A Post from the North

 V. and I are up north at Dad's for a few days.  Work brings me here and a visit is making the stay a little longer.

We've had 8 inches of new snow since this morning and it's still coming down.  Temperatures are dropping and we are back in the land of winter after a mild February.

Driving on the way here I marveled at the landscape, flat as a pancake with toothpick trees and the odd weathered wood granary against a stark white backdrop.  This is the land of my childhood and youth.  I remember yearning for something that I couldn't identify.  Remember not being a good fit for the place I was born.  I was a dreamer and an imaginer.  I imagined myself right out of the village, the city, the province, the country and landed comfortably in the south of France where belonging is a more familiar feeling.
I'm in a reflective kind of mood.  Wondering how many more times I will make the 450 kilometer trip.  Dad is turning 92 in July...

Today,  I cooked in Mom's kitchen.  Minestrone and petite tourtieres for the freezer.  I had a little difficulty finding everything.  Mom was so organized and she has been gone for 8 years now, kitchen is a little topsy turvy and everything is so old.  Lucky for me my brother and his wife were here before me and she cleaned the kitchen and bathroom.  Dad thinks that his housekeeping skills are up to snuff.  We know they aren't...

I normally come up with my sister D. and we laugh a lot at the flat pillows, unmatched bedding, ratty towels and cruddy corners.  We make light of it by laughing while we scrub and cook and remember the days when you could almost eat off the floor.

Dig those homemade oven mitts!

I have a report to read for tomorrow and many rows of knitting to do on my friend Debbie's 60th birthday poncho.

A la prochaine!

Stella