I'm finally finished school - for good. Immediately I went to go spend a week with my honey on his job site. He's rebuilding a huge wrap-around deck in the muskokas, the boards of which had rotted in the shade, so he's had to trim all the surrounding trees, rip up the rotted wood and put down all new joists and decking. While he did all this work, I spent my time relaxing, reading, exploring and cooking.
The area he's working in is just gorgeous and I spent a good chunk of time wandering around through the old muskoka houses left half-abandoned. Families with too much money leave these big old houses badly shut up for winter and then squirrels get in and make a nightmare of the place - but they don't care because maids come in each summer to make it all disappear for the weekend or two they might spend there.
I like being in old homes, the smell of them, the strange sense that you can still feel the generations of people who stayed there. This one house in particular was built before there were even roads in to the place, its owners had to boat everything in on the lake, which is just mind boggling. Unfortunately its current owners have little respect to all the history, and effort that went into the place.
While a lot of the snow has melted away, the lakes are still mostly choked up with rotten ice. Little creaks and streams are sprouting up everywhere, rushing with spring melt. When the sun is out and you're out of the wind, it can be deliciously warm but the nights are still quite cold and the wind nips at bare skin.
It feels like real spring will never get here, I'm still amazed at being able to see the ground. Spring has a habit of just showing up overnight here, you go to sleep and it's cold and miserable and grey and you wake to a world sprouting with green life. Hopefully that day comes soon! Cheers!
