I just enjoyed a nice lunch with the team here, where we celebrated the day with Haggis (ew), Spotted Dick (not bad with custard...), and The Glenlivet (hey now!). There was a Toast to the Lassies, one to the Laddies (hey, I don't make this stuff up), and I read "To a Louse" with some help on a few choice stanzas. I can report that a good time was had by all.
Lately there's been lots and lots of outside fun, with snow-shoeing and cross-country skiing, even on those -19 and -20 afternoons. Finally I have all the super-warm winter gear I need to feel impervious. We recently discovered the Luther Marsh, up East of Arthur, and what beautiful woods are there! Somehow, as each year goes by, I find winters more magical and worth getting out in. Dallas certainly enjoyed herself, especially when she bolted off the trail and dug up a half-buried, completely frozen deer hide. She was trying to gobble it all up before I reached her and pulled her off it. Worried about ticks and lime disease, I treated her to a snow-washing like she's never had, and she totally enjoyed it. Since then though, I've been feeling itchier than usual... I'm hoping to not contract another disgusting disease from my dog.
I'm still trying to recruit someone to join me for a trip to Ottawa and a night in a yhurt. It seems Linda's suspicious of accomodations that can be sounded out as "WHY-HURT." But I see this as an ideal excuse to buy a winter-weight sleeping bag at long last. Following the cross-country skiing and snow-shoeing, we'll cook dinner and retreat to the warmth of the woodstove, and head out around midnight to hear the cracking lake ice. Then Sunday is for Winterlude and perhaps a canal skate. Just the kind of unwinding I could use.
