Halifax, shopping, Chrissy, Paul, a loon, and an owl

Recapping the week…

Last weekend I went to Halifax for a few hours of shopping and a haircut. I also treated myself to a brow wax. I may be a hermit to rarely leaves the house, but sometimes it feels nice to shed a layer, so to speak, and morph back into a lady 😉 Of course waxing makes my skin red for a day or two. Evidence:

Then I went to my friend Chrissy’s for the night. She battled a bbq flame with a mind of its own, and made us a fabulous dinner of bbq’d chicken and steak with a really nice spinach and berry salad. Here is the new kind of beer I tried out on her deck in the sun. It was a grapefruit beer – half fruit juice, half beer, low alcohol. I liked it!

I came home in time on Sunday for Jeff’s smoked wings he cooked in his smoker. He made two kinds, a herby one, and a really spicy one. Both were equally as good!

The spring thaw

The snow slowly continues to melt away. It rained quite a bit this week, but it didn’t take all the snow. The melt seems fairly slow which is keeping all the flooding in check. Just the usual lowlands areas are under water. Our front deck is clear of snow now, and the back deck will be in another day or two.

A Visitor!

On Wednesday afternoon, I was working in my office when I heard a vehicle pull up the driveway. This doesn’t happen often. Mail lady? Power meter reader? Delivery? No! It was Uncle Paul! He had been down in Boston to cheer a friend on in the Boston Marathon and then drove up here afterwards just to see us! What a surprise!

Of course the house wasn’t clean, but oh well! We drank duty free Mooseheads, ate pork chops that Jeff bbq’d, and as a real bonus, Uncle Paul fixed our front door! Now it closes and we don’t have to keep the two-by-four wedged between the door and the staircase to hold it shut 😃 👍

It was nice to have Uncle Paul visit and reminisce about my childhood. I had the best childhood anyone could ever have. I was raised on a dairy farm, oldest of three kids, and 3 of my dad’s brothers worked on the same farm. Uncle Paul even lived with us in our house for awhile. I was a lucky little kid to have my uncles around to teach us things, and always be advocating for us in the background. Uncle Paul let me drive first when I got my beginner’s permit, he bought me my first tall boy beer cans when I turned 19, and even came to the Sault to help me insulate the crawl space of my first house. If only every little kid was so lucky to have so many incredible uncles and aunts around to help raise them right.

Paul just spent the night before he had to head for home. It feels pretty special when someone comes a couple days drive out of their way just for a quick visit!

Wildlife updates

Last night Jeff saw an OWL! It landed on the front lawn as he was heading up to bed. It sat on the snow on the lawn for a couple minutes and then flew up into the tree for awhile. REALLY cool to see an owl, that doesn’t happen too often!

Tonight on our walk we spotted the first loon to make its way back to our area. The lake we live on is still frozen, but the next one down that we walk around has about 30% of it open now. The loon was just floating out in the water, watching the world go by.

See the loon? It is the speck near the middle of the photo, out on the water, near the edge of the ice.