A Week of Ups and Downs

We could be talking about the weather, or our ability to get outside and do some spring chores.

We were blessed with a few rather pleasant days, followed by the inevitable threat of snow, rain, real snow, and then cold winds.

Last Friday we accessed our potato pit and removed part of the potatoes and the bucket of carrots stored there.

It was a lovely day with lots of wonderful crocus in full bloom.

I had a brief respite to attend The Celtic Thunder concert in Halifax, which was very enjoyable. The audience seemed to be a very mixed crowd......from the "oldies" like me to young people who were very enthused. It was very well done, and wisely included Rita MacNeil's "Working Man". Halifax and Sydney were the beginnings of a Canadian tour.

We had a brief chat with one of the "transport" guys who found Sydney to be a very quiet town but thought Nova Scotia was a beautiful place.

I seem to be having a very "Irish" touch the last few weeks, from the Black Donnellys to some CBC coverage of the Irish heritage of Quebec, and the history of the Titanic's origins in Belfast.

To my knowledge, I do not have any particularly strong Irish roots.

We had a brief wander through some of the Rhododendron Nursery beds yesterday. We are debating whether we will bother with a sale jaunt to the ARHS Member Sale this year.

It would be a lovely thing if we could encourage more Members to pay us a visit here, and perhaps relieve us of some of the many surplus Azaleas and Rhododendrons.

There are a lot of broken branches here and there courtesy of harsh winter storms.

The cold days aren't overly encouraging. It will be a while before we can tell if there is much bud damage. Cautious optimism would seem to be the order of the day.