The New Reality

Look at this--I live in the boondocks and  yet my windows are barred.

Mine came about  because my next door neighbor  spotted two men in my yard at 2 AM. The men ran off before the police arrived.

At first I wasn't alarmed; I had a mental picture of anyone  navigating that maize of raised beds and garden ornaments in the dark and  marveled that they survived..

So now I have barred windows and yeah, I do feel safer. I even had a motion sensor light installed  and when it flashes on, I can't resist getting out of bed to  see who is visiting . So far: raccoons, skunks , possums and rabbits but no two-legged intruders.

It's a different world now; I guess my generation was the last to  to let the kids roam freely all day and  now people have to make play dates for their kids. Good lord, if I'd had to do that with my six kids I would have been either phoning, marking the "play chart" or driving the kids to their dates.

No wonder computer games are so popular--it's the substitute for playmates.

I wish I hadn't taken a picture of the bars--now I have to clean the window.

Cake Frosting

The snow piles up nicely on the  deck. The heaped bundle at the center is like  icing on the best chocolate cake you'll ever make.

Perhaps I am suffering from cabin fever today

The Storm That Wasn't

 Environment Canada alerted us on Thursday that we were about to be hit with the big storm that had eluded us all winter.

Always looking out for a blog opportunity, I did a "before" shot of the back garden; it  was thawing nicely and the bunny tracks were slowly melting away.

The next morning wasn't the dramatic sight any of us expected to see--a tidy little smattering of wet snow that the  kiddies with the unexpected school holiday struggled to work  into a puny snow ball.

So far this winter, I figure I am paying my snow removal company $75 each time they come to work on my tiny driveway and sidewalk. Never mind, other years they sometimes have to come twice a day just to keep up.

The poor weather office is under siege since the school boards cancelled classes and many bosses told their staff to stay home

Mostly, the weather office gets it right but this time, at the last minute the wind veered off to the east lightly touching us and Toronto while cottage country got the brunt of it.
also, it seems the mild winter prevented Lake Ontario from freezing and that affects the weather. Who knew?

Ah, but we weren't quite done.

The wind picked up during the night and fat, wet snowflakes fell and this morning  the garden is looking more like winter.

The raised bed looks beautiful and my desire to get out in the garden has suddenly waned.

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Just the same, I like to think this was winter's last gasp.