Making Plans

Trudge, trudge trudge. The tracks in the snow are quite distinct after two days of light snow flurries. I just got home from church and it was quite a peasant -10 degrees. The sun is shining and there are chickadees on the move. It is a nice reminder that at some point winter will be banished for another year. I love chickadees and think they are quite the nicest and cheekiest birds out there. Grey jays too are quite a fun bird to watch. This is a great time of the year to watch birds at the feeder. Coming soon to a forest near you Magpies, Crows, Red Polls, Snow Birds, more Chickadees, and Jays of all kinds. Then come the Sparrows and the Robins, later come the Warblers and all the air will be alive with song. A meriade of nature's music. It will sound like an orchestra tuning up for a concert. Living on a river is different from anywhere I've lived before. Our house is not far from the river but far enough that we actually don't hear the river/water birds but down in the river bottoms there are Pipers, Ducks and Geese, Kingfishers and any fish hunting bird that you might think of.

Hubby and I had a wonderful vacation a couple of years ago. I might have already talked about it some... (but with my memory it is hard to remember what I have written about with over 250 posts)... anyway, that trip was by far one of the most idyllic trips I've ever enjoyed. Our intention was to spend three days on the river paddling some 80 kilometres. The first day was spent enjoying the part of the river that Hubby and I canoe regularly, but after that it was a marvel. New sights and pleasures at every bend and turn. I see the river every day of my life as I drive into town but to see it from the river is to know it intimately. I watched fish below the surface sliding stealthily into crevices in rocks and boulders, and I saw herds of deer sipping their daily quota of water with velvet lips in the late pinks and golds of the sinking sun. Curious beaver would enter the river with a splash from holes in the banks of the river as they chased along beside our canoe in an effort to figure out what we were doing.... we even had one steal our milk one evening when we placed the bottle in the cold river water to chill it. There were banks of the river I never knew were there because the view from the highway is never as revealing as the view from the water itself. In the evenings after we had set up camp on one of the islands, Hubby would go fishing while I sat on the beach by the fire and spun yarn on my drop spindle. Idyllic actually doesn't begin to describe those few days of my life.

Tentatively Hubby and I will be making the trip again this summer. We are planning, toward the end of July, a trip down the river again with the hopes of going farther than we went last time. Up until now it has only been an idea in the back of our heads but we have finally concluded that if we don't go our lives will pass us by and it will only lead to disappointment so we will pack the canoe and head off for sure this summer. I'm excited.

Now a little news on the spinning front. I have finished all wool for the Jacket commission and have only to spin the alpaca. I have finished the silk sample for level 3 homework and to my dismay have discovered that the direction of my twist is not good for the actual woven sample so I have spent the weekend working on another sample with the direction of the twist going the other direction and it is working. I should have that finished today and then I will begin to warp the loom for the jacket commission. All goes well, and I am hoping to make great strides in the jacket commission this week.... we shall see.

In the meantime have a lovely Sunday afternoon filled with what you love best. Isn't that what Sunday afternoons should be about.... a day of thankfulness and ease....