It has been a long time, my friends, since I’ve had the time or—sad to say this—the inclination to sit here in front of my computer to share my thoughts and ideas with you. While you may not have missed me, I have missed you: you let me spout and share. Sometimes you comment. Often you are silent. And I am always pleasantly surprised when someone tells me she has been reading my blog but never commented.

    I am quite busy at work. But this is no excuse to miss chatting with friends. But please allow me to share that I am finding life a little too frantic to allow me to slow down and formulate thoughts. Perhaps I should take up yoga again, as my chiropractor thinks I should?!

    But perhaps what I am feeling simply reflects the world around me (as a Pisces’ life is wont to do). There is general unease about the economy, about losing (and finding) a job, about the future. The tired maxim of slowing down to appreciate the simple things seems, well, tired. But, taking a deep breath to still the whirring and buzzing of my blood and atoms is a good thing. Fortunately, it is much easier to do now that Spring has arrived.

    I have not taken a lot of photos recently, nor have I taken walks through my neighbourhood. But my hard work from last Spring is paying off with a lovely maturing rock garden that makes me smile every time I look at it. And now, as we approach the end of May, the lily of the valley is in bloom along the side of my house. As I stood in my kitchen making a

    Later, after visiting the Apple store in the Eaton Centre, I found this gentleman “posing” for his supper. Because he was doing his thing at the south entrance where, it seems, the smokers congregate, he had gathered quite a crowd. As you can see people wanted their photos taken with him. He was good: posed for a long time then changed poses when someone put money in his hat. He had the Elvis music on. His coat twinkled in the sunshine. People were smiling. I guess you can’t ask for much more than making people happy.

    Last Thursday night, we got back to our end-of-winter chilliness and we awoke to frost on ground—and on our cars. Friday morning, a wintry start to the day by defrosting the windshield and scraping the windows. And a last-minute decision to grab my camera. A spectacular sunrise always makes me want to take photos; but Friday morning was a gentler sunrise: pink-hued and softened by a mist, there was still something inviting about the morning. So, while I waited for my car to warm up, I took some photos of the bay. Here, the sun rise over the now-open bay: the ice melted last weekend. But there was frost and stillness in the park.

So I had another birthday on Saturday, and part of the celebrations were with girlfriends—Carrie and Eleanore—who have been my friends since high school. We don’t like to refer to each other as our “oldest” friends because we don’t consider that a happy descriptor. I like to say they are my longest-lasting friends. And, as the card they gave me stated, “we’ll always be friends because we know too much about each other!”

    My friends want to encourage my writing and perhaps even my drawing or sketching, from which I’m really far removed nowadays. But I love this journal and may take up my journaling. Particularly because this book came with a great “Suggested Reading” list from Ms. Laurin. I checked out a couple of the blogs and