Saturday, April 14, 2018

I Am With My People

Friday morning I put the meringue on the lemon curd tart. It’s deliciously decadent.
I had little energy for Defiant Dress. I just wanted to laze the drizzly day away and spent lots of time with playing with Fred, Ethel and Sheba. I started reading The Hidden Life of Trees, a gift from Beth that’s ideal for Pinecone Park & Spa.
We had lasagna we got at the deli for dinner and then we watched Strictly Ballroom, one of my favourite movies and an annual watch, and Beth loved it; then an episode of Grantchesterand to bed.
Working on Defiant Dressis kind of nerve wracking right now. I’m confident of my skills with dialogue, I’m confident of my dresses and letters and I like the uniqueness of the concept and structure. All the working components add to the pressure I feel to find a worthy ending. I need an ending with punch.
Beth and I have found a nice rhythm this past week that I’ll miss for a while — but not for long because Allan and Larry arrive. And before the do, the jigsaw puzzle and croquet set arrive; they’re hopefully buying and bringing the cards and cribbage board for me.
I’ve come to really like the name and the whole idea of thinking of this place as a spa: Pinecone Park & Spa.Two of the three words connote guests being welcome. The bikes (I’ve got a second one coming), the slippers, robes and towels and now the games, reinforce that focus and speak to the importance of guests here.
So ‘ve decided I need one of those guest books summer resorts had when I was a kid. The kind I loved to look through to see where people were from.
People say I’m in the “honeymoon phase.” I wonder.
Peter Wohlleben, the author of The Hidden Life of Trees is more a fabulist than a scientist, I think. He anthropomorphizes trees and that’s just fine with me. I tear up reading his eulogy to the biggest plants on earth. 
When I was having seizures, I’d want to hold onto a person. If there wasn’t one available I’d want a tree; in private, I was a literal tree hugger.
I think I may have almost thirty monster trees on my land. Huge towering beasties! I am with my people and doubt the honeymoon will end.
Proverbs from around the world:
  • If two people tell you you are blind, shut one eye. (Georgia)
  • Those who have free seats at a play hiss first. (China)
  • It is in sugar that you see the dead ant. (Malaysia)
  • Seven days is the length of a guest’s life. (Myanmar)
  • Silence is a fence ‘round wisdom. (Germany)
  • Good things sell themselves; bad things have to be advertised. (Ethiopia)
  • Where there is most mind, there is least money. (Latin)
  • Better a free meal of acorns than a honey feast on trust. (Wales)
  • Only an owl knows the worth of an owl. (India)
  • Good luck is the guardian of the stupid. (Sweden)
  • At birth we cry — at death we see why. (Bulgaria)
  • Errands are small on a spring day. (Iceland)
  • The nail suffers as much as the hole. (Netherlands)
  • The higher the castle, the nearer to the lightning. (Russia)
  • A contented mind is a continual feast. (England)


















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