FTLComm - Tisdale - March 31, 2000

March came in like and lamb and pretty much stayed that way and there is no doubt about today, for the last day of the month March is also going out like a lamb. It is truly a beautiful day here in Tisdale. The pictures on this page were taken this morning between 9:30 and 10:00 and as you can see the wind is calm, the skies blue and the temperature is working its way up. There was some frost last night but it is quickly disappearing.

Our garden looks like it is well rested with only that little bit of snow tucked in beside the South fence. The front yard looks like a
summer desert scene and
without some rain it is going to stay looking that way. The poor trees having had so many false starts through the winter are a bit confused and though some in the country side are showing signs of activity our trees are looking very dormant.

With the lack of wind and the great sunshine I noticed as I drove around this morning knots of people stopped chatting with one another. Weather has so much of an affect on everything we do and think about. As much as we can we try to ignore our biological nature but the facts
remain we respond to stimuli
and this morning's sunlight is very sociable.

This picture of our street is very revealing as it shows the way things have dried up and it also shows how nice it is to have a mixture of conifers and leaf type trees as the evergreens make this dry scene look so much better.

As I drove by the elementary school the forest of bicycles caught my eye and as you have seen I used one of those pictures to head up this piece. The freedom a bicycle gives a person is remarkable, the ability to move quickly under their own power. I was five when my dad got
me a bike and me into a lot
of trouble. It was an adult bike that I rode under the bar and needed a step or a block of wood to get going. But that did not stop me from peddling the four miles out to my mother's family farm.

For reasons I can not explain children today behave so much better. They do as they are told much of the time and they seem not to engage in the wild adventures that we did two generations back. I wonder about that!

Well there are other signs of seasonal change that need to be noticed and despite the high price of gasoline we
are out and about in our
vehicles even more peddling or otherwise and the ravages of winter have once again left their mark.

Cracks in the hard surface of a street admit water into them which freezes and when water freezes it expands and the result is pulverised pavement. This is a really elegant pothole developing on a residential street. After all the street resurfacing of last summer it is likely that only a few patches will be part of this year's programme.

When you drive around any neighbourhood in any community it is amazing to
see how many dwellings are
fitted with these direct viewing dishes. Here are four hanging off an apartment building.

The Drama festival continues at TMSS today and cast and crew members of each of the competing schools can be seen around town. As I drove by the Seven Eleven this morning a group of students were seen at the doorway awaiting a rehearsal or a performance that begins at 1:00 this afternoon.

So ends the month of March in this new century. Going out like it came in sheep's clothing.

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