The important news is that I have a sore foot. If you ask “why,” then you clearly did not read my last few posts in which I described my goal to walk 50 km/week in 2015 and my clomping around on hard sidewalks in old clunky hiking boots that I’ve now donated to the thrift store.  The ball of my left foot has been sore ever since. It’s a bruised sort of soreness. I’ve decided it is simply overuse and it will get better if I give it a chance. That might even take a month or two of relative rest.

The important thing is to let it heal so that I can then give it a drubbing in October-November when I walk the Camino again.

I have some part-time work-from-home work that is in a busy period right now, anyway, so I needed to free up some time from walking. My work took me to Ottawa for a few days, where it was -15 degrees Celsius. I then went on to Halifax to admire the ice and snow piled high on my sister’s driveway. It was slightly warmer, but not much. Needless to say, I didn’t do much walking there, either. They got another 30 cm after this photo yesterday.

Here in the Vancouver area we’ve had an extremely mild winter. So I’ve been working in the garden – leveling the veggie patch to get ready for planting, moving rocks around, removing rampant bluebells from everywhere. Here’s the view from our front window.

And here’s the view of the hidden side area where I’ve been collecting rocks from the garden for 20 years.

I’ve also read a bunch of books. You can see them listed on the blog page “Books I’ve Been Reading,” where I have a link to my Goodreads reviews, such as they are. I do want to put in a plug here for 4 fabulous memoirs by Alexandra Fuller about growing up in Rhodesia with eccentric parents (that’s an understatement), and life afterwards. I highly recommend them, especially the first two listed:

• Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight
• Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness
• Scribbling the Cat
• Leaving Before the Rains Came.

Then I read Adult Onset by Ann-Marie MacDonald, which I did not like. Her first Fall on Your Knees was excellent. Then As the Crow Flies was not so good but I thought it redeemed itself in the end. However Adult Onset was boring and depressing from beginning to end.

Final news is that I have some cabbage fermenting on the counter top, turning into sauerkraut (light version). Apparently it will be ready in as little as 3 days.Have I mentioned that I am REALLY enjoying retirement?