This Is Not Australia

By this I mean that just because it's spring doesn't mean it'll act like spring. A week ago the temperature reached 14 and we had a picnic lunch outside in one of the back fields. The birds were singing, the sky was cloudlessly blue, the sun was hot, and we were having a lovely time kidding ourselves that this was how it was going to stay. 2 days later it was pouring rain and freezing cold. A few days after that and it was snowing! I have subsequently learnt that you should never expect Canada to do anything in particular. It makes up its own mind.
Last week Mort died of unknown causes. She appeared to have distemper, although when I looked up the symptoms on the Internet she only had some of them. Apparently it's very contagious to other cats and lo and behold, now Manny is exhibiting the same symptoms. Harry tells me older cats are immune so we're not too worried about the other two. On Sunday afternoon we picked up a free kitten to replace Mort. She's ginger and white and extremely cute and we've named her Jay. During her first 24 hours here she attacked anything that moved of the dog, went for a ride on the stable cleaner, tried to run underneath a cow, and swung off a gate with her back feet dangling way off the ground. Obviously she won't be anywhere near as lazy as Mort was. Fortunately she hasn't shown much interest in the other cats, so that makes it easier to keep her from catching any bug floating around.
I've been given a job for a few hours one day a week helping a very busy lady with some general housecleaning, cooking, laundry, gardening, etc. It's not much but it's more than I've had up till now and hopefully it works out that I can use it to supplement my income when I get a 'proper' job. This lady sounds young and enthusiastic and fun to be around.
Harry went to Holland with his older brother for 10 days to visit his relatives. He took the video camera and came back with well over 2 hours of footage which we put on DVDs for him. We've been spending time watching them with him and asking him to translate what the relatives are all saying as he speaks fluent Dutch.
Last night we made a raspberry pie and that, I think, is an awesome excuse to stop typing and go eat! :)