How things are stripped down in winter. The exuberant green foliage of trees and bushes is totally absent. Few birds sing. All the details of houses and gardens are swathed in snow, flattened out, smoothed, obscured so that only streamlined shapes are visible. My hearing is affected because sounds are muffled by the snow and by my big hood, lined with soft velvet and trimmed around the face with black fur so that I look out into the white world through a fine fringe. Even on sunny days the sun is low and rather than enhancing my sight, it is dazzling. The world is reduced to white, light, straight lines. Where the great river widens the waves have disappeared. The water has frozen. I suppose one could walk out onto the snow that has fallen over the thick ice but no one braves the windswept open space. Where would one walk to? What would be the goal? On such days I often think about the pioneers, the brave or desperate few who took their chances. How they must have clung to the little comforts they had. Faith, hope, religion arrayed against nature. Indifferent nature must have seemed powerful against ideas, theories, dreams. How I admire them and thank them, send good thoughts to their memory. On the bitter afternoon I can stand beside the great expanse of water and take a photograph or two and retreat to my car, drive home and drink “a nice cup of tea”.
isobelmtl 
I really like your bursts here, Iso!
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Thanks fr John. On a roll these days
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Ok. You are now officially ready to write a book. You have description down pat; never too long, yet so very clear. You have a pleasant mix of humour and care in your blogs. Now all you have to do is get that book going! (Easier said than done!)
And clearly you are managing to stay warm and are not despairing of winter! So unfortunate about you fender bender! You really didn’t need that! But you told about it so well! And I guess by writing about it, this made it a tad less painful?
Here, we definitely live in a different climate. I have not worn boots since our return from Montreal. It was icy and yucky yesterday, but today sunny. You too are getting a break temperature-wise but I guess the difference is that we have no traces of snow on the ground!
Here we battle on with our lives.
Friday mom goes back to her residence. We will see how long that lasts. Poor mom! She lingers on, keeps fighting but truly her current life isn’t great and my heart goes out to her….not a nice way to live, in mild confusion, bouts of anxiety, ever present weakness, convinced that she is not being taken care of.
John’s spinal stenosis pain is not gone. It has diminished significantly but we control it with pain killers. He has physio and tomorrow we go to a spine specialist, then a pain management doc. We’ll see where we go from there. As to the brain, the lab results show that he does mot have Alzheimer’s indicators. This is obviously good news! So on Wed we will discuss with the neuro guy about next steps in that department!
Me? I’m just great! Love the apartment, love having my family over for dinner, love having Peter for sleepovers (so does he!), love being able to hop into a car and go with Vera to a stationary store to pick up stuff for school for Peter. A small task but pleasant if shared with a daughter!
Life goes on and it is good! Soon your trip! What a lovely thought! Be well, no slipping, no more car adventures! Love, Masha
Sent from my iPad
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