Gray

A gray house with a
gray roof on a gray day looks
out for signs of spring.

~ carliewired

Spring just isn't moving ahead as I might like. The temperatures are low and the sky is greatly lacking in sunshine. Truly, there are little signs of spring to make us hopeful. Kid#2 has red tulips blooming in her flower beds. They are on a southern exposure. Mine, on the other hand are only inches out of the ground. No sign of flowers what so ever.

It is a run-around day. That's because that is all I have really done all day.

I delivered all my income tax paperwork to the accountants' office downtown before 9 AM. I crossed the bridge and came back to the north shore to collect Kid #2 at the car dealership. Her “wheels” went in for repairs. I took her back across the bridge to drop off an envelope at the lawyer's office. Then I returned her to her house. Not long after, I picked her up to collect the car. While she drove away I took this shot of my house on the hill above the dealership. The house looks rather forlorn. It sits in the remnants of winter. Bare trees. Brown grass.....

Over lunch hour we sorted out temporary permits for the backhoe. It's needed this weekend and has to be driven through town to get to its work site. The poor thing hasn't been used much since my husband was ill. We can't find original papers for it. A very personable young lady at the insurance office waded through all the confusion so we did not go home empty handed. When I delivered the necessary papers, Kid#2 pointed out the apricot trees in bloom. In all the buzzing around I hadn't even noticed.

We have two very old apricot trees on the edge of our business property. They were mature fruit trees when I first came on the scene in 1981. They bloom profusely each spring. Over time they have become a little battle scarred. Sometimes they have been pruned severely with more focus on their overhang rather than fostering shape and productivity. A couple of years ago one tenant wanted them removed because she didn't like the apricots falling into her yard. I said no. These trees outlived those tenants who moved away last year.

In many summers, these apricot trees are loaded with fruit. It is the best. The apricots are sweet and very flavourful. I'm not sure this will be one of those years as I did not see any pollinators while photographing the blossoms. It is just too chilly a spring for any self-respecting bee to be visiting fruit trees at the moment. We can only hope for more sun and more heat.

It seemed fitting that today our Prime Minister announced that Canada is sending CF-18 fighter jets and military personnel to support NATO in eastern Europe. The US thinks there is a plan hammered out to sustain the Ukraine, but it would appear to need some visible support or threat. Gray news on a gray day.