dreamingofsquirrels

some stupid things I’ve said…..so far #cringe

As I was sucking up the dog hair with my Dyson this morning, I realized that it didn’t have a light on it. When did they quit putting lights on vacuums? I remember “a lot” of years ago when I proudly was showing off my new vacuum cleaner to our friends and I said “look at the light on it! You can even vacuum when the power is off!” (Like that would be my first priority in a power failure?) Then…

travelling with my emotional support chicken

When I was buying camping groceries I ran across the chicken. Self-checkout challenges my grocery packing abilities so the chicken ended up being squished in between cans of baked beans, deli potato salad and smokies. The chicken began honking and screaming as I jostled the bag – trying to make a quick exit because it sounded uncannily like a baby screaming in the bottom of my heavy duty…

beauty is hard sometimes

Photo by Proud Paws Dog Grooming So Lena went to the “beauty parlour” for the first time this week. In all our many years and many dogs we have never used a groomer before, instead spent hours and hours brushing collies, taking some to the vet to have nails trimmed so we didn’t get our arms bitten off. Through our weird little community of Borzoi here we have a special friend connection to a…

things that can’t be erased

-coffee stains on the carpet – I know, you were going with dog pee but you’re wrong. Black coffee spilled will come back to haunt you again and again. My sage green carpet attests to this. – that seventh grade yearbook photo where I had the blue velvet bow in my hair just above my rolled bangs – like a poodle or a yorkie purse puppy. Just how many copies of that picture were there anyway that…

parchment paper and panty liners

When parchment paper evolved from it’s previous iterations into the product we buy today in big fat twin roll packs at Costco, it became a kitchen staple. My kitchen staple. My cookbooks (yes some of us have the basic Betty Crocker everyone got for wedding shower gifts almost fifty years ago….) never mentioned parchment paper. It was just grease and flour or use foil. Now! Well as I lift a cake…

I caught a glimpse of you staring back at me as I walked by the bevelled mirrors of the china cabinet today.  I saw you in the window off the deck last week.  I heard your voice as I changed the voicemail message on my phone.  But not really, because you’re dead. I know you’re dead because Step-sister left a message on my phone telling me so. I called her after I listened to the voicemail…

typing with a bandage on my thumb

Lena So, what happened to your blog? Yeah, I was asked a few times and I guess my response was that I was thinking about it…. Sometimes life gets in the way – whatever – and just needed down time. Covid, work-from-home isolation, no travel – it all piled up to a one-foot-in-front of the other Netflix existence and then suddenly the world opened back up. A couple trips, some sand and beaches and…

that hard goodbye to Jasmine

“When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight”. – Khalil Gibran Rest easy my girl……. dream of squirrels.

the fish book, war and the virus

Someone started the fish book the year the boat was built. Dad was six years old that year and I can imagine him hanging around Grandpa’s shop listening to the Uncles as they hammered and glued and put the boat together. In a weird time shift, see me at 6 years old in the shop at our house in Oregon where my Dad was building  his own boat.  Mahogany.  I remember;  the smell of planed wood and…

“There they are! See, over on the far bank.  You can see a few!”

“Hold on, I’ll pull over and we can get a better look”.

Our spring-time tradition of heading off to find the swans as they touch down and ride the river currents between thinning sheets of ice.  Driving north where the bears are still snoozing under snow blankets and any pull-offs from the highway are blocked with 3,4,5 feet of…

I’ve wrestled with insomnia since I was very young.  When I was 7 years old my Dad got me a child-sized wicker rocking chair and set it up outside my bedroom in the lighted hallway. (more…)

  I’ve been away for awhile – life as usual – for awhile.  But now…..now nothing is as usual.

I’m working from home and fortunate to be doing so while so many have no work to go to right now. However; the work from home set up is not without some stressors.

It became evident quickly that my fancy-dandy Mac wouldn’t work with the system I needed and unless I quickly became a computer tech I was…

apple pies, geese and those subscriptions

  The past couple days I drove 800 kilometres (that’s 500 miles for the unconverted) to make pie. From scratch.  From picking the apples to perfecting the pie crust.  A dozen pies.

Why would I do that? It’s the time of year when we balance the ripening of the apples with the hunger of bears fattening up for winter.  The time of year when we harvest and bake and preserve for our own winter…

that time I lost the Vagina Monologues

As I pulled into the dealership to have my car serviced last week I automatically reached out and turned the volume on my radio off. I suppose so the service guys wouldn’t  have to listen to my Sirius CNN at mega volume to compensate for my deafness.  After all, I drive alone most times so my cable news addiction can remain my secret. But then again, there’s the time I lost the Vagina…

Those things, you know…the things that you have to shake off. Do they bother me? Those things? Of course they do but there’s no one at the edge the lake with a big fluffy towel so I’d better learn to shake it off.

I went in to get a colour correction.  That’s fancy talk for fix the gold streaks in my hair that look like streaks of “oh no…..not a good look”.  I went to a new stylist because I…

My Mom Reads My Blog

No, my Mom doesn’t read my blog.  When I asked my Mom for her email address she said she didn’t want a bunch of jokes -and didn’t give it to me.  When I asked my Mom for her cell phone number she said it was only for emergency -and didn’t give it to me. So no, my Mom doesn’t read my blog.  And that bothers me, of course, but more important than that is that I choose to write anyway.

I’m envious…