I can breathe, but I can't speak.

Five months ago, for Christmas, we got an air exchanger for the house. Because when you have asthma and allergies, and a long haired dog, and a long haired cat, and unfinished dry wall and floors, and a wood stove, - air quality is important.
Like all our renovations we started off with great gusto, and then when the project was 80% installed we stopped and went back to doing other things. Now that the weather has become almost summer like (27 degree today) and we can open the windows for fresh air, we decided that the last step of installation could be completed. It was humming (or hissing) along for me when I got home from work yesterday. Peter thinks it looks like a robot and has taken to calling it Marvin. The installation guy also defrosted the deep freeze while he was at it. Thanks Sweetie.

It may be psychosomatic but both Peter and I feel that the air in the house is a lot cleaner, even though it has been only a few hours. One of the ways we can tell is when the sun comes through the window pane, the beam of light doesn't get dispersed through a haze of grey dust, dander and soot, but actually hits the floor. And neither of us woke up with the sniffles this morning.

Waking up with sniffles is actually something I got used to a long time ago. It usually gets worse in spring with the pollen, and sometimes the allergies give me a sore throat. That is why, when I woke up last week with a sore throat I just took an antihistamine and went to work anyway. Three days later it still wasn't better and then I lost my voice. That was last Saturday. I have been voiceless for a week now, although the course of antibiotics that the doctor prescribed seems to be working and I can almost talk.
My doctor insisted I stay home from work for two days unless 'you don't have to go outside, do physical labour or talk." Pretty much sums up my job. She said I couldn't go to work, but she didn't day I couldn't go shopping, so I took advantage of having a week day off to prepare for an art fair I am doing in June. I feel so ahead of the curve. (I'm sure that feeling will go away)
It was the worst possible week to get sick though. I was preparing a 'special' street planter to be part of the Alliance of Kings Artists summer art series Unommon Common Art. The planter was due to be finished by Monday, and since Monday is a holiday here, it had to go out Friday. So I went to work Friday and did a lot of mime for my co-workers. All of who had something clever to say, along the lines of "Today is a good day to argue with Jane" and "Gee, Jane, you're almost the perfect woman."

It did get finished though, and the idea is that by the end of summer, the plants will envelop the bicycle and it will disappear. This is the plan, but tonight we are scheduled to get frost, and there is always the worry that enterprising young hoodlums may try to throw it in the harbour, so I took a picture now for posterity.
In case you are wondering, no, I did not get frustrated with my cycle riding and trash my own bike. This was on found on the street, along with a lot of other debris as the university students vacate all the rental units for summer.

In training (I'm such a jock, not!)

Started riding my bicycle for the charity ride I do for brain cancer research in June. This is my second day out. I rode in March when we had the hot summer 24 degree freak weather week, but that was just a quick ride to the store in the village, a mere 2km. My ride today was from Habitant to Medford and back. Google maps tells me it was 8.2 km. That's less than 1/5 of my goal as the charity ride is 50km (not 25 like I thought )
Amazingly I didn't feel that bad afterwards. Possibly I will be singing a different tune tomorrow. I think the yoga and physio I have been doing are really helping but by the end of the ride I was wishing I had dug out my cycle shorts.
While I was cycling I was keeping an eye out for our dog pool. We bought a child's wading pool for Willow last year, and it was in the shed of the winter, but we pulled it out to put the snowblower and generator away for summer and left it out without water in it. It blew away in one of those windy days we had. Our winds blow west to east, so I expect it fetched up on a hedge row between some farm fields between here and Kingsport. No luck, but perhaps I will go ask at the vineyard if they have seen it.
Thaks to everyone who has donated to my ride, if you haven't already you can do so by clicking here http://pmhf3.akaraisin.com/teamed2012 and click on Sponsor a Participant to find me and donate.
No picture of my route today. I didn't think to take a camera, but here is a photo of some tulips I planted by the greenhouse last fall.

Spring is Here

I know that Spring really has happened this time, unlike all those false times in the last 2 months or so because the branches I pruned a few weeks ago have finally started to bloom. I put these peaches and pears in the studio, which stays quite cool at night because the wood stove is only on while I am in there. The electric heaters are set to 6 degrees to keep the clay from freezing and so these didn't force as quickly as the ones in the house. But now even though I went to my parents house for Easter and I haven't had to use the wood stove for several days it is now warm enough to force these into bloom.
Just watched on the new tonight that the peaches and apricots in Ontario flowered ages ago in the early spring and they are worried about frost still. It hasn't been that warm here. The daphne bloomed a few weeks ago but the forsythia is still bare.
Curling season is over and I start back to work next week. This is another sign of real spring. To compensate for no curling I am starting yoga tonight in Kingsport. This is really just an excuse to avoid cycling for a while longer. (I need to limber up first...) I have already been on my bike though, I cycled to the store for something in March when we had three days of summer weather. I need to do more of this so I don't die on my charity ride in June.
I'm cycling for Team Ed again this year. Check out my donor page to support the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation in support of brain cancer research. Go to http://pmhf3.akaraisin.com/teamed2012
and click on Sponsor a Participant to find me and donate.
Now, I'm off to yoga. Oooooommmmmmm

Team Ed Ride

The 50 km bike ride I did for charity was last weekend on Sunday. I would have blogged about it earlier but I had to wait until my fingers stopped hurting. This is us before the start, "While we are all still smiling" I think was the quote.
It wasn't so bad really. I had a couple things going in my favour.
Everyone else was ill, with colds or asthma or whatever and that meant that I could keep up with all the regular cyclists most of the time. Yay for viruses!
Also, I have a great bike. I will admit to stressing about my bike before the ride. My bike is so old that when Peter went to buy new tires for it, the guy in the shop told him that Cannondale hadn't made a bike with 24" rims for 20 years. My bike is an antique. And I went looking for a new bike last year and realized that there are a lot of new and improved features to modern bikes, like shock absorbers and more gears and big rims that make mine look like a Model T Ford. Happily, my group were not the up to date, hard core set I was expecting, and I am so grateful for that.
I will admit to being a little intimidated when I learned they were part of a cycling club that did this ride every Thursday evening.
We were 6 in our group and that is a good number. We cycled mostly together, or in twos chatting as the scenery went by. It gave us all a chance to learn more about each other, and I will say that those other five people were an interesting and diverse bunch. This was such a good experience.
I want to add that the best part of getting my bike on the road again is how you feel so much more connected to the scenery. I could smell the lilacs (and the chicken barns) and hear the birds and feel the road surface. When I was practising before hand, I would cycle past people and they would wave, or say hello, or nod. Other cyclist would call out too. I have driven the route we took many times, but doing it on a bicycle made it a completely different experience.

As we passed the end of our driveway, Peter and our friend Lynn were cheering us on with the Dog as Official Team Ed Dog (note the sign around her neck.) I had forgotten to mention the Cheering section to anyone else, so most of the group were wondering who those people were and how they knew we were coming.
On the way back, we stopped in for a photo op and chance to pee.
We had variable weather. It was cool in the morning, and looked very dark and foreboding as we were on our way to the start point at Clock Park in Wolfville. By the time we were at Star's Point it was clear and sunny, we all stripped off our extra clothes in Kingsport and except for the stiff wind sideways on the Port Williams dyke coming back the ride we had excellent riding weather.
The last leg of the ride across the Port Williams dyke up to Greenwich Corner and then the home stretch from Greenwich to Wolfville was the most grueling part of the ride. Besides wind and hills, I could feel my energy waning, and there were a few fleeting thoughts of just stopping and sticking out my thumb to a passing car. Beer kept me going but in my darkest thoughts, I remembered that the Port Pub was closer than Paddy's. I was trailing behind, if I stopped would anyone notice? When we rolled in to Wolfville at 12:10 we all headed for the pub, for the reward of a fry up breakfast and beer.
Between Toronto and Nova Scotia we raised around $5700 for the Princess Margaret Research Foundation. Thanks for all your support.

Team Ed Charity Ride

Every year there is a charity bike ride to raise money for brain cancer research at the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation in Toronto. Team Ed, is a group of people who ride in memory of Ed Poty who died of brain cancer 9 years ago. I didn't know Ed, but I know his wife, my friend Sharon, and she does a ride here in Nova Scotia because she no longer lives in Toronto.
For the past two years, I have participated in the Team Ed Ride by showing up at the end of the ride and eating a greasy breakfast at the pub. I was good with that, but this year Sharon challenged me to do more. Now, as my normal two wheeled conveyance has an 850 cc motor to make it go, I thought this sounded so retro that I had to try it.
Today I put new tires on my bicycle because the ride is in two weeks and I need to get out and practice beforehand so I don't puke. I needed new tires because I haven't ridden my bike for 8 years and when I tried to inflate them last year they exploded. After I put on the new tires, I took it for a spin down the road to Kingsport to see if I could still remember how. It really is like riding a bike. Unfortunately I got as far as the winery (about 800 metres) and decided that was enough for the day. (I'm thinking now that may die. but it is too late to back out because I have registered and have a fund raising page and everything!)
In Nova Scotia, we are cycling from Wolfville to Kingsport and back on Sunday June 5. We are taking the scenic Wellington Dyke route and it will be about 50kms all told. Go to the website and search for my name under participants to sponsor me. If I live, I promise the blog post will be worth it.

http://pmhf3.akaraisin.com/Common/Event/Home.aspx?seid=4111&mid=8