Day 13 -- ancient athletic tryouts?

I've often wondered why local operators of heavy equipment such as ploughs or loaders seem to have an insatiable need to deposit snow and ice debris on my cleared driveway. This occurs after a storm and even on days like today when there hasn't been any precipitation of any kind. There were major wide tire tracks in the packed snow and ice in my driveway, but not knowing any CSI types, it is unlikely we will catch the culprit.

As I drove down the street on my way home this evening, I had to wait for an ambulance that was stopped to load someone from across the street. None of the people with the individual followed the ambulance, so I'm assuming it was not life-threatening. Once it was clear that no one was on the road or crossing the road, I drove around the vehicle to try to pull into my drive way, which was the next one down. As I was about to swing into the drive, I discovered a line of ice boulders across the entryway. I parked on the street, and muttered as I went into the house to get the shovel. As I got to the task, I was able to loosen all but one ice-rock and several were large enough to have done serious damage to the undercarriage of the 4X4 I drive. The gravel sized bits could be pushed or carried on the shovel, but the larger ones required the hands-on approach. It was then that I thought that I must look like someone practising for the highland heavy games -- specifically for the stone put. Lifting the larger stones of ice and tossing them onto the snow and ice pile on either side of the entry way to the drive. This made me smile -- something I hadn't been doing a lot of while clearing this debris so I could put the groceries away <smile>.

Today we announced much of Team Canada for the Sochi Olympics and I was outside practising for the next highland games to be held in town in July. Somewhere in that is a bit of poetry <smile>. So, in honour of this unexpected physical activity, today's selection will be a celtic folk song -- not a lot of bagpipes in this one, but a beautiful voice and a lovely tune and lyrics.  Even though it is likely more Irish than Scottish, it was the first song that came to my head while heaving stones around today. Enjoy!

Bonny Portmore -- Loreena McKennitt