They say a change is as good as a rest, and I don’t wonder that it is so. This morning we awoke to rain on the roof, the bare parts of the roof, where the snow had slipped down to expose the metal. As dreary as the sky is today, the rain makes for a welcome change.
The neighbours metal roof is shedding, which is always a good sign of warmer weather. It hangs down from their roof in a single thick sheet of ice and snow, that reaches almost ten feet down from the second story roof, waiting patiently for molecules to evolve, so that it can descend with sudden force. Our north roof is still heavily laden with ice and snow, but gravity will bring it down in the next few days, if not today.
The road to our house is as glare ice, water on packed snow. Luckily the road-vehicle traffic, travelling on our road, is slow moving. The highway is clear and wet. How glorious!
Yesterday, an enterprising fellow in a rusty pickup truck drove up our drive. He got out, took a look into the back yard, got back into his truck, backed out the drive again, and got stuck briefly on exit. He had a full load of firewood neatly stacked and well secured on the back of his truck. I surmised he was out looking for desperate customers. The winter has been that harsh here, that firewood is getting hard to come by. He did the tour of the neighbourhood, after leaving our property, and found everyone here adequately supplied for the next few weeks. He moved on to seek more desperate folk.
I really feel that we reached a turning point during the night. Winter has suddenly loosened its grip. It will be many weeks before we catch a glimpse of bare earth, for the snow is still over three feet deep in the yard.
The Atlantic provinces are coping with horrendous winter storms for the last few days, and they say more are to come. What hardy souls, the maritimers!
I have borrowed my first audio book from the online library. I have listened to books downloaded as text files from gutenberg.org, using the computer generated voices on my computer, with text-to-speech. I wondered what the audio book would be like. It is narrated by a human! I am listening to Howard’s End this morning, as I putter about the house, flitting from one small errand to another.
As the rain falls, my spirits rise. Such is spring.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
2°C
Date: 8:00 AM EDT Friday 28 March 2014
Condition: Light Rain
Pressure: 100.3 kPa
Visibility: 6 km
Temperature: 1.9°C
Dewpoint: 1.4°C
Humidity: 96%
Wind: SSE 21 km/h
Quote
“A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.”
Sir Winston Churchill
1874 – 1965
Oh be still my heart — Howard’s End. I have seen it many times, I can’t count. I love that story and probably because of the four stars who are high up on my love-list – Helena Bonham-Carter, Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave, and Anthony Hopkins – love them all. Loved the cottage in the film – it was to die for. I hope the reader has a lovely English accent – which I suspect he/she would have… is it a female I wonder?
I have listened to only a handful of books on tape and fell asleep during all of them!
Bex, the narrator is Nadia May, and she does have an English accent. This is my first audio book, and it may take some getting used to! I find my mind wandering a bit, but it is early in the story still, and usually books don’t capture my interest until I am well into the fifth or sixth chapter. After I hear the whole book I will try and watch Howard’s End again.