March 9th 2004 Good morning, I am waiting for a friend of mine to show up. We are going down to Duncan today, my friend, Diane has a doctors appointment there. She has had terrible problems with her back and is seeing a specialist. I go along for company and as backup to keep the Doctor in line, you know how arrogant they can be especially the ‘specialists’. I have since been and gone to the doctors, the usual “ well we can’t find anything really wrong…” but we had to drive several hours to hear this so they can bill for it, instead of tell us on the phone, where they can’t bill for it. Ugh! It is so hard for me to write to you, there never is time, and it seems as if there is so little to tell you. Spring is here, I had to cut the lawn for the first time this year. My lawn is mostly comprised of moss, but I kind of like it as it requires a lot less care but the kids are rather hard on it and it is destroyed much easier. I know almost nothing about lawn care. I will have to avail myself of some of my neighbours almost encyclopaedic knowledge of lawn care, they have beautiful lawns, not unlike those found on golf courses. But I can’t imagine filling my brain up with such trivia, nor spending the amount of time that they do on such endeavours. But something a little greener and more wide spread about the garden would be nice. Having said that the flower beds are most luxuriously appointed with errant clumps of grass. It is a constant and I am afraid losing battle that I wage. I have often thought of letting the grass grow in the flower beds and plant flowers in the lawns. But I know that wouldn’t work either. It is wonderful out in the garden right now all the bulbs are springing forth, up through the grass in the flower beds. (sigh) I planted a whack of sugar snap peas last week I look forward to them. My new seeds have arrived, my neighbour Monica found a new seed supplier from Salt Spring Island of all places. I got: Cherry Roma, Chibikko and Bali tomatoes, Italian pole beans, a Lettuce blend Yellow Lavender. The Tomatoes are an odd bunch, the Cherry Roma are somewhat self explanatory, but the Chibbiko is a Japanese Variety, it is small, yellow and wrinkled up ( not unlike a number of Japanese folk I know really) but apparently quite flavourful. And the Bali, is well, from Bali. I don’t remember what the catalogue said about it but it must have intrigued me. The lettuce blend has some 20 different types so it should be a surprise. The Yellow lavender, well I have never heard of such a beast. It is a perennial so it should go nicely with the other lavenders I have. A dear friend told me about five years ago that I didn’t have enough lavender in my yard. There are about 20 plants now and 6-7 varieties. I enjoy the diversity of my yard, all sorts of odd but beautiful plants, I am totally unencumbered by any knowledge of what goes where and who likes to grow next to what. I plant’em where I like and if they don’t hack it, well…. I don’t get anymore of them and they disappear from the garden. I do have a number of Arbutus tree volunteers popping up in various places in the yard. I like the Madronna (SP?) as the Americans call them, so I am making a little effort to keep them safe and out of harms way. It is odd that there are so many little things that trigger memories, I understand Prousts Madeline much better now, although I don’t think that I will continue this letter for 23 volumes. Last night I heard that same robin that I associate with spring. That call in the evening of “Twirll-ee-up” repeated endlessly, I am sure that it has some special significance for the bird. Perhaps a special bird prayer thanking the cosmos for flight  and flowers and tasty worms. Or more likely it is a mindless tune taught to it by it’s equally mindless ancestors.  I am assuming that this is not the same robin that I have heard all my life, I do not believe that it is stalking me about the world, decade after decade. Although in the infinite universe all things are possible so I cannot discount that possibility. No I don’t think it’s the same one, I don’t think robin live that long for one thing, Mind you parrots can live a long time…  I’ll be taking a closer look at my avian stalker this evening, for future identification purposes. I am just gazing out on to the front porch and revelling in its tidiness. Not that I can take direct credit for the general cleanliness of it. The porch is accessed from the dining room, which is actually giving the dining area more credit than it really has. The computer at which I sit is in the corner of the dining area and one must pass through this area to get to the living room, our bed room is about 9 feet behind me and the front door is ten feet to my right. (This is part of the joy of having a small house) With so central a location a certain amount junk is bound to accumulate. Regrettably in a pinch this was ‘cleaned up’ and put out ‘for the moment’ onto the front porch. Now this porch is only accessible from the door out of the dining area but it was still becoming quite unsightly. I have a delightful young woman, Anita, that comes every week or two and is this cleaning whirlwind that transforms the house into something beautiful, albeit for only a few hours, but still it is wonderful. At any rate I asked her if she could tackle the porch for me. Wow. It is a civilized and welcoming place again. It is the cool porch, located on the north side of our house, a great retreat on warm summer days. I spent some time earlier with a coffee on the back porch, being due south it gets a tremendous amount lovely warm sun, it also looks out over the majority of the garden. It is a quiet and restful place. I enjoy looking at the grass filled flower beds. Until the children come screaming up to tell me of some momentous trivia that is so important to them but I fail to see the significance. For example both V and D seem to think that I need to know that a television show they were watching is over, or as the weather warms ant sighting causes major panics to be dealt with by DAD. Spring break has started, SO both of my lovelies are home, Allison has gone off for a few days to Las Vegas to visit friends there, She will be back Saturday. We are about to head out for various adventures, to tire the kids out, and probably me as well. But I wanted to finish this off for a change and post it for you. Lots of Love