february

having visited the great white north, i can honestly report that no amount of snow and clod blastly weather diminishes my enjoyment of the smell of ice. apparently the boys have inherited this bizarre condition, and we went ice skating each day while we were there. they went from wobbly to confident, and it was a joy to watch. by the time we left on monday, we had a routine of getting up, putting on layers after breakfast and hitting the outdoor rink downtown, armed with skates, donut holes and hot chocolate. what a brilliant weekend! they can't wait to visit the local rink in town and are more excited than ever to go to the hockey games.

settling in has happened slowly, a gradual affair involving checking in with kittens, warming the house back up, buying groceries, cooking and suchlike. we picked up gabriel from jax and mags yesterday and enjoyed having our dinner-and-overnight again. it is good to be home and amongst friends once more.

Tiger is blossoming into a fine man. He impressed me by stating that he simply 'needed' to get flowers for his Valentine, a young lady at school, whose favourite colour is pink. I asked him how he knew that, and he said, "Mom, she wears it all the time." Well. Who knew he could be so observant? He wrote the card himself, and delivered the flowers at school, much to her delight. The deep pink spray roses with lavender statice were a fine choice, and i think the red vase set them off perfectly. They each selected flowers for me as well, and I feel blessed beyond measure to have such fine upstanding and loving men in my life. I am beamingly proud, of course.

The thesis work calls me today, as I have some pages to turn in next week. I am enjoying both the research and the writing. No matter what comes of this, I am learning and exploring and investigating, and it feels overwhelmingly good.

This weekend is the baronial investiture, and I am looking forward to it. I finished the calligraphy on the invitations to Queen's Tea and think that the group effort is quite something to behold.