Cresta Roca Farm

Finally, a good day yesterday. Here are my reasons:

·      No watering.

·      Less pain in my foot.

·      I had a tiny breakfast and lunch, and a good dinner.

·      I called Dwight from my watch while walking in the 707 Park.

·      I went to a farm and visited with the animals.

·      We walked the Elder Cedar trail slowly and no one was there.

·      I watched an incredible movie.

I’m walking in nice soft running shoes and leaving the laces loose to lessen pressure on my lump. It seems to help. I had a good day.

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I had a very thoughtful amount of home-grown blueberries for breakfast because I was feeling hungry and I was done with all day fasting every day. For lunch I had a stick of peperoni, and I wasn’t hungry all day. And for the first time in my life, I am enjoying this process.

I follow medical blogs and YouTube channels and recently read a story on a university medical faculty blog that mentioned the pre-operative diet, so I searched it on their blog and found out what it was. It’s a diet that has many different forms. 

The pre-op diet was developed for patients requiring weight loss so that essential surgery can be performed. The concept is to first shrink the stomach by semi-fasting—one meal a day, and then you introduce modest portions appropriate to the form. The correct form of the diet is determined by the body size of the patient and the urgency of the surgery. I’m planning to do it until I’ve lost a modest amount of weight, but I’ve never enjoyed dieting before.

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I called Dwight. He didn’t answer, but I got his answering service. I was walking the trail I walk most often and immediately felt that the whole exercise of buying the hardware and hiring Dave the consultant was worth it. The alarm I’ve been using only works in my home. Now I feel safer out in the world. Not only that, its practicality is winning me over. I have all my medication stored in it, and soon I will program the fall alarm. I find it interesting to see my sleep analysis in the health app, and It’s a novelty to read my emails away from home. I must carry my phone with me all the time for the fall feature of the watch to work on the phone. 

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What I loved about going to Cresta Roca farm, aside from the experience itself, was that I did something fun and recreational. I’ve had such a nasty week, I wanted to retreat, but I saw that Cresta Roca was having an open house.

Cresta Roca is not really a farm. It’s a collection of farm animals, and the owner of the operation, a very welcoming woman named Dianne, makes part of her living from the farm

I went fearing crowds, but I was the only person there. She was very warm, and she made me feel safe. I was able to say words, but I used a lot of gestures as well. To earn money, she does goat yoga, breeds chickens, sells eggs, attends fairs and may do other things as well. Yesterday was her first paid open house.

I went directly to the three donkeys and had a little cry. I have loved them all my life but never touched one. And when I turned to visit the ducks, chickens and geese, there was Dianne offering me a wee goat baby to hold. I guess it’s love that I feel so intensely for my little charge. Animals are my people. I was in heaven.

She has three dogs, two horses, about twenty goats, three ducks, innumerable chickens, two geese and she’s single. The subtle purple colour of her preferred breed of chicken is beautiful. Her Harlequin ducks were all beautiful, but all of nature is beautiful, isn’t it? One was pure black in the shade, but in sunlight you see deep, deep shiny blue.

The geese were majestic. They are, of course, caged. Geese temperament is on a spectrum between extremely loving to aggressive asshole. These geese were inquisitive and big. They have such a beautiful body design and, as I say, they can be very loving. They definitely have a strong personality.

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Walkling Elder Cedar was lovely because my heel was less painful that usual. But also, I went in relaxed. I didn’t need to water, so I had all the time in the world for all the things we did today. The best part was, we were alone, and it was lovely and warm but far from hot. I’ve become used to my new gait. People say slow is good, and Sheba is fine with our slow pace.

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Last night I re-watched C’mon C’mon. It’s about a man who is part of a trio of people who interview children and who presumably do something with those interviews, but I don’t know what it is. And this man becomes charged with looking after his nephew, the son of his sister with whom he shares a broken relationship. Knowing this does not take away an iota from the thrill of watching this movie—well, I know not everyone has the same taste.

The film is very clever, and it is over-the-top brilliantly written. (I keep wanting to add, ‘too my taste’ Why is that?) Sometimes sources of the words we are hearing are printed on the screen as this man reads to his brilliant son, the source of the text in literature is printed on the screen in very large letters.

There is so much to love in this film and could stay up all night. I love movies about children; I cry at least once a month that I never had one to love. The child in this film is believable Einstein.

So often children are given lines that jar. They feel fake, written by adults, perhaps without children. This kid handles a script that is phenomenally complex with such grace and credibility. Every second he is on screen he is believable, and often he is saying things it’s hard to believe a child is capable of saying—either the thought or the timing.

The boy in this movie is played by Woody Norman. His performance is thrilling. Every actor in this movie is perfect, especially Joachim Pheonix as the uncle. His performance is … I wanted to get on a plane and hug him. He and Woody have delicious chemistry. He is living my dream, caring for the child of someone he loves, and for a good chunk of time—and in California, NYC and New Orleans.

Everyone is excellent. The writer/director, Mike Mills is the genius behind C’mon C’mon. I saw it free on CBC GEM, with ads. It is also on Kanopy I think.

Elder Cedar's fern carpet.