back in business

 I never thought I’d say it, but I was glad we stayed only one night at our lovely campsite… I don’t know if it was because I got a chill in my back from the walk in the rain, paired with lifting Spike into the camper (he can’t do the stairs anymore), or just a random bit of bad fortune, but my back was KILLING me. A thumb sized point in my back was being stabbed with a jagged sword, or so it seems. A hot bath at bedtime helped for a few minutes, but even with a hot pack I didn’t sleep a wink on Saturday night, and even snuck into the tub again at 2am.

I was no better on Sunday. We had to go to Canadian Tire for new muck boots which was a horror. Every turn and curve was excruciating. Even though it was warm I had my seat heater on high. We did pick up some robexect which may or may not have helped.

Imagine my delight when I woke up from a long deep sleep with no pain!

It’s a beautiful day, the last day of August with September in the air. Carm played golf and I took Adia to get her nails trimmed.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

It would have been a nice camping day!

“Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.

"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."

"You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter: "it's very easy to take more than nothing."

~Lewis Carroll

on the road again

 We are camping! And our site is perhaps the best site we’ve ever had. It’s private with some shade trees, there’s room to walk the dogs around the site, but best of all the camp hosts are Kirsten and Shawn! 

Yes, after a summer of whining and bugging Carm finally agreed to haul the villetta to their place. We are situated on a perfect little glen, near their house, but far away enough that we aren’t in their face. The trip there went well and Carm did an expert job of backing down their laneway and into our site. 

After we got all set up (even the satellite) we gathered at the camper for our traditional cold adult beverage. Eventually we pried ourselves from our seats and went for a long walk down their road. Spike stayed behind with Carm but Adia was thrilled to go somewhere new (read: she dragged me down the road). 

Kirsten provided supper (thanks!). Lots of fun visiting.

It was great to go back to our own place at bedtime, or pre bedtime. Kirsten and Shawn joined us for a while before lights out. 

In the middle of the night the rain started. But is there a more relaxing way to sleep than having the pitter patter of rain on the roof?

Dogs out, coffee at Kirsten’s, coffee at our place (with delectable pastries that Kirsten brought), long walk in the rain (Adia went bezerk running), lunch courtesy of Nissa, and then home to the stick house. So much fun!

   (oops!)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

“In a Wonderland they lie, Dreaming as the days go by, Dreaming as the summers die:

Ever drifting down the stream- Lingering in the golden gleam- Life, what is it but a dream?”

~Lewis Carroll

herculean effort

 With the water down to 20C there was no swimming this morning or at all! Will we get more summer weather or will this be the end for 2020.

It was a momentous day with a herculean effort by Carm. He slid the massive hitch across the garage floor till it was in position to hoist it onto the back of the truck. I was on one side, Carm on the other, but alas, I couldn’t lift it high enough. It was too heavy to use just my muscles - I had to use my skeleton to brace it and I was too short, I didn’t measure up. So that left it up to Carm to do the massive job. Weighing in at around 80lbs it was no mean feat! My hero.❤ 

After the hitch was safely installed he got to work getting the tires on the truck and trailer up to spec. Will we be going somewhere soon? Time and the weather will tell.

Tomorrow morning Spike has an appointment with the vet and I have a few things to talk to her about - maybe there will be something they can do for him. I’m not exactly sure what his problems are but suspect that his eyesight is failing and he seems to have arthritis in his hips. Oh and a bit of dementia. But he’s been in a good mood and is quite perky most of the time. My little sweetie ❤

Dorothy commented yesterday asking if I knew that we have a charmed life and my immediate answer was YES! I count my blessings and thank my lucky stars daily. I might just touch wood sometimes too ;-)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?”

~Lewis Carroll

from Trudie’s garden

the sky was so blue

 You know those times when things are going good and you have the feeling that it’s going to be that way forever and then suddenly something momentous changes and life is no longer as it was. I’ve been in the deluded, privileged, happy state for years, at least until covid-19. 

Turning points. My last turning point was in 2004 when I was diagnosed with bipolar. My life changed drastically then too - more dramatically than now. I’m glad I had the years with the parrots and horses, that I lived my dream, but it was still a wrench when I had to let that part of my life go.

Now I look back at recent years and am grateful that we did the things we did and didn’t put everything off for another day. Over the last few years we travelled starting with a cruise in 2016 and ending in 2019 when we went on several cruises: Panama canal, Caribbean, Mediterrean. We can be thankful for those memories. Already this year we’ve cancelled 3 cruises, but we don’t have regrets. In 2013 we took a 6 week trip with the RV out west. I went to New Zealand twice. Who knows what the future will be in terms of travel… it may be years before we go anywhere again.

So what’s my point? Don’t put off for later. Spend time with your loved ones. Embrace every moment. When life returns to normal (and when will that be?), live your life to the fullest with no regrets.

Will life be like it used to be ever again? When will we feel comfortable getting on an airplane? Or sitting in a restaurant or a crowded concert? Going on a cruise seems like an impossibility.

But instead of dwelling on the negative I’ll try to focus on the daily joys. 

And then there’s hurricane Laura bearing down on the east coast of the USA… it’s winding up to be a category 4 storm... that’s a real life threatening game changer. They are forecasting an unsurvivable storm surge. It’s strange to see something that will create such devastation tagged with my name.

And now for something completely different! We had a nice catchup distant visit with Trudie & Leo this afternoon. It’s a gorgeous day but a bit cool and windy. Carm wore long pants for the first time in ages; I wore leggings and a denim shirt. This morning was the first day in weeks that I didn’t go for a swim when I got up :-(  It will likely be a downward trend going forward.

This afternoon we went for a short drive to check out the local dumping station and since we were in the area stopped at St. Albert for take-out burgers. We thought we’d eat on the patio but with the wind blowing thru it was unpleasantly cold.

“The sky was so blue I couldn’t look at it because it made me sad, swelling tears in my eyes and they dripped quietly on the floor as I got on with my day. I tried to keep my focus, ticked off the to-do list, did my chores. Packed orders, wrote emails, paid bills and rewrote stories,

but the panic kept growing, exploding in my chest. Tears falling on the desk

tick tick tick

me not making a sound

and some days I just don't know what to do. Where to go or who to see and I try to be gentle, soft and kind,

but anxiety eats you up and I just want to be fine.”

~Charlotte Eriksson

the wheels on the bus

When the wheels on the car go round and round they wisk us to Kirsten’s in no time at all (well, almost no time). Carm wanted a relook of our potential camping spot so I invited us over today not expecting lunch but gobbling it up happily. 

Spike rattled around the back of the station wagon until we arrived, luckily Adia settled down quickly. When we have Spike outside of his normal environment I cannot delude myself - he’s getting older and slightly dementia’d. It’s clear he feels a lot of stress being away from home so I might try a light dose of trazodone. Every time he crashes and falls a little piece of me grieves.

Adia had some good practice with mat but I think I expected a bit too much of her and should have released her every so often for a walk around and then re-settle. I do want her to stay for long periods but she’s just not there yet. At one point I had her out of the fenced deck and she just headed away and wouldn’t listen at all - she was done. I managed to catch her so we could start over. 

She can be really good, but has a tremendously hard head if she doesn’t want to listen :-(

We watched some pretty sad stories on CNN tonight about people in food bank lines and losing their homes. It was heart-wrenching. I am so incredibly lucky - I sometimes get a feeling of doom that my luck might soon run out and get a pit in my stomach and then cast my eye on the weather radar as there’s been a tornado warning... 

I think I’ve got a bit of beluga whale in my blood as I’m still doing my morning swims even though it was barely 72F this morning! I likely look a bit belugaish too with my shocking white skin.

 Headline tonight: 5,874,146 cases with 180,604 deaths in the US. There are a total of 124,896 (124,629 yesterday) cases of Covid-19 in Canada today, with 9,073 (9,071 yesterday) deaths today.

“She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it).”

~Lewis Carroll

O frabjous day

 O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! The sun was shining brightly but not blazing down on us with a million furnaces and the occasional cloud decoratively floated by. It felt like the end of August even though it was warm.

It was dog food day today so off we went for a long drive to the pickup place. We only got two bags but when November comes we’ll buy enough for the winter. There were a million people in line and due to the fact that they changed operating procedures we almost had to wait longer than the hour we had already waited...

When we got back home with our neatly packaged treasure, Carm got busy cutting grass (I think he cut every day this week except Wednesday) while I watered the deck pots and deadheaded the petunias. Not vigorous work but I was still ready for a swim when Carm was done. The water was 72F/22C but we still lingered for longer than a nanosecond. And actually, by the end of the day I’d been in 3 times!

I did get busy with a bucket, cloth, and paper towels in the camper, tackling the nooks and crannies that have collected cobwebs and insects. The villetta isn’t ready to go but it needed this work regardless. Music blared and I sang at the top of my lungs. The joys of rural living :-0 Adia was surprised that this madness happens everywhere.

 Headline tonight: 5,838,406 cases with 180,136 deaths in the US. There are a total of 124,629 (124,372 yesterday) cases of Covid-19 in Canada today, with 9,071 (9,064 yesterday) deaths today.

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."

"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”

~Lewis Carroll

over-wintering the wine

 After I got 2 batches of bread dough rising and had a long talk with Mom, I gathered up some cleaning supplies and my trusty speaker to head into the villetta. We MAY be going somewhere next week so I wanted to freshen up our home. 

I don’t know why I opened the cupboard with the small fridge, maybe I was looking for something in the clean laundry basket, but when I did I was shocked to see black dried up liquid under the fridge… I opened its door and was horrified to see it full of last year’s beer and wine. The fridge was black inside with a horrible smell. Oh gosh (not my exact words). I grabbed a bucket from the garage and carefully removed said nasty containers. By some sort of grace, the wine bottle had not broken - I was spared a disaster of glass shards. Some of the cans were empty or almost so, while a few seem like they are miraculously unharmed considering our long stretch of -20C weather last winter. 

Countless paper towels and a handy Mr. Clean sponge made short(ish) work of the mess.

A laundry basket lived on top of the fridge so I took the opportunity to put everything away. With a few hand towels neatly folded in my hand I opened the drawer that is directly under the fridge. My heart sank to see a white linen cloth soaked with brown liquid. I tossed it to the floor which revealed some chewed fibers… a mouse had made a nest in my linens… boo hiss. As I emptied everything I could see that there is some damage. Damn.

Carm went to Costco and then cut the grass while I was doing my thing. He likes to have a swim after the grass, but gosh, it’s been so cold. The water was 22C/72F so he jumped in. I followed, although I only stayed in for a few minutes. Refreshing :-)

So what else has been going on? Wednesday Christina came for a laneway visit - I hadn’t seen her since the pandemic started. Yesterday I went for a blood letting which was okay - I waited in a line outside until it was my turn. The woman taking my blood was good and didn’t butcher my arm trying to find a vein - I didn’t even have a sore arm after. Once home Carm did a bit more tree cutting while I dragged more branches onto the towering pile.

 Headline tonight: 5,796,727 cases with 179,200 deaths in the US. There are a total of 124,372 (123,154 yesterday) cases of Covid-19 in Canada today, with 9,064 (9,045 yesterday) deaths today.

“Real love ought to be more like a tree and less like a flower. That's the kind of love my parents had. Not so consuming and more everlasting. And you see that tree over there? Now it's only showing green leaves, but during the spring it's covered in flowers. Because as reliable as trees are, they can also speak of beauty and passion.”

~Mya Robarts

tears of joy

 Sunday “we” tackled the tree again today and with a concerted effort bucked up almost all the small stuff and even some of the larger limbs. Only the biggest part of the skeleton remains. Even though we didn’t work as long I was wiped out by the heat. I’m wondering if my lithium levels are borderline high and the heat is toppling me into the slightest edge of overdose range. That’s my excuse anyway ;-)

Spike got a haircut on his face, which he dreads but perks up after it’s done. Could it be relief or maybe his face looks happier with less hair? Or maybe it isn’t so hot.

With the continued dry weather I took the opportunity to dehydrate another batch of chicken hearts Sunday but I’m wondering if I should just keep some cheezies nearby for rewards. They both go bananas over them!

After supper we had a fun online visit with my siblings, et.al. If there’s anything good that’s come out of the pandemic it’s our regular visits.

Monday morning I dashed around getting ready to have a night at Kirsten’s. I left around 1:30 and hit the most hideous road construction… At one point I sat for over 10 minutes waiting for my turn to pass the ugly paving machine. Very frustrating. Needless to say when I came home today I used a different route, although it is longer.

It was a bit of a girls night with lots of laughs and silly talk... I made Kirsten try my glitter eyeliner - it looked great on her! We went to bed before it got too late as the alarm was set early Tuesday morning - Kirsten’s car had to go into the shop for a new windshield. After dropping her car off, the 4 of us drove down to the barn where the girls are taking lessons. Stepping into the indoor arena was a step back into time. The smell… oh the wonderful smell… 

It was a beautiful morning for sitting in the sun watching beautiful horses stride around the giant sand ring popping over the odd fence.

Back at the house while we waited for the car to be ready I convinced Shenna to wield some scissors to cut my bangs - we all agreed that I need bangs! She did a good job :-)

And then home in time to get Adia to the groomers for a nail trim! 

It was a wonderful few days :-)

 Headline tonight: 5,653,534 cases with 174,951 deaths in the US. There are a total of 123,154 (121,889 yesterday) cases of Covid-19 in Canada today, with 9,045 (9,024 yesterday) deaths today.

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.”

~William Blake

gratitude unlocks the fullness of life

 Sweat… thankfully no blood or tears. My jeans were soaked through, my t-shirt too; Carm didn’t fare any better. It was a tiny bit cooler today (28C) so we attacked the tree that was felled ages ago in our quest for a better satellite signal. It had been sitting there, a giant weight on our shoulders, waiting for better weather.

The chainsaw is my least favorite tool and I am majorly stressed when Carm is using it. I have visions of limbs flying everywhere and having to tourniquet while waiting for an ambulance. I always have my phone handy. And never wear my favorite shirt.

Carm had the dangerous job of wielding the chainsaw while I dragged the branches to toss onto the towering brush pile. It started 25 years ago with one 8’ Christmas tree. Another tree followed the next year. At that point our property had not been taken over by triffids so the pile grew slowly. For the last several years it has been growing like crazy. Today it was hard to toss the giant branches onto the top which likely measures 10 feet high. The amazing thing is that next spring it will have collapsed so that it is barely as tall as my shoulder. Nature taking back her bounty.

Speaking of bounty - today I made a peach cobbler in the instant pot. I forgot the crucial step of covering the baking dish with foil so thought it would be a flub, surprisingly it was pretty tasty! It was a ‘cheater’ recipe that used ½ box of cake mix instead of flour, etc. So it has that weird cake mix flavour - next time I’m going to try the real mccoy and may even fire up the oven.

Yesterday I remembered that we had a pretty pewter framed mirror that we’d gotten as a wedding gift but somehow never had the right spot for it. It needed a few pins to hold the mirror in, (trip to home hardware yesterday), and now has a place on the tall dresser in the bathroom. It looks great and is even functional. Sometimes being a packrat pays off :-)

The photos are from the two awesome trips that I took in 2013. On the left is Carm and the dogs at Red Rock Coulee near Medicine Hat; on the right is me sitting on a cliff in NZ looking out across the water to the South Island. Such awesome memories to see everyday.

It was a perfect evening for supper on the deck and we stretched it out another hour on the swing. It was a nice break from the TV.  We are going to have to make some new rituals over the winter, which I suspect is going to be long, maybe supper at the table with music instead of news will have to become the new norm. 

Gosh I natter on sometimes! Imagine how long my posts would be if I actually had something to write about!

 Headline tonight: 5,526,722 cases with 172,546 deaths in the US. There are a total of 121,889 (121,568 yesterday) cases of Covid-19 in Canada today, with 9,024 (9,020 yesterday) deaths today.

“Don't be ashamed to weep; 'tis right to grieve. Tears are only water, and flowers, trees, and fruit cannot grow without water. But there must be sunlight also. A wounded heart will heal in time, and when it does, the memory and love of our lost ones is sealed inside to comfort us.”

~Brian Jacques

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.”

~Melody Beattie

glitter

 There’s a cricket in the house somewhere and it’s driving me crazy! The endless chirp chirp chirp niggles at the back of my brain in a most unpleasant way. I can’t imagine how it got inside, maybe the same way all the pesky mice have been sneaking in.

It’s friday again. One hundred and fifty two days since we’ve taken the most basic things for granted. One hundred and fifty two days since walking into a store was no big deal; since road conditions were the only thing stopping us from having friends over...

Nothing notable has happened in the last few days. A trip to Shoppers Drug Mart was a short distraction yesterday and today we went to Home Hardware for a tiny tiny nail. They weren’t particularly enjoyable trips as we are so focused on the one thing that we want so don’t linger and browse. 

I bought a few makeup things at SDM - it’s ironic that I’d start wearing makeup when there’s nowhere to go and no one to see. But it passes the time and Carm seems to appreciate the glitter on my eyelids. Speaking of which, yesterday I got some glitter eyeliner which I totally love - if you know me well you’ll know that I go for the bling!

The other night - in the middle of the night - cause what else is there to think of - I thought of an ancient pair of shoes that I loved. They were low comfortable flats encrusted with beads. What’s not to love. I wondered if I still had them and if so, would they fit? This afternoon I took a look and found them exactly where I thought they’d be (miracle) and managed to squeeze my feet into them (think Cinderella’s step-sisters). They crammed in but would I be able to endure the pain. I think not. Is there any hope that my feet will shrink? Perhaps I’ll get online and look for a replacement.

 Headline tonight: 5,475,732 cases with 171,513 deaths in the US. There are a total of 121,568 (120,844 yesterday) cases of Covid-19 in Canada today, with 9,020 (9,006 yesterday) deaths today.

“The sun rises every day. What is to love? Lock the sun in a box. Force the sun to overcome adversity in order to rise. Then we will cheer! I will often admire beautiful sunrise, but I will never consider the sun a champion for having risen.”

~Garth Stein

to live every day as if it had been stolen from death

 Every day can’t be good right? I suppose I should have guessed from the 4am headache that today wouldn’t be the best. I struggled from the time I finally pried myself out of bed, a smile plastered on my face - fake it till you make it. I never made it.

I put on some music and that worked for a while. Once that stopped working I moved out to the swing and tried to distract myself with facebook which is actually the WORST place for me to go as there are so many frustrating rabbit holes to descend into. When I ended up on the Trump facebook page I knew I better skedaddle to a better place.

I checked my online library for something good: lots of romantic hogwash, but wait, ‘The Art of Racing in the Rain’ has been on my reading list for years. By the end of the first paragraph I was tearing and by the end of the first chapter I was literally sobbing. Hard. I think even the cicadas were shocked into silence.

I had forgotten that it was written from a dog’s perspective and starts out with an old dog ready to be put down. It was brilliant writing and the words could be coming out of Spike’s mouth in a few years. Oh gosh, I can’t even write about it now.

This is not the reading for today (when I do start flipping the pages I’ll dedicate a few days to tears). I tried to focus on the beautiful day and the feeling of the soft breeze caressing my skin. I tried a dip into the pool - the water is the perfect temp although slightly more salty after my tears mingled with its waters. In other words, it didn’t really help.

Eventually I crawled back into bed and watched Trinny Woodall talk about skin care. Mindless and interesting enough to distract me for a while.

The pandemic seems to loom larger today and more dire. And never-ending. What is it going to be like in the winter when we are trapped inside with no opportunity for laneway visits? I know that we’ll get through it and that somehow I’ll find a way to avoid depression.

I know I have to change my thinking but damn it - it’s hard!

We were blessed to see a huge flock of swallows doing acrobatics above the pool. So beautiful.

 Headline tonight: 5,359,626 cases with 169,114 deaths in the US. There are a total of 120,844 (120,421 yesterday) cases of Covid-19 in Canada today, with 9,006 (8,991 yesterday) deaths today.

“To live every day as if it had been stolen from death, that is how I would like to live. To feel the joy of life, as Eve felt the joy of life. To separate oneself from the burden, the angst, the anguish that we all encounter every day. To say I am alive, I am wonderful, I am. I am. That is something to aspire to.”

Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

lets do the dishes

 It was a brutally hot day with the humidex reaching 40C/104F… not the greatest day to complete the satellite installation but our appointment was for this morning. After the Shaw guy left Carm and I got busy burying the cables that snaked from the house out to the newly installed post. It was hot work, but with Adia’s help we got it done!

Thankfully the trench didn’t take us through the red beetle area as I feel quite certain that I would not have been on my knees scooping infested soil!

Oh the ecstasy of jumping into a cool pool after peeling off a sweat drenched pair of jeans - is there any better feeling? From an early morning mid-flash swim to a sweaty after work dunk, and finally a cool dip after a big bowl of boiling soup (what sort of dippy person makes soup on one of the hottest days of the year?) the pool was well used.

After we were refreshed we took refuge in the house - the a/c wasn’t set very cool, but anything was better than outside! Aside from Carm’s expedition to Costco the rest of the day was filled with quiet puttering and reading. Too much political reading, but I did resist getting roiled into insane discussions (and man oh man there are lots of crazy people). I’d like to ask some of them what would be in it for Bill Gates to insert microchips in all of us? And seriously, a ‘plandemic’? How could someone arrange for the whole world to cooperate in such a widespread ruse.

And then the tv droned on and on about Biden’s choice for vice-president. Interesting for 15 minutes, then, as is usually the case on an all-news station, it was just repetitive.

 Headline tonight: 5,303,984 cases with 167,562 deaths in the US. There are a total of 120,421 (119,744 yesterday) cases of Covid-19 in Canada today, with 8,991 (8,982 yesterday) deaths today.

“I don't want to be married just to be married. I can't think of anything lonelier than spending the rest of my life with someone I can't talk to, or worse, someone I can't be silent with.”

~Mary Ann Shaffer

what a year that was

 Happy anniversary to Kirsten and Shawn.  August 10th, 1996 was a lovely day with all the festivities taking place at the Museum of Nature - a gorgeous place for a wedding. Kirsten was dressed in a simple white gown and I was in a gold shot silk number that I’d love to fit into one day - the fabric is divine. Shawn looked debonair in a tux, but gosh, so young. Actually all of us had smooth, young faces without the mark of experience.

1996 is one of those years to remember. It started off sad with my Aunty Jean’s passing, but while visiting Alberta for the funeral I learned of a cattle drive that would traipse across southern Alberta on land near where my great-grandparents homesteaded. On the way home from her funeral I bought a belt that I’ve worn almost everyday since and I think of Aunty Jean and how important she was to me every time I put it on.

Our first parrots hatched in the early spring of 1996. There was the cattle drive (the best vacation ever). We got Pan, our greyhound, from Kirsten, in the summer. Kirsten’s wedding was the cake topper of the year. Following her wedding my first horse arrived (disaster, but that’s another story). And to end the year we had a huge party and roasted a lamb. All this in one year! Incredible!

We had several hours of beautiful summer day until the clouds socked-in, bringing buckets of rain. Much to Carm’s dismay, it seems that the previously dormant grass was actually saving energy so that it could grow at twice the rate once the drought ended! Today’s moisture will likely triple the growth!

I was browsing the ‘Zara’ website and saw a pair of gold sequin pants! How awesome would that be! So tempted ;-)

 Headline tonight: 5,241,900 cases with 166,071 deaths in the US. There are a total of 119,744 (119,404 yesterday) cases of Covid-19 in Canada today, with 8,982 (8,981 yesterday) deaths today.

“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.”

~Khalil Gibran

cementing our love

 Like a true Italian, Carm grinned with a satisfaction that can only come from mixing cement. Yes, the new post for the satellite dish needed a bag of the ancient building material to anchor it in the ground. We let it dry overnight and the next morning Carm quickly decided it needed another bag. It’s not an elegant sculpture or a fun paving stone (maybe that will come later), but it’s cement none-the-less!

While Carm was working I sat down on the huge rock near where he was digging but soon jumped up in dismay as 100s of small red beetles were scurrying over the surface. A closer look in the area, including on our little oak tree, revealed thousands of them swarming over every surface. Thanks to the internet it was decided that they are Boxelder beetles and that we have an infestation of them. What to do? Ignore and let nature have her way? Or douse with toxic chemicals?

After a few glorious days of sun and swimming, it was cloudy with bits of rain today. 

Adia has been practicing her mat, not long periods, but with me stepping out of the house for a few seconds. She’s not been perfect but is improving. I haven’t been repeating the command before stepping outside, but that might help. As it is, ‘mat’ is a complex behaviour that means lie down on the mat on one hip (not like a sphinx) and stay there until I tell you ‘ok’.

(edit: we’ve done some more mat with me stepping out of the house and got up to 30 seconds. We’ll work on more duration as the days go by - hey, just a thought - I could use the remote camera which has voice to stretch the stay out longer or maybe it’s a skill that’s not really required?).

We’ve also been improving her backup from a distance, with a sit or down chained at the end. Not particularly useful! But fun and builds attention span. We even got a few decent tries outside with so many distractions. Now if only I could teach her to clip her own nails…

 Headline tonight: Over 20 million cases world-wide. 5,198,422 cases with 165,576 deaths in the US. There are a total of 119,404 (118,984 yesterday) cases of Covid-19 in Canada today, with 8,981 (8,970 yesterday) deaths today.

“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”

~Sylvia Plath

blood bath

 I was standing at the kitchen counter preparing some chocolate chip cookies for the oven when I heard the front door being flung open and Carm crying out “I need your help, something bad has happened…”. My stomach did a flip. When I turned around I was shocked to see his whole face streaming with blood. My stomach dropped and I took a big breath . I would have liked to freak out at that point, but what good would that do, so I collected my emotions and got him to the sink so I could wash away the blood and take stock.

He’s got a big (1-2 in) gash just back from his forehead in his hair which may or may not need stitches. The heavy bleeding stopped quickly and since it’s not gaping we figured he’d be okay. 

And how did this misadventure happen? Cutting the grass under the apple trees. I think a heavy hat and eye protection will be used in the future.

Can you believe it’s Friday again? I’ve said this every Friday for 20 weeks now. A bit repetitive but I’m always so shocked that another week has gone by so quickly. Time has not stopped, even though it would be great if it did.

CBC put out a survey asking people how they’ve managed during the pandemic; after giving it some thought I chose the smiley face icon as I feel that for the most part I’ve managed quite well. I read an essay by Rick Steves (the travel guy) about how it felt to be stuck at home and how he’s embraced the opportunity to learn new skills and visit local sites, and I suppose that’s what I’ve done (to a lesser degree).

We had our first bacon & tomato sandwiches tonight, thanks to a bag of tomatoes from Trudie. We’d been there for a distant visit this afternoon and she told me her recipe for garlic sauce… I gave it a whirl when we got home but it was an epic fail. First I used a fragrant olive oil that overpowers the flavour, then it wouldn’t whip up so I ended up throwing in an egg white which is my go-to sauce recipe. It may end up in the compost heap. But the tomatoes were good, and who can complain about bacon!

 Headline tonight: 5,094,759 cases with 164,075 deaths in the US. There are a total of 118,984 (118,514 yesterday) cases of Covid-19 in Canada today, with 8,970 (8,966 yesterday) deaths today.

“A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.”

Leo Tolstoy