May 1^st, 2005:

That was not a pleasant week, weather-wise. Temperatures around the freezing point, high winds, and snow almost every day. We were on the road every day and didn’t have any problems, but yesterday we noticed a smashed-up car just west of Porcupine Plain. We assume it went into a skid and hit the ditch the wrong way. We just hope that nobody was hurt.

We saw the strangest thing on Wednesday - down by the beach some trees on the road looked as if they had been sprayed with a fire hose on a very cold day. They were covered with a heavy coat of hard ice. Lots of it on the grass, too, and a little motor home parked by the Beach Café had one side of it heavily coated. That was an awful wind, and cold, but it hardly seems so strong as to pick up water and deposit it on bushes a hundred yards away!

But the mystery was solved an hour later - I got a phone call from Elaine Hughes of Archerwill. She had been in the Park, saw the ice, and was fascinated by it. She went to the Park Office to see if they had a camera; they didn’t, but assured her that someone had taken some pictures. They told her that when power was restored after a recent power break, it triggered the Park’s irrigation system. It must have run all night! (There is no way a power break can trigger a switch - someone must have been flipping switches and forgot to turn them off again!)

Coffee was at Dunlop’s on Thursday. There was a little, non-serious talk about politics. Alex says that the word “politics” is made up of two Latin words: “poli” means many, and “ticks”, which are blood suckers. Do you suppose whoever coined the word “politics” had tongue in cheek?

We went to Prince Albert on Thursday and stayed overnight with my sister, Cathy. When we got up on Friday morning, it was overcast, cold, and the ground was covered with snow. We noticed the neighbor having some traction problems and the highway was pretty icy as far as Muskoday. We didn’t have a problem, of course, because we drive a Taurus.

The Beach Café will be open on Mothers’ Day, May 8^th. They will be offering a Mothers’ Day Smorg from 11 AM to 7 PM. Connie tells me it is finally definite - she and Gary have bought the Beach Café, not just leased it. That means they can make changes and upgrades to suit themselves. We are glad to hear it – they did a good job of running it last year, and we wish them every success.

Green Hills Golf & Country Club is also offering a Mothers’ Day Smorg but theirs is later in the day. They have two sittings: 4 to 6 PM and 7 to 9 PM, and reservations are required. Did you know the golf course is now open for the season?

The Cove will open on Monday, May 16^th. Sheryl wants to make sure everything is working properly before she opens the doors! Check out their web page: www.greenwatercove.com.

Rose always opens the Park Store in time for the Victoria Day weekend, so expect that will be on May 21^st.

People ask if we ever stay home, and sometimes we wonder why we have a home. We were in Saskatoon Sunday and Monday, Tisdale on Tuesday, Porcupine Plain and Kelvington on Wednesday, Prince Albert on Thursday and stayed overnight; home again Friday but Doreen went to Tisdale in the evening, and Porcupine Plain and Tisdale on Saturday. Today we are in Prince Albert, attending a camera club function in the afternoon and a Watsonaires concert in the evening. Believe it or not, we have nothing on our schedule for next week, but something is sure to come up. If gas was a little cheaper, we could just drive our motor home from place to place and not have to come home at all!