Parachuting in from my desperately overfull real world to touch base with you all, to say that yes, I am still here. Feathers (if I were a bird) ruffled, fur (if I were a cat) stroked backwards, the opposite of easy in my mind.
It’s been an eventful month, March 2018 has. Some good stuff, some blissfully funny, some simply bad, some desperately sad.
As regular readers of these posts know, early on in the month I crashed my car (bad!) but everyone involved came away mostly unscathed (good!) Which I think rather started things; it’s been roller-coastering ever since.
Subsequently we’ve all sorts of out of the ordinary things happening, too many to detail, but here are a few examples.
There’ve been a series of vet visits with a couple of our problem creatures: an elderly farm dog with a knack for raising the ire of the cow with the most accurate dog-bashing kick, and a stray cat who wandered in and won our hearts, to the extent that we have officially adopted him and set in process that whole thing where he’s being vet-inspected and neutered and vaccinated and then introduced properly to the rest of the very well-entrenched cat tribe. All seemed well, but then the poor fellow started up an infection from an old war wound, plus he developed a vaccine reaction, necessitating multiple extra veterinary visits, dollars being tossed about with wild abandon. No good deed goes unpunished, I guess – isn’t that how the story goes?
The very weather has been messing with us. It’s been unseasonably cold many days, and very snowy. But then one warm day last week some of that snow melted too fast, and our road washed out. (It’s now fixed.)
Another blip, as we almost ran out of firewood for our plant nursery greenhouses, when our usually reliable wood guy broke down one weekend and then fell ill with the flu the next. We’ve managed to forage a load ourselves to keep things going, but the stack is getting mighty small – a more than niggling worry. Tonight the forecast is for minus 14 degrees Celsius, which means one of us will be up in the wee hours, putting more of that precious wood on the stoves and tinkering with the fans.
Al of this stuff has turned out to be utterly trivial, though, as something truly awful has happened, putting all this day-to-day fussing and fretting into absolute perspective.
The phone rang several mornings ago, with my elderly mother-in-law on the line. My husband’s oldest sister had just died, very suddenly. She had been having some health issues with a lung condition, but it had seemed to be under control.
We’re all still in a state of shock, I think, trying to process the news. So very unexpected.
What fragile things our lives are. Take nothing for granted, it can change in a second.
Please go give your close-by dear ones a hug, and maybe call those far away.
Here’s hoping my next post will be an utterly mundane thing about books. Well, April is a whole new month, isn’t it?
Wishing you all a peaceful and happy Easter (for those that celebrate it), and a kindly spring, as the days get longer and the warm time comes again. Except of course for those in the other hemisphere – best wishes for a gentle seasonal change where you are, too.
One foot after the other, keep stepping along.
Leaves & Pages 
So very sorry for your loss and for your truly awful month. Here’s to April and some fine weather and hopefully some better luck for you.
Thank you, Harriet. We’ve been mostly rolling with the punches, finding the glimmers of humour in each “Now, what?!” thing, but this last one has been absolutely sobering. Didn’t see that coming. This is the third sibling in my husband’s family who has died (much too young) in the past few years; difficult times emotionally for everyone, in particular his mother, who is now in her eighties. She’s coping very well – a strong woman in every sense of the word! – but it’s just plain hard. No way around this sort of stuff, just have to work through it.
Sincere condolences and best wishes for an improved spring… for us all. March has been tough for many people.
I’m new at following your blog (through Feedly), so I don’t ‘know’ you yet, but I wanted to add a comment expressing sympathy with your trials and tribulations and now deep sorrow in the month of March. I hope April is better for you and for your husband’s family as all of you absorb your loss and begin to adjust to this new normal.
So sorry for all the horribleness you’ve had – it *has* been a hard month in many parts of the world and I hope things take a turn for the better for you. Sending positive vibes.
How awful – I’m so sorry for your loss. What’s the saying? If you’re going through hell… keep going. Sending positive thoughts for a better spring.
I’m so sorry for your recent difficult and sad losses. Let’s hope April brings sweet and welcome light.
Hereby my Consolation, poor dear Babs!
Day after day spring’s glory vies with the glorious sun.
Sloping roads to the hill city smell of flowering almond.
How long before the heart’s threads, all cares gone,
Float free for a hundred feet with the gossamer?
Li Shang-Yin (812?-58)
Translation A.C. GRaham
Marijke Stapert-Eggen
Holland
So sorry for your troubles, and hope the future looks brighter. Happy Easter…
Sorry to hear about all that happened to you last month.
Let’s hope that April will bring spring and good news.
Oh honey, I’m so sorry to hear this. Please pass along my condolences to your husband, and y’all will be so much in my thoughts. I’m so sorry y’all are having such a difficult year so far. I wish you a world of good things.