It's another stunningly beautiful hoar frost day out there today. We have had countless stretches of foggy days when the moisture builds up a laticework of frost crytals on every surface it touches - steel machinery, fence posts and wires, and all plant matter left above the surface of the snow, from a single blade of grass to whole stands of trees. The denser the fog the thicker the frost. And then, when the sun finally comes out and the sky is once again bright blue, nature's work of art is revealed. I've never been able to catch this multi-dimentional beauty on film; I guess too many of the colours are shades of white so the depth just doesn't show. All I can say is it looks like the world has been dusted with diamonds.

There is an old belief that six months after heavy fogs you get rain. I'm sure it's as unscientific as you can get, but there are people who keep track of this out of curiosity. With the amount of fog we've had this winter, we should be busy into boat building in preparation of what is to come about mid May. We have yet to see any significant snow in this corner of the province, but the days of sunshine we've had could be counted on our fingers. This area is usually known for lots of sunshine so it's been a long, dreary time of it - there's been lots of time to wonder if this is another indication of global warming and changing weather patterns, or is it just one of those flukey years that happen from time to time?

Tomorrow is the big election. The polls are predicting that the Liberals are on their way out and that we may even get a Conservative majority. I think Canadians are just weary of politics and want it to be over, which means that a majority would at least keep the politicians at bay for for years. Letting the Liberals think that they are worthy of that kind of trust anymore would be a mistake, so that leaves us with a Conservative government. Not that I think they would be any more trustworthy given a long run either; I'm old enough to remember their previous record. There was a political cartoon a while ago that depicted a woman asking how best to use her vote strategically - she wanted the Liberals out but wanted to keep all the others from getting in. I think there are a lot of Canadians who would like to know how to do that. What does it say about our goverment/system when a whole country feels that way about their leaders?

The community of Redvers is in the midst of putting together a history book. This is something that many prairie towns have done over the past two decades - I guess we recognize that the ability to capture the stories of settling this land is something that will be lost forever if this generation doesn't do it. Actually, Redvers was one of the first towns to do this 25 years ago for our 75th anniversary, but the work was done in such a hurry and the idea of local history books was so new, that the resulting book is a mere shadow of what it should have been. This time we are trying to do it up right - much more research, much larger base of names, past and present, to ask for family histories, and a much more realistic time frame to work within. The unfortunate part is that we have lost most of the original pioneers in the past quarter century so the actual eye witness stories will be lacking. I have volunteered to to the history of the local Rural Municipality of Antler #61 and so that is my next project. I don't know what I've got myself into yet. Chances are the time and effort it takes will be more than worth the interesting bits of local history I'll come across during my research.