We hadn't had a stir-fry in awhile, so yesterday we did. Instead of broccoli this time I used baby bok choy in deference to Irving's expressed taste-choice. Combined with chopped garlic cloves, onion, shallot, cubed yellow bell pepper, sliced mushrooms, the bok choy makes a nice combination. I had marinated a tender cut of beef for several hours in garlic, olive oil and soy sauce, and stir fried it in small squares separately. And this time instead of rice, we had Chow Mein noodles to serve as the platform for the stir-fry. Nice to change ingredients around from time to time.

We had the day before received an email confirming our Wednesday appointments for our first doses of the COVID vaccine. Trouble was, we were supposed to receive an acknowledgement for each of us, since the one we received had only my name and the vaccination number assigned to me for presentation when we showed up at the vaccine clinic. So we had to contact the health ministry again, to have them verify that we had two appointments, fifteen minutes apart, and obtain the identifying vaccination number for Irving. That done, we look forward to next Wednesday, and hope we'll be getting the Pfizer vaccine.

 Another sunny day, and increasingly milder, with little wind. Jackie and Jillie sense when it's not as cold and they ask to go out to enjoy the sun. It's actually the only time our two little spoiled brats will go out on their own; at all other times they want us to accompany them, even if it's only to the backyard. This morning they spent quite a while out on the deck, sunning themselves. By themselves.

It was a little earlier then usual when we set out for our ravine hike this afternoon. We still haven't accustomed ourselves to the strange sight of the street looking utterly naked; all the accumulated snow and ice that had been acquired over winter has now melted. And everywhere else we look on the street it's obvious that the snow is finally retreating. Next, needless to say, comes the muck-period between the snowpack melting and the ground drying out. We'll tackle that challenge when we come to it.

The really icy conditions underfoot have now undergone another transition. What had been glassy-hard and slippery up to yesterday is now soft and mushy. Improving footing, of course, but also slushy and on the inclines, ascending and descending hills, tending to be just as slippery. You take a step forward and your foot slides backward. But progress is made at the cost of energy expended.

We can hardly believe it, but the incursion of non-ravine-trotting community members has come to an abrupt end, from our experience the past week. Those that we do see are people we've known for ages. The regulars who come through the ravine from far points of the community, one area after another. So we tend to stand around and talk, and those talks largely feature the weather and the novel coronavirus.

Everyone is in agreement that the health authorities from local municipal to provincial to federal, have all performed poorly. Mixed messages have confused everyone; not just the public but the medical community itself. Poor decision-making on the part of the federal government has failed to stimulate people to any level of appreciation that they really know what they're doing. One of our friends whose wife is confined to a wheelchair must make arrangements to get her to a central vaccine clinic. One might think it to be more advisable to have units of the local health authority visiting the homes of these people to administer doses.

Our conversations were not all about those two topics, however. One of our friends told us of an experience she had shared with another. Both had been walking together a few days ago; one with her three border collies, the other with her husky. At one point one of the trails loops around adjacent to the back of a street and some distance away the backyards of the houses on the street can be seen. At one of the houses there was a bird feeder and on the ground under the feeder, a squirrel was enjoying seeds.

 

The husky crept around behind a shield of trees and moved suddenly and quickly to leap the fence, then pounce on the unwary squirrel who did not live to tell the tale of a narrow escape. The home owner had evidently been looking out his back window at the time, and had seen the unfortunate little drama. He came barrelling out of the house breathing fire, cursing and demanding that the women be more responsible, and keep the husky on leash so it could be controlled.