Hope Springs Eternal

Now that Obama is King of the World…er, President of the Excited States, expectations are very high on every side. As a Canadian living in the country right next door my expectations are no less lofty but as a pragmatist I figure there’s only so much one person, even one powerful and charismatic person, can accomplish. But we can only believe. He couldn’t do a worse job than his predecessor anyhow. At least he has brains and a heart which is a big advantage right there. We’ll wait to see how many realities try to trip him up, slow him down or otherwise derail his objectives. All the best to the new Pres! And congrats on the citizens of the US for finally choosing someone who isn’t arrogant, stupid, scary or just plain not suited to the task of leading the world. There’s yet hope for us all.

Enough of that polyticking. On to the housework. I never did the vacuuming yesterday so the dust bunnies still reign supreme around here. I did however clean the fridge and stove and several of the kitchen cupboards instead. Surprisingly it took all afternoon and I was able to leave the door open in the sunshine for awhile to clear out the smoke from the self-cleaning oven. It was lovely and sunny though not particularly warm. Today we’re back to the deep fog again. But the laundry and vacuuming will get done regardless. Hopefully not too many of those dust bunnies will be able to hide in the dark corners only to leap out at me later after I’ve dragged the vacuum back upstairs. I have a swiffer and I know how to use it! That reminds me: I was going to make a washable reusable cover for it, wasn’t I? Or at least two.

After rereading my last post, I realized that I was a bit unclear about the socks. They are not The Ninja’s socks since I finished those ages ago. They are my brother-in-law The Coach’s socks. However, I was planning to give them to Nana to give to him because she will see him before I do. Actually if I could get them done I could give them to her today because we’re taking her out to dinner this evening. Don’t know if that’s possible though with all the other stuff I need to do. I’ll give it a try but no promises. And no killing my arms, hands or shoulders either. I need those body parts intact.

Sadly I finally got a look at my veggie garden now that the snow has melted more. So depressing! My purple sprouting broccoli plants are broken and squashed. Whether they recuperate enough to produce anything is doubtful. My parsley, that I was picking last year clear through winter and into the late spring before it bolted, is squelchy and flattened. The roots might still survive and more leaves will come up from there but it will be awhile. The salad greens in the greenhouse are looking dead, except maybe the onions. I’m sorry the mizuna didn’t make it this year. Even the last few garden beds where I planted the fall rye didn’t get a chance to sprout before it froze and got covered in several feet of snow. I probably won’t know the full extent of what survived and what didn’t for several more months until stuff starts to regrow. Or not. I can see a lot of work ahead of me.

In the rest of our garden there’s been some damage to the shrubs and the bamboo. Broken and bent branches and browning leaves. We have to wait for more snow to melt before we can tackle pruning and staking and assessing what’s left. We just aren’t used to that kind of heavy snow cover here. And neither are the plants.

The sun finally made it through the fog! Best get back to work. Here’s another of the photos I took on Saturday from the Cambie Bridge. In the right background is the Athletes’ Village for the 2010 Olympics. It’s not finished yet and now the city is going to have to borrow money to complete it. All we can hope for is to sell the apartments after the games for enough to recoup at least a goodly portion of the expense. (Arggh. I’m not a sports fan of any sort and could care less. I think the whole thing is a waste of my tax dollars. But I was outvoted.) I also included the area where they dump landfill onto barges (we watched a big one get towed under the bridge) and the crows. I love the crows.


BTW, this is my 800th post! Who’d a'thunk it?