Day 1: Springtime at The Hollow

28 April 2002:

We last set foot at Straw Hollow exactly six months ago, when we stored the contents of our condo in the shed. We then escaped to Mexico and Australia. For years we had dreamed of bypassing the bitterly cold northern winter in favour of of basking on a tropical beach while our fellow Canadians shivered through another northern winter.

We planned to arrive back at Straw Hollow just in time for glorious spring weather, to plant our garden and to congratulate each other on our new "simplified" life. So, maybe we were a little too smug? The scenes on this page show how Straw Hollow looks this morning. Four cm of snow and a daytime high of zero degrees celcius.

On the positive side, we're in great spirits, excited at the prospect of inhabiting and beautifying Straw Hollow all summer long.

The Straw Bale cabin is as warm and toasty as ever, with only one apparent problem. The rain gutters we put up last fall all fell off. As soon as the snow stops, we'll go re-install them, maybe do the job right this time.

But until the weather takes a turn for the better, we'll be making plans, reading and writing, and hoping for a early thaw.

We have a multitude of projects to tackle in order to make Straw Hollow comfortably habitable, and lots of time to accomplish them. First priorities include telephone hookup, well hookup and toilet/shower facilities.