience of shared relationships more than an actual physical location. Jeff routinely says, "Home is where the refrigerator is!" and I think he's probably on to something.

Milestone

For almost 20 years, I have lived at least 4000 kilometers (and 3 time zones) away from my immediate family. While that choice allowed me the great adventure of establishing my own path in life, it made for lots of missed birthdays, Thanksgivings, Mother's Days and special family events. That part of living away was inevitable, but never fun.

My dad has a major birthday this Friday (March 5). A super-duper Air Canada seat sale helped me hatch a plan to show up on my parent's doorstep, completely unannounced, and start early celebration of this milestone in person. For the past 6 weeks, I have been plotting with my aunt to gently manipulate my mom into hosting an early birthday dinner. You can only imagine my complete horror when my mom unwittingly foiled our schemes last week, postponing this scheduled birthday party by two weeks to accept a house full of bed and breakfast guests. With two days to go before my surprise arrival, there was not only no party, but no room at the inn!








In the end, I need not have worried. With my aunt and cousin as willing accomplices, I was able to pull off the surprise and completely shock both of my parents. My usually verbose and extroverted dad was left completely speechless- not a reaction I've seen from him ever before! I think the "deer in headlights" expression says it all.



It was a great weekend. In addition to some cake and candle-blowing, we had great fun visiting with family, watching the hockey game, checking out further progress on their basement finishing project, laughing, talking, eating and just hanging out.



It was so good to celebrate - and get some much welcome Vitamin D! It has been more than 10 years since I was in Saskatchewan in the winter and I had forgotten how truly beautiful and bright it is. The view out my mom's kitchen window is as beautiful at dusk as it is during the day and it was SO wonderful for this West Coaster to bask in some sunshine.