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Thursday 23rd April 1998. What a lovely day again today. Spring in Canada certainly is an ephemeral kind of thing. Was supposed to finish some painting. That's a rainy-day job and I really needed to get some sun. Decided to drive over to Mary Maxim in Paris. That's a very pleasant drive through Cambridge and along by the river.

(Link to Mary Maxim at end of this page)

I could never really understand why Canada decided to go metric, as the States is more-or-less Imperial - apart from their gasoline measure, which is slightly smaller than Imperial. It must be very confusing for our visitors from the South.

Just yesterday it was on the news that (since the 1st April) the States are now asking Canadians to take all kinds of identification when crossing the border. This should make for queues of traffic up to eighteen hours long, so they say!

The spring flowers are all out now and the air is so clean, smelling of pine, hyacinths and daffodils.

Think I will put a counter on the page now. It seems ironically that the Internet may be one place to put a diary, to absolutely guarantee no-one will read it!

Sunday 19th April 1998. Decided today to turn this diary around and put the latest first.

The weather seems to have settled down to being regular spring - with showers, temperatures about 14ºC. Yesterday I had the lawns rolled. The frost heaves the ground into mounds like subterranean footballs or little mole-hills. This shakes my lawnmower to pieces. Thus lawns in Canada have to be rolled as soon as they are sufficiently defrosted.

Most gardens in Guelph have "Cilla" bulbs planted in the lawns. These are little bluebell-like flowers. I put some into my lawns last autumn and hope they will spread. (Later in my diary pages I have taken pictures).

It has taken me many years to learn that gasoline really does go bad if you leave it in your machines. I always thought my friends must be "pulling my leg" when they said that. However .. last year was the last time I would be caught out like that! It's really costly to have to get the two-stroke engines cleaned out. My mower now starts first pull, thank goodness.

Finally bought enough rope to pull the bicycles up to the ceiling, using blocks and tackle. It is surprising how much rope this requires - and how effective the leverage becomes.

Today was raining and cool again. Went for a pleasant drive to Long Lane Orchards It's always a pleasure to drive out there. They have an excellent trout-fishing pond. While I was there, a small family came into the store. They were very pleased to have caught four beautiful rainbow trout. This only took about twenty minutes, so they said.

I bought a few Crispin apples (a.k.a. Mutzu). These lovely crisp, sweet apples are the nearest one can buy to Cox's Orange Pippin (which were my favourites in England). Also, a bottle of their apple/cranberry sparkling drink.

On the way home I called in to Swiss Chalet for some barbecue'd spareribs and crisp vegetables. This all went down very well when watching the news.

The weather here has taken a turn for the worse again and I have had a rotten cold - ending up with bronchitis and sinusitis making me feel as tho' I have myxmatosis. Do you remember that disease ? You would never forget - if you were in England in the 1950s:

The farmers of England were fed up with teeming millions of rabbits eating their crops. Eventually they imported from Australia a disease tailored specifically for rabbits,

. The rabbits readily caught the disease, in close contact in their burrows and it spread exponentially. We (as teenagers, wandering around the springtime countryside with our ponies) were appalled at the piteous sight of the rabbits, blind, heads swollen like balloons, staggering in the roads and being smashed by cars. Anyway that's all you didn't want to know about myxmatoses!

On reflection, Western authorities never have taken the common cold seriously. It costs industry billions in errors, lost productivity etc. The Brits closed their research station - giving up hope that a cure could be found - and thereafter people seem to go about their business trying to ignore their horrible symptoms.

Actually, Saddam doesn't really need to go in for expensive research on new kinds of virus. All he needs to do is put a few of his people, suitably infected with colds and flu, onto airliners or cruises. We spread these virus as exponentially and ignorantly as the rabbits. The resulting chaos to western commerce would be very satisfying to him. .. Sorry, but I'm always ticked off about inconsiderate people who try to ignore their colds - and then spread them to others.

Besides that .. I had to miss the Rotary Club Travelog last night. I always enjoy that each month - and it was the last one for the season.

Eventually I decided to get blocks and tackle. What do they call these things in Canada! Even after thirty years, sometimes I feel as though I am speaking a foreign language.

At the hardware store I was assured that a single wheel "pulley" would be all that was required to halve the weight. (I think he didn't do much physics / levers at school). Oh well, after finding the single wheel did not cause any lever effect at all, I returned next day with the single wheel and exchanged it for two double wheels and a figure 8 cleat with 40 ft. of rope.

This works beautifully and I can now easily pull my bike up to the ceiling with one hand. Makes the place a bit tidier. My friend Geoff explained that each wheel after the first provides a leverage equal to half the weight. Very useful.

Today I received a postcard from another friend who had escaped our Ontario climate for her townhouse in British Columbia. She writes:

"Hi: My time ran out in Waterloo, so thought you'd enjoy a card from B.C. as I have more time here to write.

I'm out at my townhouse here on the island near Sidney.

I love Spring here with all the flowering trees, especially, and the warmer weather.

Sounds like I left Ont. just in time. Thank you so much for the Champagne recipe. We shall try it and let you know if we're successful."

(I have a good recipe for home-made "Champagne". If you're interested, Email to oficserv@sentex.net - or any of the other addresses).

"Expect to be home end of April, as I have flowers to plant etc. Best wishes E."

. Click here to view DogCart.dwg. Oh .. it looks as tho' "dwg" files from AutoCad will not appear unless loaded through an "HREF" command. And .. it doesn't work to try changing the name to a JPG. Also, on my system it opens using my AutoCad Lite. I wonder what happens if one does not have that software. Learn a bit more about html each day!