mumma yaga

 Jan. 30 Grey, so grey! How long has it been? (Although it was only yesterday we saw the sun!) We seem to have had weeks of clouds.  I have run out of spoons. I don't know who first started seeeing personal energy as "spoons". But I have adopted the expression, because it refers to all aspects of one's energy, to physical, emotional, and mental ability, the whole system. You need a little of each type of strength to perform the tasks of daily living, and using the number of spoons you have at your disposal each day helps you to pace yourself. More importantly perhaps, it gives you a sense of self-care, to acknowledge your limits, not in a bad way, but in a self-respecting way. Days of limitless ability will be there when they are wanted and needed.  Today, however, is a particularly low point for me in spoon availability! Yesterday, I was in a foul mood, angry, tired and low. Received covid vaccine number five on Saturday. Could that be affecting me? It has been grey

Jan. 25  A giant snowman appeared, in the midst of the storm, in the hydro field. Thank you to the someone who had a great time this afternoon, playing in the snow. Here he is from the front:  It seems so Canadian to be out shoveling snow as soon as it falls. Out we all come to clear the driveway. Also to clear our piece of sidewalk, and a neighbour's too, if needed. It brings us together - a collectivity. Most neighbours with snowblowers do some extra passes on nearby sidewalks. Someone shoveled my neighbour's drive, though she is away for a day or two, to allow her to pull right in when she returns; so kind. (I must interject here that I have escaped this Canadian quirk; I will make a pathway porch to road, and do my stretch of sidewalk and next door's too, but I would leave the driveway for some extra drive-overs to flatten it. I live with three other Canadian adults who must get out there to clear the driveway as if it's a human compulsion.)  A snowman - it is art!

 Jan. 14 A Memphis song that K came across in his musical wanderings. I've been to Memphis , Lyle Lovett. I will put the link below. It is a live recorded performance (an oxymoron, sorry). His music is so "clean" somehow. Like clear water. Saturday at #48: Robin is teaching me tai Kwon do. Been doing sudoku with him, too, and "space exploration, practice exercises" over in the hydro field, which involve simulated earth ages, being miniaturized, and simulated time travel, with star wars podracers thrown in for good measure. We have been to the field on practice missions twice today already. I am exhausted. Then there has been my own work - groceries at Shoppers' (WHAT?) and the veg store, both at Six Points, two more walks just Rocky and me, two loads of laundry, lunch prep - a big green salad to get in our leafy greens, and a sink full of dishes. Another walk, as the sun went down, took Rock and me to the park to watch the skating. The kids and Nick were not

 Jan. 7: Day 1033 of the Covid 19 pandemic.  I am making a playlist of Memphis songs. But I am not going to google them.  Talk Memphis, Jesse Winchester  Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again, Dylan Walking in Memphis, Marc Cohn Memphis, Tennessee, Chuck Berry Graceland, Paul Simon So, five. I will trust that I stumble upon more in my library. The Beatles did an excellent version of Chuck Berry's song. In fact dozens of artists have covered this song. It is quite an anachronism now. ***** How quickly one forgets what it is like to see the sun. But, wait. I remember now that the sun was visible as it set last night, and the clouds shone yellow. It has been overcast for days it seems.  Raining or not, I walk up the hydro field with Rocky several times a day. He gets restless in the house, with the busy family, and missing the freedom of roaming about the vineyard acres. He went off on his own yesterday, while I took a few minutes to look about the garage for something.

It felt like just another day. I walked with Rocky in the field. K joined us for a circle. Then I went to the rink in our neighbourhood park and had a skate! The first since perhaps the winter of 2020. That seems like a long time ago now. The beginning of the pandemic, the last winter I spent in Toronto, until this one.  Rock and I had the rink to ourselves for most of the time, and then a father and son came and practiced hockey, kindly sharing the space. I began a little out of practice, but my mojo began to come back and I felt the joy of remembering how to fly.  When I was growing up, we lived right across the road from skating rinks - one for hockey and one not. I skated most winter days from the time I could stand up in a pair. My father tied my skates for me, for years it seems. Always he made them evenly tightened, just right. Every autumn we went to the skate exchange at Duke's on Bloor at Kipling; it still does business, but I am not sure if it still does exchanges. They