Thursday 30 March 2017

He found his homies


We didn't see or hear anything of him for two full days. 
The first day, we kept driving around, hoping to see him. He's pure white, which is easy to spot in the current brown background. 
But, nothing. 

We thought he was a goner, eaten by coyotes. 

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Sunday 26 March 2017

It would be relaxing, they said. It would be FUN.


Guys, I'm exhausted. It's not even 5pm, and I'm contemplating to go to bed. Yes, it was one of those days. 
Let me paint you a picture: 
This morning I slept in longer than usual. By the time I got up, it was almost 9am, and instead of having coffee first (which is what I should have done), I made the fatal decision to "quickly go outside and feed the horses (and the cows, sheep, goats, and llamas)". There I was, stumbling around like a drunk, because not only was I still half asleep, I also forgot to put on my glasses, so everything was blurry. 
I threw some hay to the horses, let the dogs out, and then made my way to the cow pasture. There, outside the fence, was Norman.  


"Norman, how did you get out?" I asked him in dismay. He's our baby, a 7 months-old bull calf, and a typical teenager. He just looked at me, mooing softly. I took this to meaning that he was ready to join the herd again. 

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Thursday 23 March 2017

Wild and free


Yesterday, I finally put the winter coats away. It's a ritual I treasure: I go through the pockets, relieving them of the detritus that has accumulated throughout the winter: Old receipts, crumpled tissues, some dog treats, usually at least one $5.00- or $10.00-bill (always in Rich's pockets, but now in mine - finder's keepers), the odd bullet, a dried-up gummy bear (that one surprised me the most; how did I not eat it?). I wash them all, air-dry them, and then they get ceremoniously folded and put away for the next six months. If I'm in the mood, I may even make a short speech: "See ya later, suckers!" or something along those lines. 

Along with the winter coats come the warm boots, woolly mittens, lined gloves, and an assortment of fuzzy and furry hats. 
And just like that, I feel free

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Tuesday 21 March 2017

4 Years of Blogging


This blog turned 4 years old on March 15, but blog years are like dog years, so it's actually 35 years old. (Side note: Did you know that the first year of a dog's life counts double? Instead of being the equivalent of 7 years, it's 14. I read that once, and it made so much sense to me, I adopted this way of thinking. After all, the rate we mature at during puberty is breathtaking; it slows waaaaay down once we've reached our twenties.)

Girlfriend (=blog) and I are roughly the same age, and we both can relate to each other. We know what it feels like to have had all those wild, crazy dreams when we were younger - we thought by the time we reached our thirties we would be rich and famous, living with our private chef/marketing director (respectively) in our huge mansion/magazine-style website (respectively), being adored by thousands of fans.

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Saturday 18 March 2017

I'm alive!


Whoa, what happened to the last week? I just realized that the last post I published is from eight days ago, but I could swear it was just yesterday. Time is weird, isn't it?

I thought I better let you know that I'm still alive and well, and I want to go back over the last week to try to figure out what I actually did every day. 

The tail end of winter is hard on everyone. Not just us humans, who crave warmth and flowers and patio drinking, but especially wildlife. 


We went on a little drive last week for a much-needed change of scenery. Plus, I was on the hunt for a sign of spring: A crocus, cherry blossoms, daffodils, anything. While we didn't find any blossoms, we found wild horses:


They were walking along the road, unimpressed by our approaching car. We slowed down to a stop, and watched them first walk towards us, and then past us. 
They looked old and tired, and in even more need of spring than us. As you can see, there's still some snow where we saw them, but it's melting fast now - I hope they'll find lots of fresh grass soon!


On Wednesday, we went to Vancouver to visit a close friend in the hospital. Many of our friends are older than Rich, often by ten or more years, like this one. Watching them age and getting sick is heartbreaking, and a reminder that life is precious and short. We have to make the very best of it!
That also reminds me of a quote Taylor used in her recent post When My Blog Became My Job:

"Why spend your entire life working on a painting you don't want to look at?" -Warren Buffet

Do what makes you happy, and drop the shit that doesn't!

In that spirit, I have decided to turn our house into a rainbow, one room at a time. Bright colours make me happy! After painting one bedroom pink and the other one orange, I added a mermaid-esque turquoise to the mix:


I just finished it yesterday, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. 

But the main reason why I have been MIA on the blog, is that I'm currently in a heavy reading phase. I'm devouring books like they're going out of style!

I rounded up five books I love in a recent post, but have since found a few more to add to the list:

"The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the last True Hermit". It's the fascinating true story of how Christopher Knight disappeared into the woods when he was 20 years old, and lived there alone for 27 years. In all this time, he only encountered one single person while on a hike, and all he said was "hi". Instead of hunting or fishing, his mode of survival was stealing, and he broke into nearby cabins to steal everything he needed: Food, clothes, books, toiletries, sleeping bags, tents, even a TV, and thousands of batteries over the years. When he was finally caught, he had committed over 1,000 burglaries. The journalist Michael Finkel conducted extensive interviews with Knight, and wrote a spellbinding book about what motivated him to leave the world behind and how he survived all by himself for such a long time. 

Currently, I'm reading another one of Finkel's books,  "True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa". 
It's another true story, this time about Christian Longo. In 2001, his wife and three children were found murdered, and he had disappeared. He took on Michael Finkel's identity and hid in Mexico, where he was picked up by the FBI three weeks later and arrested for the suspected murder of his family. 
The real Michael Finkel got in touch, and they developed a bizarre friendship, exchanging dozens of letters and talking on the phone once a week for over a year. In the beginning, Longo denied the murders and swore that he was innocent. 

The book was made into a movie, here is the trailer:

It's another fascinating read!

I didn't realize it until today, but a few days ago my blog turned 4! Every year I do a celebratory "walk down memory lane"-post, and I will do it again this time. Until then, you can take a look at my previous ones:

That was my week. How was yours?


 
P.S. My blogging may be sporadic, but my love letters are not. Want to get a little ray of sunshine in your inbox every Monday? Sign up here!



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Thursday 9 March 2017

Finding your style


When I went back to school to become an x-ray technologist, I had just turned 28, and I was in a style crisis. 
Throughout my life, I have experimented with all sorts of different styles: girly, tomboyish, outdoorsy forest gal, the "I-want-to-hide-my-body" phase (less style, more major body crisis), gypsy (for an entire summer, I wore nothing but long skirts and tiny white tees), and always, in between, the "whatever-makes-me-look-skinny" approach to clothes. 

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Tuesday 7 March 2017

Lost in a confusion of colours


Guys, I feel like I have been stuck in a bizarre purgatory, and I just emerged today, gasping for air, blinking in the sudden light of day. 
For the past four days, I've been all-consumed by the frustrating search for the right colour. 

I stopped doing yoga. 
I stopped showering.  
I stopped social media. (Kinda.)
I stopped writing. 
I stopped eating. (Bahahaha, just messing with ya - it takes way more than that to make me stop eating!)
It was all about the colour - I needed to find the right COLOUR*!

*For our bedroom/my office.

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Wednesday 1 March 2017

Best of February


It's March! Which means we are one big step closer to spring! Come on, spring, you can come any day now - we are (not so patiently) waiting for you 🌸🌸 

I used to do monthly recaps all the time. They are wonderful reminders of all the good things that happened in the last little while, because there are always good things - even in months that feel blah, dark, or boring. 

In light of my last emo(ish) post, I thought it's high time to also highlight all the good stuff that happened in February.

At the beginning of the month, I started my new job! After an adjustment period*, I have started to really enjoy it. The staff and patients are extremely nice (or extremely drunk - there seems to be no middle ground), and have welcomed me warmly. I've gotten a few astonished questions along the lines of "You moved here? But why??",  but most people love this little town dearly, and understand exactly why we came.
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