spring

This is what my street looks like this morning:

Leaves budding, grass lush and green, everything in bloom, birds trilling. It's quite amazing that spring never ceases to delight, no matter how old you get. Sometime in April, when the drizzle and the sleet seem like they'll never end, you think to yourself: "Ah, spring will be beautiful, I'm ready for it" But you're not really ready for it. Once the colours burst forth, your amazement is much greater that you had ever suspected. It's fabulous. And although I'd love to live somewhere like California, where it's spring pretty much all the time, I can't help but think that the reason why the heart delights so much and why a song flutters on your lips is exactly because of the oppressivness of winter.

In other news, Hugo was really terribly sick last night. He had been having some stomach and intestinal problems for a while but we thought he was over it. Then, last night we drove up to Aurora and took him along. On the way back we stopped at Bruce Mill Park and had him run for a few minutes. All seemed great, he had a ball as always, running free of the leash. It's only a 20 minute ride back home from the park but Hugo became violently ill in the car. He kept throwing up till there was nothing left but foam. When we finally got home, we thought he'd get better as soon as he left the car (a bit of motion sickness, we thought) but, alas, no. He kept heaving and retching, ran to the back yard and started munching on grass (which, apparently, is something dogs do when in digestive distress). Finally he settled down and slept fitfully, then woke up around 10pm and dry-heaved again. We called the vet for a phone consult but he never called back. Long story short, this morning Hugo seems fine. I took him out for our morning consitutional and he behaved normally (i.e. sniffed and peed on every blade of grass in the vicinity) Now he's curled up on a cool spot on the bathroom floor (unusual! He usually snoozes on a blankie on our bed) and he's deep asleep.

Finally, gigs have been coming fast and furious. Good music making with my main man, Ian MacGillivray (trumpet) and my other main man, Braxton Hicks (clarinet, sax) I've been also working a lot with bassist Abbey Sholzberg recently and with my band Bohemian Swing whose CD is now completed and being pressed as we speak.

May we have a looong and gorgeous spring, a looong and warm (but not too humid) summer and a loooong and beautiful fall. And no winter. Yeah, right!!!