white mountains tremble
fall before the conquerors
rays of spring sun
Hello, faithful readers! And welcome to all my new subscribers.
Yes, I have returned to blog another day. For the past two weeks I’ve been like a child exploring a candy store, poking into this case and that, sampling this and that. (Actually I’ve been cleaning out closets, reading, drawing, painting.) Now it’s time to settle down and re-establish the old routine before I completely lose touch. I have some serious things I’d like to write about, but I’ll start by opening a window on our world.
It’s definitely spring in our land. Canada geese are flying over; returning small birds are adding their sweeter notes to the house sparrows’ chirps. We’re seeing a lot of bare ground and our yard, for all our heaps of snow, didn’t turn into a quagmire. Last fall was dry enough that now the snow is soaking straight into the soil without much runoff. We still have heaps of snow in the back yard, but the highest banks through the garden are now not much more than a metre or four feet high — and shrinking back every day. Our cats are delighted to explore the snow-free yard and fields.
This morning I was reading a book of ancient haiku verses, with brief bios of the writers. One of these was Saikaku, a haikai master in old Japan. There’s a legend that this poet once wrote 23,500 verses in one day — which would be almost 1000 per hour! Can it be? Even in Japanese, where one curved pen-stoke might be a word, that’s still an amazing feat, if it’s true. Just for fun I tried to see how many (sensible) haiku I could write in an hour — turning the beauties of our land into poetry — and came up with a dozen. Not to say they’re all poignant and full of meaning, mind you, but it was a fun challenge. I’ll post them in the coming days.
While I was doing this, Bob went for his first immunization shot. My turn comes up March 31st. This morning we read the statistic that to date here in Canada over 90% of the deaths from COVID-19 were among those 65 and over — about like one would imagine. Even at that, most Canadians who’ve gotten it have recovered, thankfully. Precautions and restrictions have done a lot to prevent the spread.
Enough rambling for this time. I hope your world is looking brighter in 2021 than it did last year.
Christine's Collection 
I’m loving spring down here, too, Christine. Chilly mornings, but heating up to 60+ before the sun sets. Love it.
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Good for you. 🙂 We woke up this morning to a fresh blanket of snow. O fickle March!
Thanks for your comment.
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I’d love to know what the REAL Covid numbers are… There have been more than a few deaths recorded as Covid when they had nothing to do with it (see, the doctors get a bonus here…)
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I think you’re right — it’s hard to determine because the cases are usually complicated by other things like heart failure. Our son-in-law’s uncle was dying of bone cancer and was in hospital when he got Covid. He actually recovered from that, but died a few weeks later from the cancer.
What’s really, really sad: Here in SK about 330 people died last year of Covid — and about 375 died of drug overdoses. (Don’t remember the exact numbers.) A dangerous street drug has been coming in through Vancouver and spreading eastward. BC, then AB, and now we, are seeing a spike in ODs.Whereas most people who succumb to Covid are over 70, most of those OD-ing are likely under 40, with many years ahead yet.
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Your post reminded me of a French Canadian student I taught eons ago at a language school in San Diego. He gave a presentation on making maple syrup and confused a couple of words. He explained that you could make syrup in March when, “The snow begins to smell.”
Of course he meant “melt” but having just moved to CA from Colorado after the snowiest winter in Colorado history (20th century anyway) first snow in September, last in June, I was 100% OK with “smell.”
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We heard about — and made –a lot of intriguing mistakes when learning French when w lived in Quebec. A vowel or consonant switched around can make all the difference. 🙂
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Spring really has arrived here too, with masses of daffodils everywhere you look! It’s giving us hope for the future, something we really need right now A delightful ramble Christine.
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Thank you. It’s a delightful time when the spring bulbs start blooming.
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