Cooper & Spicy's Kingdom : Spring has sprung

Sunday 21 March 2021

Spring has sprung

Hello everyone and happy Sunday! We're enjoying a beautiful Spring day, as such today's blog is being written on the deck. It feels so good to be outside!

All is good with us. We had a good last week of Winter. We still have some snow in the backyard but I suspect it will be mostly gone by the end of this week. Spicy is already in the "I only want to walk on snow" mode... avoiding the grass at all cost! Cooper doesn't care. Walking on the snow is a good thing anyway, keeps the paws cleaner. Yesterday, we went for a walk by the lake and both got pretty dirty. Russell had to do a thourough wash up when we got home. That time of year...muck and ticks. Yep, the ticks are apparently out and about.

The vaccination is going well in Quebec. I suspect my age group will open up in a few weeks. I look forward to getting my jab. Everyone I talk too is starting to feel a little better about this pandemic. It's far from over and there is still lots of unknown but we're going in the right direction.

On Friday night, we had an impromptu FaceTime with June, a staff of our favorite hotel in Barbados, Southern Palms. It was nice to talk to her. The hotel is open with skeleton staff, basically no tourists to speak of. Barbados still has a morning and evening beach curfew. Russell watches the beach on webcam every morning. It's very quiet. We hope and pray that the island recovers from this. Travelling is not on our radar screen by any stretch but when it is, we hope to go back to Barbados. Much too soon to plan anything but we can always dream.

Our pooches are doing well. They both had their monthly bath today...needless to say, we're not going for a walk. Let's keep them clean just for one day! Cooper had another B-12 injection last week. His weight continues to be stable. He goes back for a quarterly check up and blood work with the internist at the end of April. Spicy is doing well also. Both are full of life and are happy pooches 😊

Russell continues to make progress on his Family tree. Last week, as it was St-Patrick's day, he decided to dig into his father's line, and in particular his father's mother - Mary Ellen Scullion, a very Irish lady. The Scullions have been giving Russell challenges for a long time, with much difficulty in tracing records. Russell told me he used an untried method to try to break this dead end on the Scullion line, using a feature that allows him to see who else might be looking for the same person he is researching. Must have been the luck of the Irish because a major discovery was made yesterday. Not only did Russell find more Scullion ancestors, he also found new 3rd cousins, the Birds. Two of them, Sue & Deb, live about 15 minutes away from us. We actually visited them in Barbados a few years ago. In an almost unbelievable twist, Russell grew up in the same neighbourhood with these cousins and they never knew there were related. It seems that Russell's great, great grandfather and the Birds great, great grandmother were first cousins. You can imagine the excitement that came with this discovery. He was quick to let them know! Russell actually went to grade school and high school in the same classes with Gary Bird, his newfound cousin. An interesting bonus discovery is that the name Scullion likely came from the work of his ancestors as they toiled away in a scullery (small dingy kitchen) and hence became known as Scullions. Fascinating stuff!

That wraps up my blog for today. The rest of our afternoon will be spent on the deck, with the music on. I wish you all a great week. Stay safe and healthy!