Happy Siblings Day

It's another snowy day at the farmette. We got a half-inch over night. The spring seems to be sputtering, but I'm confident it's on its way. Just ask the hellebores, crocuses and snow drops that have been blooming in my beds for a couple of weeks.

I just found out today that it's Siblings Day. Apparently, it was created in the late 1990s by an American woman who lost her two siblings when they were all young.

While I'm not fond of 'Days' - like National Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, National Lima Bean Respect Day and National Lost Sock Memorial Day (it's real, and it's May 9th), I do like the idea of recognizing siblings.

Here's the whole crew at my mom and dad's 60th anniversary party in the fall of 2008. Back row: moi, Dan (the middle child), Barb (eldest sister) Bob (second eldest) and the youngest, Sandy.

Little did we know at the time, this would be Audrey's last big family gathering. Mom died a few months later in January, 2009.

We really have two families with the same parents - the older three were nine years ahead of me and Sandy, and we were only two years apart. Barb moved out of the little house at Frome when she was 18 and I was four. Our lives really took different turns and people got busy, but the one relationship that has remained the most steadfast, and only become richer as we move into our, ahem, middling years, is the one I have with Sandy.

She's loyal, smart as a whip, fiercely loving and goofy as all get out. I'm not sure I would have made it though the pandemic if not for our Facetime calls - laughing and bawling and keeping one another's spirits up.

Sandy loves to host big family dinner parties at special times of the year. This one was at Thanksgiving when the Thorntons were still living in Erin. We're all wearing hanky hats, cause what else do you do with the napkin once the meal is over? I remember that was an unusually warm day, and we actually all took a dip in the backyard pool.

We are two years and eight days apart. So we now often team up with a joint celebration. Here we are in the before-times (August, 2019) when we saw a show at the Blyth Theatre. We had lunch at the Cowbell Brewing Company and shopped at the local leather outlet. Fun times.

She has an annoying habit of looking spectacular in all the photos we have taken together over the years. I've never been particularly photogenic - usually looking like a startled earwig or like I was just hit by a two by four, as in this photo.

She's a bit of a home body, with her family: Rachel, Erin and Brian, who she loves dearly and supports always. She is also a huge dog lover - this was from a few years ago, and Maya on the left has since died. Marley's still chugging along.

But she likes to escape with her sister on a capture cruise once in while, like last Thursday, when we went down to the big city for shopping and a fancy lunch.

This is my favourite picture of us from a long-ago Christmas when the girls were little and we were playing with them outdoors. Rob caught the moment. We both have it framed in our respective home offices. We call it the Bob and Doug Mackenzie picture.

So grateful for all my siblings, with a special nod to this one. Until next week.