It is the last day of April and the snowflakes are floating out of the sky as if they owned the place! No accumulation is taking place, so I am willing to concede their passage with grace.

The night time temperatures have been below freezing for the last few nights, so Attila has built me a fire in the cast iron wood stove each morning, which I keep going for a few hours to chase the chill away. It has been working very nicely and the house is quite comfortable.

I've spent the last week or so gadding about, collecting foodstuffs. With a little help from loved ones I've been able to collect quantities of inexpensive peanut butter, coffee, canned beans, yeast, flour and maple syrup. This allergy of mine has ensured that Attila and I eat carefully and well. Very few prepackaged foods are edible and dining out is almost a distant memory.

While gadding about I needed to use my laptop more than usual and found it's performance inadequate to the task. I am spending my time formatting the hard drive and reinstalling everything. This is no small venture on a dial up connection, but I am persevering.

Good news this week, Steve Paul Simms has sailed through his recent surgery and is recovering nicely at home.

I've been missing my writing though, and intend to take better care of myself in future by writing more often. It has been nine years since I began this journal, and I love having this record of past events, as well as of my own thoughts and feelings at the time.

Like everyone else I often ask myself, "What was I thinking!?!"

I can jog my memory by reading this journal and revisiting the context of the time in question. Very handy, particularly as I grow older and move into new phases of life, where I, the world and all the rules are constantly changing.