Let's turn our backs on the lonely ones, Trude.

Home again after a long trip away. No need to say too much about it but the usual combination of being with pleasant people and spending time doing other things and seeing the sea are all positive and condusive to my well-being. Another trip to Ålesund is on the cards, I'll have to work out when I've got time.
Maunday Thursday and the country has closed down. It's a strange phenomenon but every Easter, Norway seems to just go dead. Everyone is away, or so we are led to believe, skiing in the wonderful Norwegian mountains. Radio and newspapers, if they come out at all, are all angled on this very Norwegian holiday. Fair enough. But I have a sneaking suspicion that this is like Christmas when lonely people are even more isolated and feel excluded from a society which has become very good at turning its back on anyone who doesn't quite fit in. I don't think I belong in this category even though I am on my own quite a lot. I don't feel Norwegian, thank God, and have no intention of doing so, but at times, I do feel as if I belong somewhere else and not in this country. Easter is such a time. Just now M1 is the best company I could ask for. E could be, but is busy writing up a cathedrals piece and anyway, she doesn't want to be. John and Renate seem happy in Ålesund where she definitely has taken him in hand. I laughed when she told him off for not rinsing the dishes before they went in the washing-up machine. It did rather smell!
The snow which was promised for today has arrived and with a fire going and a nice dinner on the cooker, this evening should be a cosy one. Kev seems to have slowed down even more. I was a vet today, the sore on his tail, a scratch in his ear which looked as if it might turn septic, and a small stone in his paw which had rubbed the skin and made everything painful and red, all had to be dealt with. He was very patient and let me do it all even though he was obviously in pain. Just call me Trude.
Looking out of the window at the weather makes me wish for spring. Surely it can't be far off?