'Ssup?

After a wonderful full-family weekend at the cottage, we returned to the Lodge, a portion of which is now a construction zone.

We are undergoing yet another bathroom re-modelling and renovation project, and work started bright and early on Monday--yesterday. Well...early, anyway. No such thing as "bright" in the upper reaches of the Northeast.

Yesterday was demolition day and appliance and fixture and baseboard removal and patching and adding a ceiling over the laundry enclosure and bumping out its front wall and pulling up the flooring.

Today was priming and some paint edging and re-doing the wiring for the new light fixture and I'm not entirely sure what else because I try not to be too obnoxiously curious, while at the same time keeping up with progress.

And I was on a conference call which lasted nearly 2 hours.

And for a little while, the sun shone for the first time in about a fortnight, and temperature soared to 80 degrees. It didn't last...the rain clouds and raindrops soon returned, and the air cooled.

I made the most of the dry spell to prune the giant forsythia (something I've been meaning to do for oh, 3 years) and the other one and the wisteria. I also cut away some remaining dead wood on my rugosas. The roses are so leaved out, they are loving all the rain. So, alas, are the weeds.

In the front yard there's a very young, almost a baby chipmunk that I love to watch. It hops about like a teeny tiny kangaroo as it learns how to live the chipmunk life. I call it Roo. It won't be long before the painted turtle females return on their annual nest-digging and egg-laying pilgrimage.

After the Chap came home and just after I (finally) started my ballet workout, he let the dogs inside. I've never done the workout with them in the house before. They came racing downstairs to see what I was doing. Ruth was soon distracted by the favourite chew toy. But Jewel always wants to be as near me as possible. So when I stretched out upon the floor for the series of stretches (which work the abdominals, the calves, the thighs, the bum), my crazy dog lay down on her back right next to me, legs raised as if she was copying my movements. She stayed there until I was nearly done. I could hardly concentrate for laughing--which is also good for the muscles! What a silly girl.

News from tornado-ravaged Joplin, Missouri is so heartbreaking...and in many ways inspiring. The strength of those affected by the disaster is not only uplifting, it represents the best of the human spirit in the face of nature's harshness. I've not yet donated...something we tend to do after the initial heavy flow of donations subsides somewhat.