Did I say spring? Maybe now!

Mother Nature clearly decided to hit re-set on spring this week. On Sunday, while the kiddo was out Easter Egg hunting, the temperature was a balmy 6C (43F) and the yard was clear.

By Tuesday evening, the snow was back in earnest. The photo I posted on Wednesday showed the boughs of the poor evergreen tree in the side yard weighed down with the snow. The backyard looked like this:

Over 36 hours we had nearly 10 inches of snow! Eli had day camp in the next door community on Wednesday and Thursday (Easter break). We waited until noon the first day to determine whether we'd drive in. D heard from the group leader who said their community hadn't received nearly as much snow, our roads were clearing, and after shovelling around and behind my vehicle we were able to get down the alley. We were a bit late the first day, as we were stopped by a train. D and I spent our time shopping, the first day at the Dollar store to pick up storage for our new shelving unit, and for groceries on the second day. Nothing exciting jumped into our cart.

Thursday morning, Eli and I spent some time outside. I had asked him if he wanted to make a snowman with me. The snow we got was heavy and wet, perfect for rolling. He had said yes, but when he brought out several other toys, he decided to play in the snow and left me to build. When I finished, I brought out a chair and enjoyed the sun while he played.  

Friday, I ran to the grocery stores here in town for a few groceries that were on sale, or unavailable at our last stop. D discovered we'd gotten water in the basement - with that amount of snow and how fast it melted, it wasn't a surprise. If you recall we had flooding last June in the basement. This was nowhere near as bad - it was mostly in the laundry room area (which has a cement floor). She was able to use the shop vac to clear up any standing water. We will need to buy new extensions for the downspouts as a couple of them have sprung leaks. I had checked for them last week at the Home Hardware, but they only had brown, ours are white. 

It has been quite a quiet week. There was housework accomplished, some sports watching, and I spent a fair amount of time working on ancestry. A distant cousin popped up in a story from 1939, in Pennsylvania, as the wife of a man who had been arrested for the murder of a two year old child. Based on the newspaper articles I was able to locate, the couple were separated, he was living with another woman, a single mother with a young daughter. He became jealous of the child (perhaps because she looked like her father, or because of the attention paid to her), and began physically abusing her. When the couple took her to the hospital where she would die a few days later, he was arrested and admitted to the abuse. I won't get into that, but the newspaper articles were quite explicit and no child should ever experience the torture he put her through. What really made me angry was, although sentenced to a life sentence, the governor commuted his sentence just 12 years later! He remarried a few years later and died in 1986. The mother was indicted as an accessory to murder, but I could not locate what happened in her case, other than she was expecting a child in prison, who died shortly after birth. I certainly went down a rabbit hole on this particular story. 

Meanwhile his wife, my distant cousin returned to Canada and re-married. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find much information about her son (by her first husband) but did locate her obituary. It is noted that he predeceased her and I found information to support that fact. 

Our snow has disappeared quickly, with the temperature reaching 14C/57F on Friday afternoon. It will be even warmer this weekend! I hope to get outside to clear out the shed and work in the raised flower bed. The snow certainly interrupted that work! I also need to transplant several pepper plants and some herbs. The window sill is already full, with tomatoes and herbs so it needs to warm up so the older plants can go out to the front porch. I do know, I won't be planting anything outdoors until mid-May at the earliest. We have a short growing season here.

Whatever your plans for the weekend, I hope you're enjoying sunshine and warm temps. Have a great week ahead everyone!