Back in Ottawa

We arrived back in Ottawa yesterday, Friday, just shortly after 4 p.m.

Suitcases and boxes are already empty and stored [Joan still lives up to her nickname 'Zoomer'] and the car is now sitting a long two inches higher.

The two cubic feet of mail has been sorted into 'hers' and 'his' piles, with a huge recycle bag at the ready for the usual sales garbage-mail, and very special deals of a lifetime that we actually can refuse and treat as refuse.

The secondary sort of the hers and his piles has begun and the recycle bag is getting heavier. Now it's a sort by categories such as 'now', 'read later', 'magazines', and the dreaded 'income tax' piles. We should be through it by next weekend. ... maybe.

Joan is at the horse-barn since early this morning, and I'm in the very hot condo doing this short wrap-up. More pictures will follow in the next week or so, then the blog will go fairly quiet since there can't be 'Notes from Away' when we're not actually 'away', right?

Our Trader Joe's orchid, purchased in San Diego in early January still has all it's blooms except for the damaged one that I cut off. This is a well travelled plant: San Diego to Grayton Beach to Ottawa. Our little Publix orchid [Grayton Beach] has lost it's original 4 blooms but the original bud opened in mid March [but is looking very tired and will be cut off] and three new buds were formed with the first of that lot opening about a week ago. Both plants were bare-rooted on Friday morning in preparation for customs, and re-potted at suppertime yesterday. They seem to be in the best shape of the whole collection [9 total at this point].

This winter was by far the worst rain-wise and cold-wise since our winter trips began with my retirement in 1998. The trips became three month odysseys when Joan retired the next year. We stopped camping three years ago and have yet to regret any of our snow-bird escapades, including this latest one. The fact that we had our warmest day this year in upper NY, the day before yesterday was a novelty, and not likely to become the norm. Next year we'll aim to go further south in Florida for the first two months.

I must add that the prospect of driving around, top-down, later today in Ottawa, in very early April, is another first! Maybe this heat wave can last through October?

To those of you who have followed our adventures, I hope you had as much fun as we did. A big 'Thank You' to those who left comments or wrote us directly; your encouraging words are a welcome and unexpected treat.

Here's wishing you and yours a very Happy Easter!