Now It's Winter

Mr. Self-Reliant chose not to rely on help from my neighbour, Kevin, and instead to buy a cot and mattress from Amazon with which to outfit my van with a bed. Soon I’ll be ready to start going on adventures with Her Highness visiting parks and friends in Vancouver and Victoria. I’m really excited about how much larger my world is going to be, come better weather.

In spite of the darkness of the day, yesterday, the sleet and my dreadful speech, I felt wonderful to be so cozy and warm and rich with books, pet friends and lots of delicious risotto. And … the birds! I load my feeders at dawn and an hour or two before dusk when the birds are hungry. There were dozens and dozens of them yesterday morning—Juncos, Sparrows, Thrushes and Towhees—fluttering about, adding mightily to my happiness.

After our morning walk in the woods, I came home to read Anxious People. I stopped after two paragraphs. It’s a comedic novel I may enjoy come summer. It’s by Frederik Backman, the author of A Man Called Ove that I truly enjoyed, but after The Nightingale and Beneath a Scarlet Sky so full of human heroics and so, so moving, I couldn’t take something so light. Instead, I’ve started reading Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee. The reviews are outstanding.

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I realize I get overly harsh about Mr. Trudeau. I understand that the real villain today is a political system dreadfully compromised by capitalist economics. The real rulers are those whose hands are on the money and that reality sickens me. I appreciate that his party is in power. For me, conservatives are, to use a word made famous by the runt of the litter, the “deplorables.”

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So, this is Winter. Whereas during our first month of the season temperatures hovered around ten degrees, the night temperatures now are very low and daytime temperatures are only four-to-five degrees and it’s making Springtime feel farther away. 

It’s sleeting again this morning, and the forecast ahead is for more of the same. Pooey! Regardless, I carry on. I have something to look forward to: Donald and Melania, the pigs, have arrived at François’s and Eoin’s, so when we have a decent day, I’ll go for a visit.