<sunday may 11, 2003 - 8:20 p.m.>

I am writing this with a glass of white wine in hand. I am stuffed full of fettucine alfredo (home made, full creamed version with real parmesan), baguette from Ace bakery (the best), salad, and citrus butter cream cake. The top button of my jeans is feeling a little tight. This is heavenly.

Why can't every day be mother's day? :)

Saturday: I was hoping for sunny weather and that's what we got. We went to my mother's place to spend the day. She lives in a small house in the village of Marmora, which is almost exactly between Ottawa and Toronto.

When I say "small house," I mean small. You walk inside and to your immediate left is the kitchen and you're already halfway though the living room. Take two more steps and you're past the bathroom and into the bedrooms.

We haven't been for a long drive with the girls in quite some time. I wasn't sure what to expect but they were amazingly good. We didn't even have to resort to the kiddy CDs! The only setback was in Perth, where Emma managed to put a dent in her face.

We were returning to the car after a pit stop. Mark was still inside the restaurant and I was putting the girls in the car, focused on Sarah's seatbelt, when all of a sudden I heard a cry. I looked up and didn't immediately see Emma. This is because she was sitting on the ground on the other side of the car. She had swung the door open and forgot to step out of the way. The result? An actual dent in her upper cheek, with a dab of blood in the middle.

That must have hurt. She cried a lot. And today she has a bit of a shiner.

The rest of Saturday was spent hanging out with my mother and raking leaves around her place.

She lives on about an acre of land of varied hilliness, which is surrounded by trees. Her property has essentially been carved out of a piece of forest, and is one among a bunch of other houses tucked between a lake and a river.

She has an outhouse, which Emma calls the Toilet House. (This makes me laugh, but it's true, it is a toilet house, why is it called an outhouse anyway?)

There is some lawn dotted with trilliums (which I love, they are so pretty), and around the circumference there are twenty or so full-grown trees; evergreens, birch, maple and oak. These are large trees.

Anyway, we were given the task of raking the leaves. I was amenable to the idea of raking leaves on the lawn and in other high-traffic areas. And I didn't know this but she'd already done the lion's share of the work - raking every single day for the past two weeks.

My mother decided that the leaves in the most foresty and hilly areas needed to be swept up too. This would satisfy her compulsive cleanliness as well as minimize the breeding areas for mosquitos. The latter was her rationale.

How hilly? Well, part of it is almost like a little escarpment. I was having trouble staying upright while I sank knee-high into several years worth of decomposing leaf and forest matter.

I raked and tossed and yanked and sweat my butt off. At times I was burning and others I was freezing. (That's spring for you in cottage country.) Mark did the same, but more of it.

While I was doing this, I could think was: I am cleaning a forest. I am cleaning a forest. I am cleaning a forest. Why am I cleaning a forest?

I wondered if nature needed such a good scrubbing. But in the end it looked pretty good. I will admit that much.

I raked in between native and woody plants, ferns and such, most of which I could not identify. My raking and pillaging of leaves revealed leaf compost that most gardeners would give their best trowels for.

As I worked I couldn't help but wonder if it was early for the poison ivy. I kept my eyes open for three-leaved plants as I cleared the fallen debris away.

My mother has plenty of poison ivy on her property. One year she ripped out a bunch and burned it. I explained to her later that this was a serious no-no. (Please don't ever do this.)

During gardening work she always has a fire burning in order to incinerate the waste.

Fortunately the fire itself is contained in a 4 ft high segment of old concrete pipe. I was nervous about letting the kids run around a smoldering fire, but I don't think I needed to worry so much. Every time Sarah went by it she'd say "berrberryhot - hothothot!" I think I drilled it in enough times.

I like the smell of the fire. By the time we left I smelled of sweat and leaves and dirt and smoke and woods. It is a peaceful smell. This is a good smell.

While Mark and I worked my mother took care of the offspring. I kept looking over every couple of minutes to see her bringing out another toy. (And as a 60 year old woman she doesn't have that many on hand.) I think she realized, the hard way, that a four year old and a two year old have very short attention spans, and require a lot of care and attention.

The efforts of the day were rewarded by lunch and popsicles Everyone was happy.

We left at 7:00 p.m. that evening. The girls conked out as soon as we hit the open road. The drive home was peaceful, except for the lousy reception Mark was getting for the hockey game.

And so today was Mother's Day, and it has been great.

The girls slept in until about 8:00 (!) and Mark took them both out (!) to get breakfast items.

I snoozed, then showered, immensely enjoying the tranquility of a quiet morning.

I was later served breakfast in bed, which I brought right back downstairs because I could see that it was going to lead to serious envy ("Can I eat in bed with mom too?") and possible spillage.

My gifts were hilarious. Earlier in the week Mark had let them loose in the dollar store and told them to each pick two things.

Funny, they managed to keep their purchases a secret.

Sarah presented me with a bright plastic bug house (clearly to indulge my scientific and investigative nature) as well as some pink floating candles shaped as roses. Emma came in with a gift bag. She was so excited she could hardly stand it.

Inside the bag was a paper box. Emma was crazy with joy, "Openitopenitopenit."

I opened it and there was nothing inside. Her gift was just the box. (I thought this was pretty funny.) Her other gift was the same floating candle set as Sarah's but hers were pink.

My other wish was to go to Home Depot to buy a few plants. We left four hundred dollars later. This is easy to do in a place like HD.

I wanted to spend the rest of the day working in the garden but this was not to be. It's been raining since lunchtime. I did manage to get out and plant a couple things, but ended up with sopping muddy gloves and a chill.

I also came to a realization about myself. As much as I like gardening I am not very good at it.

I bought a bunch of pinky annuals for one shaded area that I'm trying to focus on, including some with very cool foliage. The group of them looked good in my mind, but once I got out there I was stuck for a plan.

I planted some, left others for another time, and came in the house. Perhaps I'll devise a better planting strategy while I sleep.

Overall, a great weekend. Hope yours was the same.

andrea.