I ran 14k yesterday. It’s the first time I’ve gone that far in one day, and it felt great. I started and ended at the Agriculture Museum of the Experimental Farm in Ottawa, running along the Rideau Canal and over Hartwell locks to Hogs Back and on to Mooney’s Bay. The Agriculture Museum was packed with kids, including my own, who were there with Suzy and one of Suzy’s best friends Michelle and her two girls for egg hunts, bunnies and newborn chicks. It was madness there, but people were smiling despite a sharp spring breeze. The sun was shining. And there seemed to be an air of giddy discovery as if it suddenly dawned on the whole city at once: “Wow, it’s Friday. I would just be sitting at work now. This is way better.” And what could be better, really, than a barnyard full of kids and young parents, with animals and easter eggs and the occasional dashing staffer dressed up as a white rabbit. Funny.
A good Friday.
Today I went to Harry Rosen to buy some new duds for an event at the National Gallery this week and emerged with just a tie. Then I was lured by my sister-in-law into Lucky Jeans and dropped a bundle on distressed jeans, embroidered shirts and a wide perforated belt with a huge bright brass buckle. I felt young. I’ll wear those shirts with loose linen pants and sandals on the patio at the cottage this summer. I live for how the sand makes my feet feel at the end of a long day of exploring at the seaside. Between there and deep in the woods at Walden, summer is all I can think about lately. I’m due. And my summer in PEI is still 3 months away.
You can say what you want about Facebook, but a friend I haven’t seen since grade 3 is helping me find a contractor and to order windows for the cottage reno in PEI. Wade and I last collaborated on building a tree house in Winsloe, PEI in 1977. Sometimes social networks work.
Tonight we’re slipping over to the in-laws for Easter dinner. Simon’s wearing a ninja outfit. Jasper’s got a new DS cartridge. I bought Suzy a new shirt from Lucky. Tomorrow morning there’s the sunrise choir service at Rideau Park. “Christ the Lord is risen today … alelulia!” always makes me cry like a baby with joy and pain because it was Easter just after that service in 2000 when my babies were born and one died.
Some might say I’m lucky. On Easter weekend I’m not ashamed to use the word blessed.
Photo: Outdoor shower at Walden Cabin in PEI. Bliss.
