Early morning weather didn't present a very auspicious outlook on the day when we left the house for my day-after assessment of my eye after yesterday's cataract surgery. It was a chill 4C with a brisk wind and darkly overcast. On yesterday's drive to the eye clinic we had seen a flock of wild turkeys, today there were Canada geese, like the turkeys browsing on National Capital Commission land close to the RCMP stables. The forest alongside the Eastern Parkway following the Ottawa River is coming to life again. There are quite a few weeping willows along that drive and they're already lush with green, though none of their companion deciduous trees appear anything like ready to begin leafing.

 

 

The weather had its effect on the river; it looked dark, menacing and choppy. It's quite swollen, the water level noticeably higher than usual. But there's no more ice or snow to be seen anywhere, and that's real progress. The drive was uneventful. The clinic was busy, but I was seen speedily for a change, and the examination went well. Although the surface of my eye is swollen still, all other indications are excellent. By next week's follow-up examination I should be returned to normal. And I'm already taking advantage of the change; my vision has improved; colours more crisp and there is greater clarity in that eye.

 

Instead of driving right home we drove over to the Byward Market. We haven't visited it in well over a year. And even in that relatively short length of time there have been astonishing changes. Ottawa is on a construction spree. As well, many of the century-buildings have been given new facades. Unhappily, many of the little old shops that we were familiar with from years back are no longer in business. The magazine shop was, though, and Irving picked up a few of the otherwise-hard-to-get art magazines he's interested in. 

 

Only one of the specialty cheese shops was still in operation, and it's under new management. Irving wanted to get a jar of the fish roe he was accustomed to sourcing there, but it was on back order. He did manage to pick up some specialty cheese he's unable to get anywhere else, so the trip wasn't a complete failure. The streets directly in the market were fairly full of people; the area is a favourite with tourists.

 

When we were finally back home again, two frantic little puppies greeted us hysterically, but they calmed down eventually, and once a little pan of post-breakfast scrambled eggs was prepared for them they had forgotten their panic and settled down to wait while we  had our own breakfast; a late-late breakfast we took our time with, catching up with the newspapers.

The temperature began to rise, and the sun emerged. It was turning into a lovely day, after all. (I can hardly believe how crisp print looks now, following my eye surgery!)

 

So we gathered ourselves for an afternoon hike through the forest to take advantage of our leisure hours and the weather. For the first time I shed the cleats on my boots. Irving had done that days before when there was still ice on part of the trail system. I finally felt confident enough to do the same. Jackie and Jillie had been reminding us that we haven't yet been out, so they were more than prepared to commence with their daily patrol of the trails.

 

The forest floor is well on its way to drying up, not nearly as muddy as it's been for weeks. It seems to us that it used to take much longer for the transition from winter to spring than it does now and the drying-up period also took longer. No complaints whatsoever. 

 

We weren't the only ones anxious to be out in the fresh air, exercising our limbs, appreciating the day. Some of Jackie and Jillie's friends were out as well, and there were times when a friendly congregation surrounded Irving, urging  him to divest himself of the burden of carrying around cookies they could just as easily relieve him of.

Some days just transform themselves into errand days. Things pile up and nag that they've got to be done and there is simply no way to avoid devoting a day to them.  When such errands demand attention and they exclude Jackie and Jillie they're indignant about it, hardly believing we could be so cruel as to leave them alone together at home while we go about duty-calling.

By some strange alchemy they know on Tuesday mornings that we'll soon be absent. As a result their behaviour is entirely different from normal. Jackie expresses his upset emotions by feeling ill and refusing to eat. Jillie will never turn down an offer to eat, but she too mopes in the knowledge we're about to leave the house and our absence will suddenly change the familiar comfortable interior of the only place they've known as home into a hostile, bleak place that holds them prisoner.

Subtle changes in our morning routine inform them of what is on the near horizon. This morning, as we prepared to leave the house, they both took themselves upstairs. We could hear their not-too-distance-muffled upset whining that soon turned into howls. They were on the bed in our bedroom and in deep mourning.

All was forgiven when we returned, shopping done with. The supermarket was busier than usual, which means at that time of the morning there might have been a dozen shoppers in a fairly large interior. From the supermarket we went to the bank, and from there to the pharmacy to pick up our ordered medication. After a breakfast that Jackie refused to eat we hauled ourselves out to the ravine for our usual hike-about.

A lovely, lightly cool, mightily windy, half-sunny day that reached 16C at its peak, Jackie and Jillie poked on ahead of us, off leash. There was a handful of other people about, but not that many that we felt they would be better off leashed, so they had the freedom to roam about here and there, always in sight. It makes for a more satisfactory leisure and adventuresome route for them, though they never complain when they're leashed.

Soon as we got back home, we prepared to go right back out again. This time, knowing we weren't heading out to do the food shopping, they pranced and leaped about us, insisting on coming with. And they were meant to, because we headed off to their appointment with the groomers. Another separation, more wailing, but they knew where they were and what they were there for. We returned an hour and a half later to pick them up, but in the interim there were other errands to take care of.

We dropped by Staples office equipment for printer ink cartridges. Not to enter the store, but to speak to one of the store clerks in the parking lot, to explain what we needed so he could get it for us and we could pay by credit card. All stores other than those deemed critical, are closed for the next three weeks under 'stay-at-home' orders resulting from ongoing spikes in coronavirus cases.

From there we drove to the pet-food store that we usually shop at. It too was not 'open' to receive the physical presence of shoppers. A long table fitted across the entrance doors kept clients outside the store and from the cash register in the interior hard by the doors, a clerk took our order then went off to fetch the large bag of Acana dog kibble we use for Jackie and Jillie, produced in Alberta.

Jillie

 We finally picked our two little rascally companions up, each handed to us outside the door of the spa by one of the attendant/groomers, both puppies perfectly groomed, their legs frantically flailing the air as they tried to leap from the groomers' arms to ours. Throughout all these transactions everyone masked and careful to maintain distancing. How our lives have been altered....! 

Jackie