As winter retreats and spring gains something of a foothold, Scout and I have been searching for that first blade of green grass in the backyard, a sign of warmer and sunnier days ahead. We know those days are coming, but they are elusive, like that first green blade…
Look closely and you’ll find… brown grass!
The thaw and recent rains all point to things greening up soon enough. With glass half full, looking out at our miniature prairie (as well as trawling through photos the past couple of weeks to search out some prairie car treasures mentioned last week) reminded me that these dun colours have a certain attraction:
“You bet they do – look at me! – in the right light, dun is golden!”
A friend of ours back in Alberta (originally from Australia) used to describe the early spring prairie colour as “that f#*king brown grass” – I think she didn’t love it? – but we always enjoyed her forthright commentary, and, when rolling through Alberta and Saskatchewan we’ll call out to the grasslands (windows up) “why, here’s some more f*#king brown grass!” always meaning it affectionately.
Love it, love, love it!
Back in not always so sunny Quebec, we have had one or two hours of spring sunshine, occasion enough to dust off a chair brought up from the basement and spend a moment or two basking.
A vision in beige and brown
Scout wasn’t complaining, although as I write this on Wednesday morning she isn’t too impressed with the sleety rain falling right now…
Tuesday was pretty good…
Rest assured, if we spot a blade of green grass in the backyard we’ll let you know – now isn’t that something for us all to look forward to?!
I like it, even if there isn’t a patch of green to be seen!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Scout here. He’s not looking, so I’ll type this real quick. Yeah, of course I know his username and password (*OldGitindenial25 and Scoutisthebest if you’re wondering, but don’t share these top secret details on Signal or anything, ok?) Now, let’s get this done before he’s back from the fridge.
I won’t say we’re in deep midwinter ‘cos I can read a calendar as well as the next dog, but don’t tell me it’s spring:
Yeah, right
I’ve been pacing the deck, listening to the birds, searching for a dry patch to warm my bones – and also for a gap in the fence to make my escape. No luck there. Spring you say? That’s for the birds…
Spring? Hmm…
So I’m indoors more often than not, stuck with the old fella, and who wants that? He might not be ranting on here, but trust me, he’s ranting. Wake me up when warmer days get here.
Do not disturb
When it isn’t snowing it seems to be raining – yeah, ok, slightly warmer, but who thinks a walk in freezing rain is fun? Do I look like I had fun?
Fun?
That’s enough from me. Maybe I’ll post again, some other time when he’s distracted by the fridge? Perhaps after we’ve had a few sunny days out and about? On those future sunny day plans, I should say yeah, he can whinge too much, and don’t we all know he’s an old git in denial about his real age, but on the plus side he did get me that new dog bunkhouse on wheels:
I usually let them bunk down with me
Scout signing off. Shh. Tell no one. I was never here, right?
Nope, not doing anything, just waiting for you, old fella. Hehehe…
Pondering ponds. I’ve been dipping a toe or two in Walden Pond the past couple of weeks, if only on the page, and mostly as respite from the spite and stupidity on display in certain quarters. Away from ponds for a moment (I won’t rant, honest), but does stupidity and incompetence even begin to cover it? Unbelievably useless at almost every level… No, no rant, but as I’m here, how can this level of incoherence and destruction also be so predictable and boring? The “very best people” appear to be so very dimwitted and dull. Dear oh dear. Anyway, ponds.
Thank goodness
I like how Thoreau is so thorough in his pond descriptions, be they of the ice structure, surface water, volume, depth (ha!), water creatures, or the variety of reflective qualities he found in the many ponds he was acquainted with. I’ve sat staring out over the page and at our current “springter” (thanks, PW), with my thoughts casting back to lakes we’ve visited, and recalling specifically our trip to Lake Témiscaming last summer.
Témiscaming
Goodness, how that vast body of water entertained us. When we weren’t paddling or hiking, we must have spent hours sitting by the water, on rainy days and dry days. To borrow/paraphrase from Thoreau, what a delight to be enthralled by ripples and furrows caused by water nymphs or fish, and isn’t it something to marvel at how, on a calm day, the see through mirror surface reveals the heavens above and below?
Mirror pond
Yup, hours spent watching the water-skimming insects and ducks make their way, sometimes disturbed by the occasional canoe near the shore, or by one or two motor launches farther out. Tranquil scenes, enjoyed at the time and now many months later, and well suited to encourage calm – I’m happy for that in these strange times…
Happy dreamy days
As springter gives way to spring proper, we’re planning to head out and enjoy some more quiet pondering time by the water. Without wishing days away, now the snow pack is beginning to disappear, perhaps there’s a little countdown to that first camping trip?!
Anyway, stay sane everyone, and let’s plan for the best while enduring some of the worst. We can get by, by dreaming of and enjoying outdoor life. Life in the woods! Or mountains! Or coastlines, parks, gardens and the like! Thank goodness for what remains of our wild and natural spaces – enjoy and protect them!
A place to ponder
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
If we’re looking ahead with a sense of optimism, then in terms of light and dark we’ve tipped towards the former having passed the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere. Spring has arrived!
Mmm, spring
Well, sort of… Scout and I enjoyed a lazy hour with that all important second cup of coffee on a sunny deck yesterday morning. Birds were singing, we could hear the tapping of a busy woodpecker in the nearby woods, a fly or two buzzed past, and there was the steady drip, trickle and gurgle of snowmelt from roof tops down drainpipes and along pathways. So, it is spring then – why only sort of, OPC?
Could that woodpecker keep it down? Some of us are drowsy…
The deck may be clear (for now) but the grassy parts of our back yard are yet to reveal themselves, and the medium range forecast suggests another bout or three of snow. Still, until those last blasts of northern winter arrive, we’ll take a sunny almost spring morning each time we’re treated to one! Vernal if not yet verdant, with our glass, oops, too early, I mean coffee cup half full and all that. Onwards!
Oh spring, you tease us with this glimpse of grass (all three blades!)
Let’s keep this short but happy enough, like a first false spring before the real thing. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Let’s hope so! ACI mentioned that I hadn’t been on much of a rant recently. She’s right, and I don’t know about you, but I really do (I mean, who doesn’t?) enjoy the occasional state-of-the-world-today rant. The thing is, given the current global situation, if I started, I might never stop and just repeat myself on a boring doom loop. You know, like delivering an interminably tedious monologue to Congress…
So instead, let’s keep it light with a bit of this and a bit of that as we head towards spring. Those clocks spring forward this weekend, and that’s a pleasant switch, from dark days to somewhat lighter, isn’t it?
From dark to light (colour if not ABV)
I was chatting with my brother on the phone the other day, covering this and that, and he was sceptical about the amount of snow I was shovelling, so I sent him this from Sunday morning:
Next door mountain – you can see where an attempt on the summit failed
I didn’t mention the use of snow moving machinery – if he thinks it was all my own work, well I don’t want to correct him… Maybe we’ll try for the summit again another day, using oxygen tanks and a snow dog to haul us up?
“That mountain? Forget it! In other news, did I just hear a can of hoppy IPA popping open?”
That Scout – what is she like? We’re easily distracted around here. Where were we? Snow? Springing forward? We’ve kept most of the snow off the back deck, often wondering if it was going to be me or the deck collapsing first. Scout says me. She is hopeful she’ll be sunning herself outside very soon, what with the clock change. I’ve just seen the two week forecast, and I haven’t the heart to tell her…
“Let me know how your mountain trip turns out when you get back. I’ll be out here waiting…”
So, no rant, not from me, and instead, plenty of other stuff to be getting on with or looking forward to! In fact, let’s finish on a very positive, even hoppy, note:
Hoppier news? Glass half full? I sure hope so…
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
After our desert wanderings last week, it’s back to our more usual everyday northern style for this one. No lemons and lots of snow. This means that we were able to get into the woods and plod along – gracefully, of course – on our snowshoes through the deep snow. Splendid!
Splendid
With daylight hours lengthening, and occasional almost warmth when the sun reveals itself, we’re seeing some of the small changes that add up to the approaching new season. Realistically, it is distant yet, but we sort of fooled ourselves that spring is (almost) in the air! Yes, the snow was deep, and yes, we were on snowshoes, but we could see change coming in the hints of new buds, birdsong above, and in the slight thaw after a period of deep freeze.
Not spring – but brighter!
Yes, it all points to the same eventual outcome even if it sometimes seems like it’ll never arrive. Our northern winter will end, in snowmelt, and we’ll begin to enjoy the pleasant anticipation (no matter how much I love a proper winter) of bright green days ahead. No, not yet, not yet, and not until we’ve finished playing in the snow, but spring is coming!
The right direction
Until it does, we’ll continue on skis and snowshoes, and I’ll complain about (but secretly enjoy) shovelling snow, so we can reward ourselves with an almost well earned dark beer or two at the end of the day – they go so well with the season! (Don’t worry, pale ales, I’ll get back to you soon enough. Another small change…)
A cheery beery reward
I think that is a cheery enough note to end on this week. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
“Spring is just around the next bend? Nope! But maybe the one after?”
We’ve enjoyed – or endured, if the novelty of shovelling snow has worn off – three pretty big winter storms the past couple of weeks. Two of them arrived only three or four days apart, and the (welcome, from me) accumulation was quite something. The pile of snow, post dig out, on one neighbour’s lawn is twice my height. I feel like scaling it and planting a flag!
Almost a mountain
The blizzard conditions did slow us down with regard to heading into the woods. I checked today (Wednesday) on the trailhead, and the city snow plows have created a high barrier across the access point between two houses. Blocked and probably not great for Scout at the moment due to the depth of powdery snow on the other side. It would be way, way over her head. I think she’d like to have a go, wallow in it for a few minutes, but she’s not going to get too far until some snow shoe tracks pack it down, create a trail. Who could do that for her…
First, find the gate
So we’ve been a bit more indoors than we’re used to, finding some different diversions to pass the time pleasantly enough. For me, that’s extra music and kitchen time. Yup, the desert blues and lemons mentioned in the title above.
For the desert blues, can I heartily recommend two albums? The first, “Heritage” by Songhoy Blues, is a delightful set. A slight departure from their first three noisier albums, the tracks here are still pretty lively, but the sound is more traditional, mostly unplugged and absolutely wonderful if you enjoy their Malian style.
Snow fun… “Can I take a break, head indoors, and listen to some music?”
The second album I’ve played over and over the past week or two is “Imarhan” by Imarhan, an Algerian band I’d not heard before until I went down the desert blues rabbit hole. If you like Tinariwen or Songhoy Blues, then you’d probably like this album. I’ll certainly be listening to their other albums in the next little while. Desert songs for snowy days? Why not?!
Listening to these albums reminded me of the time we were technically homeless a couple of decades back (we were waiting for a house purchase to complete) camping our way from SW France down into southern Spain. It was early spring and almost always sunny, with the sparkling Mediterranean on our left as we drifted from coastal town to coastal town happily enough, listening to music broadcast from North African stations on the radio. We’d stop at little markets and grocery stores to pick up essentials like coffee, beer and churros, as well as amazing oranges and lemons. That time was among the first of our ongoing series of midlife crises, and then, as now, we certainly enjoyed it. Does life have to give you lemons? No, but if it does…
Lemons are not the only fruit (if JW needs a sequel title)
Lemons! We’ve almost got there! The most enjoyable new recipe I tried this week has to be this lemon desert, oops, I mean dessert, by Rachel Roddy. Like a sharp OldPlaidCamper, the result is zesty, tart and sweet, and really rather more than enough. If you find yourself snowed in and you’ve more lemons than you know what to do with, then this might be the way to go?
Looking sharp outside the MNBAQ yesterday more on that another time
Dessert (yup, again, hehehe) blues on lemon flavoured snow days – too much of a good thing? Not for us! Although, as I’ve eaten more lemon dessert than is medically recommended, I guess I should leave it here this week and head outside, try and dig our way into the backyard and burn off a few calories.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
I received a WordPress notification earlier this week informing me I’d been blogging here for ten years. Ten years?! Goodness, that’s quite a long time. Curiosity prompted, I went back into the archives to reread the very first post, one entitled “Why Plaid Camper?” It was a not so brief introduction and indication of what I hoped my bright and shiny new blog might be.
Little Bear Sunset (near Bozeman, Montana) – the first photograph on OPC
In the main, I think the vague aims and intentions I mentioned way back when have been met – mostly – and continue to be met all these years later. But then I would say that, even though I am totally unbiased…
Bow Valley beauty, AB – always a happy place for us
Blogging is inevitably somewhat self indulgent, and in that spirit I think I’ll take the next week or two to reflect on ten blogging years and repost a few favourite photographs representing some memorable moments and/or happy places. Like I said, self indulgent!
A fine BC beer in a fine location – thanks for humouring me back then, Wayne!
So here we go, the greatest hits that never were – or, less charitably, just some repeats and reruns. Is it “Why Plaid Camper?” as that first post asked back then, or more “Why, PlaidCamper?!” Or maybe, more simply, why not?
Little Bear Cabin, Montana – tops the list of my favourite cabins!
I’ll end this week (before some more rerun photos) by saying “thank you” to each and every person that has taken the time to read and/or comment here the past ten years. Those genuine connections are the real why. So, shall we carry on for another ten and see where we go? And wonder what that might look like? (Erm, probably like pieces about going for a walk, visits to a campground or two in a pretty setting, and often finishing with a glass of something good by a fire?) Oh, ok – put like that, not too bad, eh? Let’s keep it going – cheers!
Cheers! (Hardknott Bar, Woolpack Inn, Lake District, UK – great beer selection and the best company, even if my brother only drinks Peroni…)
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
“Thanks, friends!” (Taken at Dry Island Buffalo Jump, AB)A different AB good mood – oh those prairie days outOne of our very best days – thank you, Jet!Any day out and about with Scout always works for usAlberta river rush! A day on (not in) the water with friends is a good day
The snow flies and it is playtime! Even when it is flying sideways…
Brisk breeze
Monday was one of those days where venturing out required an extra layer or two and a scarf over the face. Icy needles. I wore sunglasses, not to look cool (that’s a given, I agree, sunglasses or no) but ‘cos I couldn’t find my snow goggles.
Scout was impatient to get out, seemed she was looking for something:
“Somewhere just around here…”“Nope! Gosh darn… let’s come back tomorrow?”
Ok. Tuesday was a bright blue sky and deep freeze day, very much the calm after the storm. We tracked into the woods, and we’d have probably done better with snowshoes, but made do breaking new trails and admiring small tracks.
Tracking a perfect wave
We’ve been more than happy to while away an hour or two most days in the woods. The blanket of sound-absorbing snow is comforting without being constraining, and the blasts of crisp air certainly refresh. We’re happily ensconced in the heart of a real winter, sometimes bitter, maybe (to some) bleak, but certainly beautiful. We will continue to enjoy it, in calm and/or storms and all, before looking forward to spring. As Scout always reminds us, winter, it’s perfect for playtime!
“Can’t find it, whatever it is, so we’ll keep coming back – ok?”
Ok! Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Not that much. Certainly not on Monday. An alleged billionaire started a new job, a second attempt at a position he has held before but mostly failed at. Maybe he’ll do better this time? I’m not sure he really wants it, since he keeps going on about Canada, something about wanting to join? I can understand that, as it’s pretty great here for all sorts of reasons. Maybe he can apply for citizenship after he’s finished/washed up once more? Don’t tell him – he’ll pout – but I doubt he’d get the warmest welcome…
Pretty great
Speaking of warm – what’s so great about the True North that causes the tangerine hued chap to cast covetous eyes on it? Could it be our wonderful winter? Maybe! We certainly have real winter at last – woo-hoo! Cue a Scout-like jump for joy – the end photo this week, one of our favourites!
A wolf in real winter (Scout, but you knew that)
Last Monday was quite cold, the sort of day that could frighten a wannabe strongman, send him scurrying indoors. (It takes more than a bit of chill to keep a real Canadian from heading out, so if he’s so keen to be a part of Canada, he’s going to have to toughen up…)
Troll hideout
Anyway, enough of avaricious/needy populists, wherever they might be lurking. On to more pleasant things. We enjoyed our Monday excursion into the woods, the first properly cold day of the year. Other than pausing for a photograph or two, we kept perfectly warm by keeping moving. It helped that the sun was out, with the winds fairly calm, so we could concentrate on admiring a sparkling white and blue day.
Winter! Woo-hoo!
The cold snap, or real winter, has stuck around and promises to be with us through the weekend and beyond. The windchills will diminish enough to make xc skiing a comfortable prospect – I like the cold, but didn’t want to let winter scour a layer of skin from my face as would have happened if we’d tried to ski this week. I’d end up looking like I’d had work done, some sort of weird face peel requiring orange makeup to plaster over the cracks. I don’t know about you, but I can’t quite imagine the necessary vanity to attempt that failed strongman look… Perhaps I could ski later today, another cold one, see what happens? Nah, we’ll stick to hiking speed for now, and embrace the bracing conditions.
The peeled look – ouch!
A big thank you to Jet for reminding me of the woo-hoo feeling winter can provide – it’s more than a simple distraction from what’s (not) going on more widely in the world – it’s actually the real stuff, the everyday delight that is there when I look for it, right where we are, right now. Shall we say it one more time? Why not – woo-hoo!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
OldPlaidCamper 