Bluesy Woozy

Storytellin' men, above.

It's Tuesday afternoon. I've been out talking to the cat in the cage, and to the curious cows and calves, and hoeing, and pulling weeds, and transplanting.

And when I come in for a rest, I often end up here at the desk.
And something made me go looking for something in my old blog, and I found this entry about emotions ... I had forgotten about it.
Forgotten what I learned that day.
Oh, perhaps only consciously forgotten.
But I do need reminding of things I know, quite often.

Well, here it is:
CLICK HERE.

No Lemonade for You!

It was a rainy Saturday afternoon in Watson and a little girl (I assume) wisely headed for someplace warm and dry.

Today my pal Al brought out her feral cat and we installed it in a large kennel in the barn, where it will stay for several days till it calms down and learns there is food and shelter here for it. I hope it sticks around and does all right. Jenna Doodle needs some help with the moles that have invaded. She’s brought three half-eaten ones to the house so far and Scott says she was lying in wait for one this evening while he was digging dandelions in the outer yard.

Maybe tomorrow the clouds will clear off and the soil will dry enough for me to wreak garden havoc with my trusty horseshoe hoe. Today I managed to go for a good walk in the morning, and got some weeds pulled by hand from the flowerbed this afternoon. Worked several hours on the News webpage too. And had pie and tea with Al and Scott, who came home during the day to get his income tax papers together. "Last day to file," he was informed. Guess that lit a fire under his bum. 

Virtual Supper

There are a lot of dead, bare trees around here, due to the flooding in recent years. 

My dad is in Kelowna and I am here, so ... I texted him a couple times, talked to him on the phone twice this afternoon. We are having a virtual supper date; I’m buying. He’s having pork chops with french fries; I’m ordering greek ribs, and a bottle of wine to share.

He will be driving out here via a meandering route, making stops to visit friends along the way, so we can expect to see him in a week or so.

As for Scott's dad, he is being visited in the longterm-care lodge in Kelvington, where he was moved to on Friday. He was diagnosed with dementia a year or two ago and Scott's mom has had the 24-hr-a-day job of caring for him, which includes regular meals and medication for insulin-dependent diabetes.

This takes the heavy responsibility off her shoulders, which is a relief, but it is also a sad day when your loved one goes to live in an institution. Even one so close as this one, where Scott's sister Tanya works and will see their dad practically every day. We hope that the routine at the lodge will do Ivan good and that he will enjoy the social aspect of always having lots of other people around to talk with.

Even Rainy Days are a Treat

Rainy and cold. What ya gonna do?
Me: have a warm bath and nothing much else. Dishes, I suppose.
And then, a stop at the farmers market and a shopping trip to Humboldt with me boyo, who needs workboots.

Meanwhile I'm looking at some tall grass in my perennial garden, dying to get out there and pull it up.
Any excuse to wear my new rubber boots.

Wanted: Mate for a Prairie Chicken

When I walk north.

When I walk south. I will concede that though the land is not actually flat, the roads are straight. 

9 p.m.

In my pyjamas and housecoat, going to do some reading and put the light out early.

Ordered Crow Lake, by Mary Lawson, in from the library and am just starting into it. Had borrowed the next one in the series, lent to me along with a nice stack of other books for leisure reading. A wealth of books have I for the next while.

Just finished I Hate to Leave ThisBeautiful Place. Love that title. 

That poor lonely widower grouse who lost his entire family this winter just outside our driveway is still pounding his chest out there, trying desperately to attract a mate. It’s getting late in the season for that, isn’t it? And I begin to despair on his behalf.

Evening Wander

9:02 p.m.
Supper is just in the oven now. Curried cauliflower and wieners. Mm! Mm!
Didn’t realize it’s so late. Scott’s mowing lawn; he arrived moments after I got into the house from my walk. Got home about 7, myself.

It was a beautiful walk. So, so beautiful. I say this out loud, looking across the fields, incredulous that I’m so fortunate as to be here and see it, be in it. I don’t know who to be grateful to, but I am.

Lean-to for a Laugh

The lean-to

This "lean-to" was the kitchen one summer spent camping up Chute Lake Road south of Kelowna, BC.

We could move the picnic table inside and sit quite comfortably out of the weather and the "flaps" could be closed if the day was wet, cold and/or windy.

Those two little children are now grown and have children of their own and, thanks to Facebook, I get to see photos and hear what they're up to now.

Oscar's finished seeding

My cousin Oscar

From Oscar's wife Barb's Facebook posting:

It's a tradition on our farm to have a beer when we complete one of the stages of the growing season. Today we finished seeding ... At 10:30 am! 

Beer and omelettes? Sure, why not! 

Perchance to dream

It's been a long day and tomorrow is also going to be one.
So goodnight, sweet princes and princesses.

Reta:

Saw Neil & Rose at the store in town today after work. They were on their way home from a long day in Saskatoon.

 The temperature dropped suddenly this afternoon. One person I spoke to in the vegetable aisle is taking some of her plants in tonight. I turned the furnace on when I got home.

Go ahead, call Saskatchewan "flat" all you want. I'll never believe you.

It was a lovely evening for a walk and I took advantage of it after wolfing down beer and pizza and whipping through the few dishes. There was copious hard rain while I was indoors at work, but it had cleared off. The plants and air are scented and lush. And the gentle, magical light before sunset! I live in an everyday paradise for which I am so grateful, there are no words. My perennials as well as the reeds in the ditches are shooting up about six inches a day. The oriental poppies have multiplied like crazy and have begun to form buds; they'll be glorious this year ... actually, any day now.

I'm not difficult to please.

Supper in Stenen

First thing you see when you turn in to Stenen, Sask.

     “Want to come with us to Stenen for supper tonight? It’s an hour’s drive from our place, but there’s a good restaurant there.” It was Rick calling.

During seeding time it’s not often we get a chance to spend time with Rick and Faye, but as the fields are too wet to work in we rearranged our "busy" schedules in order to take the opportunity. I took Emil back to Aylesbury House before supper instead of after, and Scott abandoned his plan to go do some drywalling. At four o’clock we hopped into the half-ton and headed to Faye and Rick’s farmhouse about 20 minutes from here. After a quick cocktail at their kitchen table, our designated driver got behind the wheel of their vehicle and we headed northeast.

I hadn’t been out that way for several years, and then it had been in the winter, so really enjoyed the ride through the lush green countryside. The land is more heavily treed than right here around Wadena, and there is a lot of swamp, but it’s pretty country.

Stenen looks to be about the same size as Margo.

   

Over the past decade or two, a lot of small communities in Saskatchewan have lost their schools because of the trend toward centralization. It’s killing us out here, but the school boards are saving a dollar and that’s what seems to matter to them more than the welfare of students or the preferablity of not having to travel an hour or two every day. 

In Stenen, after their little school closed and the students started bussing to neighbouring towns for their education, someone bought and renovated the building into Rawhides, which is quite the going concern! We were shocked and very pleasantly surprised to walk through the doors and find an old school so lovingly, so beautifully repurposed. Not at all what we were expecting. They've done a beautiful job on it. 

The view from our table in Rawhide's restaurant

Faye gave me a little tour while we waited for our food. 

They've created separate sections so there is a room for games, with a pool table; there's a room with a cosy fireplace; there's a room with these booths, where we sat; there's another small room for quiet gatherings; and there's even a room set off from the others for VLTs so that the rest of the diners don't have to listen to the machines. And yet all the rooms are open to the others; the place isn't remotely like a rabbit warren. It's gorgeous. There is a little store that offers Rawhides' merchandise like bunnyhugs, hats and T-shirts, and while they have a TV with sports on the screen, not every client is forced to listen to it, as is the case with some restaurants — you think you're going out for a pleasant relaxing meal, but your ears are bombarded by sports on TV — well thanks, but no thanks.  

And the food at Rawhides is fantastic. It's not cheap; you'll pay what we call "city prices." But it's well worth it. Cooked to perfection, presented beautifully and quickly; somebody around there is a real chef, and the owners have done their homework. 

We checked out the guest book. People drive for many miles to go to this eatery, just as we did. It's a happenin' place!

Faye and Rick leaving Rawhides with full and satisfied bellies.

Here: TAKE A LITTLE TOUR of your own. I'm off to work. And if you want to sit in one of those booths, you'd be wise to phone ahead and reserve one.

Down on the Farm

Emil lives for seeing Uncle Neil. 

He talked Rose's ear off and ignored Neil.
Heh.
Not really. He gave Rose's attention a good workout too.

The house behind them sits at the bottom of the hill where Grandma and Grandpa's old farmhouse was. That's where my sister Karen and I spent a lot of happy times. A lot.

There was a double clothesline with two pink posts at either end. Someone — probably Grandpa (also named Emil) — had hung a thick loop of rope and made nicks in the ends of a board to craft a swing for each pair of posts. Oh the hours we spent there, my sister Karen and I!

Karen often carried a hen in her arms when we were roaming about the yard.

Neil, who would have been about 13 then, had a hammock made from a double mattress between two evergreens on the hill near the house, slung there on heavy chains. Many happy hours there, too, Karen and me.

I remember the rooms of the house, and Grandpa's dark workshop. I remember him out there making a birdhouse from a hollow chunk of tree trunk and two pieces of plywood (a floor and an angled roof; he painted those red, and varnished the trunk; Neil has made one just like it minus the red and it's on a post in their yard), and I remember the smell of the workshop and the old clamp fastened to Grandpa's workbench.

Where Neil and Rose's house sits now was very near the place that the chicken coop was.

There was a toy cupboard in a wall of the living room, near the oil furnace that sat on the linoleum floor at the back of the room; among the toys on the shelves was one I can't name. It was a clown with a round yellow bottom* so it rocked when sat on the floor and given a push. I've never seen another one like it.

Hostess potato chips in their foil bags were a common treat, with their plastic coin "prizes" in the bottom that had a car illustration glued to them.

There was a woodstove in the kitchen, with a warm water reservoir. Beside it was sink with a hand-pump, and on an adjacent wall there was a freestanding cabinet for the dishes.

I remember Grandma in their bedroom off the kitchen, her string of white plastic pearls, her Noxzema. I remember being tucked warmly in bed upstairs in the morning before the house was heated up; Karen next to me, of course. Little sisters -- ya just can't shake 'em. Hee! Actually she was a perfect companion then, and still is.

Lots of happy memories, that's for sure.

In the upstairs bedroom, the smell of cedar from inside the slant-front desk; the beaded moosehide bookends (which I have and treasure, though they need repair; I won't let them go anywhere just in case I don't get them back); Karen's green dress and my purple one, and both of us wearing grey plastic old-lady wigs; and we two little girls running naked in a warm rain.

When I hear a screen door slam, or a fly buzzing on a hot day, it takes me back there. Those were some of the good times and they are probably why I love where I live.

*Email from Aunt Reta: "The toy was called a rolly polly, given to Neil when he was 1 yr old."

Thanks Reta, with the name I was able to do a search and found this:

Wall Mural at Kylemore

When Emil and I go for a weekend drive toward Margo, we first go a few miles south to the convenience store at Kylemore for a pop and chips to nibble on while ambling at about 40 kph through the countryside.

Yesterday afternoon I parked facing this building so the hot sun would be behind Little Green (car) and open windows might coax a breeze through.

I've never seen a bear around here, by the way. But upon occasion one has been spotted.
As for buffalo, the odd rancher raises a herd of them.

Today it's rainy and cool, and my flowers don't mind one bit.

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My friend Julie said something just right about grief and loss, and I was going to quote her here because her words were just so Damn Right, but I see she has posted them on her own blog so I'll just point you in that direction: Here you go.

For me, the song that has more than once been heard at a coincidental time that made me feel like Mom was giving me a sign is this one, The Mother Song:

Saturday before Sunday

My weekend companion

11:20am

Been outside with my housecoat and coffee, pulled dandelions and grass from flowerbeds, sat on deck overlooking slough birds for a while. Lovely lovely.

Came in, read and wrote a little, wiped counters, ran water over stacked dishes in sink, made scrambled eggs and toast, brought them to desk to eat while reading and writing a little. Did a little work that is like play, online.

Next: do dishes, wash and dress. Emil is here and maybe we’ll go for a drive out Margo way. I love the days off.  

12:24pm

Finished the dishes, ooh it’s spic and span out there! Emil has been out for a stroll around the yard. I went out after him with my hat, as he was in the bright sunlight at the noon hour. Now it’s a quick dip in the tub for me and then — then — well, we shall see.

Lorna! Cathy! Have you got a phone number or mailing address for the Uff Da lady? Her website appears to be down. And I want to order a vat of lemongrass lotion.

Kitchen Table

7:50 a. m.

Finishing last cup of coffee from pot and having some toast before I splash water on my face, soak my hair, dress and run out the door aiming to be at work at 8:30. The week has gone by fast, as they all do now.

Looks like it’s going to be a gorgeous sunny day. We’ve had rain so my flowers are all happy and fluffy.

The place I was stung by a bee is still itchy and last night was red and swollen so Scott thought I should see a doctor and find out if I need to get an epi-pen! Scared me enough to get out of bed at midnight and take an antihistamine. And it’s still itchy this morning, but less red and less swollen.

I’ve gone online to see what’s normal after a bee sting, and it appears I’m having a normal reaction. Whew.

Uff Da Lemongrass Lotion

I was transplanting zinnias into the perennial bed last night when a bee stuck its stinger into my forearm for no good reason. I feel betrayed! Ungrateful little beast. I pulled the stinger out right away and made baking soda paste to apply to the spot, which took the pain away immediately, but this morning it is itchy. More baking soda will be required I guess.

However, while Scott has found ticks on himself and has been pulling them off both dogs in vast numbers, I have yet to see one on me. Knock on wood. Normally by now I'm feeling them on my neck or in my hair. I wonder if my saving grace is slathering up with this lemongrass lotion purchased from the lady in Norquay who makes her own lotions and soaps. I smell like a lemon, and don’t mind one bit. And I love using a product that isn't full of unpronounceable chemicals and synthetic scents, and is made by someone right here in Saskatchewan. It has to be kept in the fridge because it isn't laced with preservatives, and it wouldn't surprise me one day to hear that someone has spread it on his toast.

The power went out last night and then a huge thunderstorm blew up. Ducky was freaked out but I wasn’t having him – Tickbait, as Scott calls him — on the bed, which is what he was asking for. The house wrap was blowing loose, making so much noise outside my window that I couldn’t hear any thunder. The storm blew down a tree in Scott's mom and dad's yard, he says.

Goodness, where has the time gone! I'd better get to the office.

New boots

All dudied up for a walkabout on a rainy day

Nine Years

With my sisters and Mom and all her side of the family, you have to be careful what you say.

If you say “I’d love one of those!” they insist “Take it” and send it home with you.

That’s how I got this handy-dandy jewellery bag that is hanging on the bathroom door. I admired Joan's and asked where I could buy one. 

Today is nine years since Mom went. I still have trouble saying "died." And while I think of her often, and enjoy thinking of her and talking about her, I don't think of her for long. It's too painful, and if I'm alone, I'll cry.

When she was dying, I couldn't imagine life going on after she was gone. I couldn't imagine myself 10 years into a future without her. And yet, here I am. There's something about it that makes no sense. 

I've decided: Supper is one thing that makes a house a home. Not breakfast or lunch, not even love or curtains. It's supper. 

Zen things

On Monday mornings I work from home for several hours, putting photos and text onto the newspaper’s webpage. Today my internet server decided to go offline after the first half-hour, so I’m doing other things:

• got the dishes washed, dried, put away - WOO to the HOO, I tell you

• got the three cast-iron frying pans seasoning for an hour on the stove

It’s raining, a soft cool pungent sprinkling that my flowers were hoping for.

Speaking of which, I gave in to the urge late yesterday afternoon and put my one trayful from the closest greenhouse into pots.

A Facebook connection posted the above list and I set it as my desktop, needing these reminders on a daily basis or else they just slip away and I go back to my habits.

I do many things at once, fitting smaller tasks inside the spaces of larger ones. I hurry through it all.

It’s been my way. My movements are efficient. I am putting together a jigsaw puzzle every time I do something.

This list reminds me that there is another way to go through life.