March

Attila returned to work late last week. The first day back was a day of transition for all of us. Most challenging for Attila to be sure. Ginger and I felt the change to a lessor, but significant degree. Ginger had spent several weeks basking in Attila’s attentions, which included frequent belly rubs. Ginger is addicted to belly rubs. Ginger is a hedonist of the highest order, and his pleasure of choice is a belly rub. His close second favoured pleasure, is sitting on his foot stool, between Attila and I, as we chat with each other. I miss Attila’s presence and energy. Attila is in constant motion, but for the hours he sleeps, and he loves to sleep. His motion, as waves on a shore, brings me peace.

So here we three are, mid-March, back to our regular schedules.

Our landscape has borne a heavy burden of white for the last few weeks. The storm that arrived the day I drove Attila to his surgery, and the storm that followed a few days later, took us back into winter weather this month of March. Today the strengthening sun and milder temperatures bring spring metamorphosis. Small spires and columns of ice form and collapse in snow banks, ice crystals glitter across the surface of snow covered yards, snow metamorphosis. At last brown and grey and black and green are beginning to seep through as the glittering white retreats.

We have had two short snow storms so far today, leaving a thin coat of white on everywhere. Within thirty minutes the it is gone, each time. And it continues, yes, no, yes, no, yes, no… I’ve heard this before somewhere. Winter just can’t let go!

We indulged this winter in a subscription to PBS through Prime. I don’t think we have access to all the PBS programming, but there is still quite a bit on offer. We have watched two series that we loved, and two that we painfully laboured through.

We loved Seaside Hotel (Danish), and we are currently loving The Time In Between (Spanish). Both air in their own native language, which is not English, so English subtitles have been provided. Both story lines include war, including the Second World War. Both are from the Walter Presents collection. I wish all entertainment was this good!

We laboured through Sanditon, and Hotel Portofino. We got through both series, becoming increasingly disenchanted with the writing. Some of the acting was top notch, but an actor can only do so much with what has been written. We were very disappointed in both series, and hope there are no further seasons to tempt us into aggravation!

Late fall, winter, and very early spring are the times of year when we watch the most visual entertainment. Once the snow leaves, the focus here at Mist Cottage will fall upon the yard, the garden, and food preservation projects.

A sure sign of approaching spring is the incursion of Asian Beatles. They still get in here, probably through the siding, which is the original and in rough shape. This year though, I have a new weapon. Attila put in the electrical to plug in our vacuum cleaner (wall mounted) on the main floor of the house, it had been in the basement. Now it is handy. When I spot an insect with whom I do not want to share personal space with, I use the vacuum to capture it, which also kills it. This method works every time, and is much better than trying to capture them with a bit of tissue paper, when they often escape.

Well, here I am rambling along, and it is almost time to rise, and make my way to the kitchen. Tonight’s dinner will be Chicken Pot Pie, a current favourite. I pressure canned the filling, so it is a lot less fussy to make than from scratch. It needs to be baked in the oven, so in a few months time this dish will be off the menu for the duration of warm weather.

Lately I’ve been baking burger buns, to enjoy with our homemade sausage patties, or homemade salmon patties. Burger nights are rounded out with a generous helping of home canned Coleslaw, which is made with our very own cabbages and peppers. Burgers can be enjoyed year round, and make a great quick supper on snowy winter nights, and warm summer days.

Worldly

Weather

Updated on Sat, Mar 18, 7:25 PM
-1 °C
FEELS LIKE -6
Partly cloudy
Wind 19 W km/h
Humidity 70 %
Visibility 21 km
Sunrise 7:15 AM
Wind gust 28 km/h
Pressure 100.7 kPa
Ceiling 9100 m
Sunset 7:17 PM

Quote

I like an escalator because an escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. There would never be an escalator temporarily out of order sign, only an escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience.
Mitch Hedberg
1968 – 2005

4 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Teri

Our dog Skye is also a hedonist. She loves head massages and belly rubs, and will contort herself into the most ridiculous positions between my chair and the coffee table to get her belly rub. She has a way of lifting her paw in supplication, should the rubs stop. More, please.

We’re also experiencing the yes, no of the season. It’s a big change from 2 weeks ago when green tips were first starting to break through the ground.

DH and I were enjoying several British police programs on Netflix in 2022, but their license ran out so we can’t get them anymore. We considered subscribing to Britbox, which handles them, but aren’t ready to add in another channel.

I hope Attila was feeling up to work, now that he’s started back. Best wishes!

Joan Lansberry

Did you ever watch Poldark, with Aidan Turner? You might like that one. Also, Grantchester is good, and Call the Midwife is among the absolute best. I’m curious enough about Sanditon that I’m looking forward to season three, which begins today on regular PBS. Hotel Portofino did have nice scenery, it was okay overall. Sounds like you have a good solution to the beetles! (Fun quote! Escalators used to scare me when I was real little. I never see them anymore, except at the Phoenix airport, and those aren’t stairs, but moving floor-walk.)