A Very Successful Evening!

I’d done the majority of my salad prep by 6:00 yesterday, and with that done, I enjoy my day knowing that I was going to be able to serve a dinner that I was proud of and that I would not be under any pressure. All the heavy lifting was done on Thursday.

At 7:30 I enjoyed a nice warm soak under bright clear sky. Then I did some tidying up of the kitchen before going to meet my friends to walk out dogs on a very beautiful morning. I think appreciation of this weather is high because I know it soon will be coming to an end. I shall miss the endless sunshine, but not all the watering that I must do every day.

Back from the walk, we all had lunch, and then I made salad dressing and toasted baguette slices (the pea pesto is served on it). And then I prepped everything for the prawn/dill dish that I’ll make when the gals are here. Then I went outside to do an hour and a half of toting the forest fall that I raked up earlier in the week. 

I quit the tiring yard work at 14:00. My back was sore from the raking and toting, and I was overheating. It was 26° and I wanted to have lots of time for vacuuming and dressing the table. Plus, I wanted a cool shower, and then, feeling mighty great, Her Highness and I had a lovely afternoon walk as big, beautiful, billowing cumulus clouds rolled in. 

I’d cleaned up the deck so that we could have drinks outside before dinner, but it’s just too hot (28° at 16:00) to want to do that. I’m going to ask the gals to spend our evening together in the coolness of the house. The more comfortable I am, the better I cans speak. I finally stopped moving at 16:30, half an hour prior to the expected arrival of the gals. I felt everything was in order and that I could relax for a while. 

They arrived on time and we had a great evening together. It felt like we were old friends; our compatibility is palpable to each of us. We had a great evening and now I wait to see if first, their home in Kelowna sells, and second if they can find a home here that they like.

This morning: dishes. I was busy cleaning up and putting things away bright and early. All I have on my plate for today is watering here and at Pete and Ali’s place. I’ll have a hose in my hand for about 2.5 hours today, but that is my only duty. The rest of the day will be spent walking with Her Highness and reading. I am seriously looking forward to relaxing a lot today after two days of being very, very busy.

A Day of Baking

Thursday dawned bright and sunny, and there was no forest fire smoke in the air. I skinned the peaches I needed for the galette I was making, but when I opened the package of puff pastry I bought, it smelled off and was tough around the edges. Shame on Nester’s for selling it.

I abandoned my plans to start my day with baking the galette and instead went out to do two hours of watering, and what a surprise awaited me! I have five inverted two-litre plastic pop bottles that have drip attachments bundled around a flowering Cherry tree. I fill them with water every two days and yesterday was a day for filling all the watering bottles scattered around the garden beds.

As I began to fill one of the bottles, I noticed something semi-large in it and I thought it was Fir cones, and I wanted to remove them so that they would not impede the drip valve. But they weren’t cones. They were two mice. One appeared to be an adult, and the other was a baby, so I scooped them up and released them. I felt terrible that I had blasted them with water.

I finished watering at 8:30, and then we headed into the village to get new pastry (from a different store), and on the way Her Highness and I went for our morning walk. Once back home, I looked forward to baking: first a garlic tart, then a galette.

Once I got started, I remembered baking isn’t always a joy. I discovered my balsamic vinegar was dead, and only after I’d gotten into the car and gone a few blocks did I remember I had a new one in storage in my hall cupboard—and not in my pantry. I get tense baking, I can’t help it, and I forget each time I decide to bake something.

I had to blind bake the pastry (covered and weighted) and then bake it some more after coating it in egg wash. Then I had to let it cool. Making the dough and prepping the pastry before for putting in all the ingredients in, took forever. Once cool, I added the cheese, spinach and egg/cream/crème fraichemixture, and then the pièce de resistance: the garlic, dripping with the maple syrup/balsamic vinegar, rosemary and thyme. Then the whole thing is baked a third time. Yum!

I was glad to be able to rest for a bit while the baked crust cooled. Any activity, even one as low energy as baking, wears me out. It took ages to cool though, so I got to work on the pastry for the galette. What I love about galettes is how easy they are to make. 

I blanched the peaches, peeled and sliced them, mixed them in sugar, corn starch and vanilla, rolled out the dough, poured the peach mixture into the centre, folded the edges of the dough to contain the peaches, and into the oven it went. 

It turned out okay, thank goodness. Because I’d intended to make the galette first, the sliced peaches had been oozing their juice in a bowl all day. They were not firm and dry as they should have been going into the oven, they were slightly shrunken and limp. But hey, they’re peaches and peaches always taste great no matter how they are prepared and served.

It was a full day. I like the menu and three dishes are done and I’m pleased with them all. Today, I’ve a complex salad to make and a side dish of shrimp and dill. Plus, I must clean the house and set the table. Entertaining is a demanding thing to do when one is single!

I’ve worked to make my life stressless, but I accept the stress of cooking and baking because there’s always a counterbalance: people like my cooking and say so. I work hard in the kitchen to honour my friends. I also like writing cards instead of using email to thank people.

I was sitting alone at Silva Bay having fish tacos when Bonnie asked if she and Sue could join me at my table. It was clear to me that they were a couple, but it wasn’t until one of them said something out loud about being a couple, that I outed myself.

And when I did, Bonnie said, “We know. That’s why we asked to sit with you.” That’s how we became friends. Being with them was instantly comfortable. Life here just keeps getting better and better.

Tonight: The dinner. I expect to have fun.

•

When I had my bone density test, the technician began with a series of questions. The first one was: “You can hear, but you’re speech impaired, right?”

I nodded. Then she had me lie on a table for the scan, and she told me not to move. And what I thought about was moving me. I was quite verklempt, because her question suggested that my impairment is on my chart. And that thrills and moves me because when she asked her first question, she put me at ease. I feel safe with her. It was the first time that has happened and now I want that all the time I have a medical procedure. That felt so, so good!

•

I love my iPhone, but I very rarely get calls, and I try not to make calls. I make a lot of phone calls over the internet with the Telus referral service. I type, and the referral operator speaks for me to whomever I am calling. What I use my phone a lot for, is typing notes and then showing my note to the clerk or receptionist. It’s the shining diamond of the communication devices for me. It beats all the other devices CAYA gave me.

So, ten years in and I’m feeling pretty well set.

•

Friday morning began at 4:10. I was up doing a ton of prep work on salad ingredients. It meant steaming a pound of asparagus for four minutes, plunging it all into ice water and then drying it. I also had to brown walnuts in a skillet, let them cool and then chop them into bits, do the same with bacon, shave parmesan off my giant piece of fresh cheese, and chop herbs from my garden. (I love having fresh herbs at hand!)

Then I packaged everything so that there’s be no drying out of the ingredients, and I put them aside. I’m assembling the salad just before we eat and right after I make the last dish, another dish for which I did my prep work in the morning, shrimp dill swimming in dill-infused butter.

We’ll walk with our friends this morning, do some yard work, clean the house up, and do some spot watering. Tonight, we party!

 The blind-baked pastry shell with grated white Cheddar cheese.

 Baby spinach goes on top of the cheese.

 Then the egg/cream/crème fraiche poured on top.

 Lots of cloves of garlic, cooked in water, maple syrup, balsamic vinegar,
and chopped Rosemary and Thyme scattered on top. Then it's baked.

The finished tart.

A pound of Asparagus bits for the salad: blanched and dried.

The shaved Parmesan, bacon to be crushed, diced roasted walnuts,
radish bits and herbs from the garden to be diced.

To Chemainus

I rose early, of course, the Fred chorus was loud and accompanied by his heavy steps on my stomach as he paraded on the bed. I loaded laundry into the washer so that there was no competition for water when I watered the plants and beds that needed a good drink before Her Highness and I left for Chemainus for my bone density test.

I only had to do a little watering because everywhere I looked, the beds were still plenty wet from my watering on Tuesday. Hallelujah! I had plenty of time to water at Pete and Ali’s because they are away, to walk Her Highness, and to settle on a menu for Friday night’s dinner with Bonnie and Sue before leaving for our Chemainus adventure. The ice packs had lots of time to freeze before our departure; I was prepared for shopping on the way to Chemainus. I had a basket that is lined to function as a cooler; the frozen gel packs would keep some of the things I planned to buy cool for the ride home. 

Every time I must leave my beloved isle, it feels like I am off to climb Everest. I feel safe everywhere I go on Gabriola, but once I leave, particularly since it always means going north or south on a highway, I become very anxious. It’s such a drag. But we departed on the 11:15 ferry with enthusiasm because sushi awaited me on arrival.

We caught the 11:15 ferry. It was slightly late, but it didn’t matter because we were leaving early enough to accommodate any delays along the way. It remained overcast; I was happy to know that my gardens wouldn’t be burning under the hot sun while I was away. When we disembarked, we went directly to thrifty foods so that I could do my shopping for the Friday night dinner and get sushi for lunch. Yum!

Once all the groceries were loaded into the car-the cold things in the cooler-we headed for Chemainus on the highway. I arrived in time to take Sheba for a quick walkabout before leaving her in the car. Thankfully, it was not a hot day. I left her with water and a treat; all the windows were open. But I needn’t have worried because I was taken in for my scan the moment I arrived.

Then it was back to the highway, speeding to the Gabriola ferry terminal. When I got there, we had a ten-minute wait and then we were on the ferry. We were home at 15:20 and my cooler had successfully kept my groceries needing refrigeration nice and cold. I packed everything away, and then Her Highness and I went for our afternoon walk. The day ended with me in the spa before dinner. 

Today will be a busy, but enjoyable, day. First, I must do a thorough watering and then I will be making a peach galette, followed by a garlic and spinach tart that is like a quiche. They are for my dinner tomorrow night with Bonnie and Sue, new friends who are moving to Gabriola.

:

Proof in a Dream

Rake, rake, rake. That’s what a big part of yesterday was: raking. Now there are piles of cones and crap scattered around the back yard. I have yet to do the front. Today I go to Chemainus for a bone density scan, so I will not be doing much yard work today—not that I mind. 

I also did a lot of watering considering that today will be a busy day. I was up early this morning, spot watering in advance of my departure. I also took time to think about what I want to make and serve to Bonnie and Sue on Friday night because I can do some shopping in Nanaimo on my way to Chemainus.

I finished my wonderful book yesterday. Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann is a fabulous five hundred-page read. I loved it, but like a lot of Irish literature, it has plenty of sadness in it. However, it is so well written, the sadness is secondary to the majesty of the text.

By early afternoon, I was beat. I seem to tire far more easily now, partly because I am so old, and partly because my days begin so early. When I begin working at 5:00, I’m tired by 13:00 or 14:00. Yesterday, I came into the house to chill and cool down at 13:30. 

•

After my breakdown, I had Chris and Frani as guests. We became friends in the mid-seventies. Chris built the theatre I designed. They welcomed me into their lives. I housed their children, we often travelled together, and their daughter became particularly close friends, she and her husband and children.

On this night of their visit, we’d been friends for fifty-two years. Chris had recently been diagnosed with MS. When the subject came up, I mentioned that he and I had something new in common: a neurological disease. Frani went berserk.

“How dare you compare your issue with MS. How dare you.” That’s how she started. I tried to explain about FND, but she wasn’t hearing it. I told her I’d been diagnosed by a VGH psychiatrist, and that I get her counselling services free for life. And instead of accepting what I told her, she mocked me for believing Dr. Shoja. 

The next morning, over breakfast, we all acted like normal and I have never heard from them again except in response to my appeals to fix our friendship. I was hurting over the loss of them for several years. They had called me ‘family.’ I was deeply, deeply hurt.

The thing that stood out in my head, was Frani expressing absolute shock and disgust about my diagnosis. When I explained again what Dr. Shoja had explained to me about my stuttering and seizures, Frani said, “And you believed her?”

It made me think. My first thought was that it was going on my medical record, whether I believed it or not. But I did believe it. The hard part for me was hearing Dr. Shoja refer to me as a neglected child. That was a serious gut punch for me. But I always knew Don and Connie didn’t care about me. But there was one thing that made me certain: a recurring dream.

In my dream, I’m on the top of a very large hill. It’s a sunny day, and the hill is covered in grass. From the top of the hill, I watch a cruise ship dock in a bay far below. And from that ship come a great crowd of people. They look like bees swarming, coming toward the hill.

The disappear so I engage with the landscape, and then suddenly, from every direction, comes the crowd. The surround me, and the person in front of me joins hands with the person behind me, and as soon as they’ve joined hands, their grasp is broken and two people, one on each side, step into a small circle with me in the middle. And the circle grows until the crowd had formed an enormous circle on the mountaintop, and I am alone in the middle.

•

I ended the day doing my notes for my next session with Dr. S. I keep a diary, just for our meetings. Often I write quite long texts so that I can read them to Dr. S. When I read, I can speak better than I can with my normal disability. It makes me, I think, a good patient. 

Some people might proffer their dreams. Not me. Dr. S. and I talk about human contact mostly. It’s being with people that causes me to be mute often, speak poorly in all other occasions, and to have seizures. I’m afraid of people, so I’m learning how to best manage being with friends when I have visitors.

This summer went excellently. Steve’s visit was short, and both Beth and Steve were considerate, warm, wonderful people. I had the most wonderful time. I could happily spend the rest of my life alone, so thank God for my friends who occasionally gently nudge me out of my comfort zone. And then I get to come home with my family of pets and watering.

I wish things weren’t this way. The miracle is how happy I am every day.

•

Here are some photos from last evening’s walkabout. (Click on them to enlarge them, but when you do you lose the captions.)

In the backyard at sunset. I love the golden hour.

Slowly, flowering vines are covering the fence around the edible garden.

Plums off my tree are DELICIOUS!

My largest Poker: red, orange and yellow/

Little DELICIOUS apples on my little tree.

Where once there was mud and garbage, there is now abundant greenery.

The large bed under six large Fir trees is thriving in spite of having to fight
the trees for water.

This area I once called The Wasteland, but now it is looking better
as I have done a lot of spot planting. My new bird bath is on the left.

The trellis houses four bird houses plus nests in the foliage.
the new feeder hanging above the fountain in the photo, and
the fountain gives the birds water. A complete bird paradise.

Virgina Creeper is moving along the railing of the back deck. With
the greenery below, the entrance area to the backyard is getting greener.

The sky this morning!

The Joy of Being Home

Well, I do love my evenings watching movies. I bought a fifty-five-inch smart television yesterday on Amazon. It doesn’t arrive until the end of the month, but I’m already excited about not having to have four remotes to view stuff on my current television set. I’m going to ask Pete to come over when I get it to be here when I set it up because I find technology so incredibly frightening.

It was overcast yesterday morning. I had a soak before going for a forest walk with Regina, and then I came home to water. It felt excellent to get back into my routines ensuring my plant buddies all thrive during this drought. Every day, I eat a few Italian plums off the tree. Oh, the deliciousness!  

I did most of the watering and then came in to feed the pets, and then I took myself to The Surf for lunch. I have never gone out for a meal alone before on Gabe, but I wanted tuna bites that I had with Beth and loved! I got a seat on the lawn, ordered and opened my book. Very quickly the server returned: No tuna bites. Damn! I had calamari instead and a salad, and then I came home to finish the watering.

I read for quite a while, then Her Highness and I went for our afternoon walk. I felt impossibly tired and could not wait to get home and onto the chaise. My bad left foot was killing me, and I was just plain beat. So, I fed the brood, made myself a big salad and got onto the chaise. However, I was cold, so after I ate the salad, I gave myself another treat: a small fire to warm the cold house up a little.

Yesterday was sunny after 9:00, and then the clouds rolled in at 16:00, and I was hoping it meant today might be cloudy, but no. It’s bright and clear this morning; there’s not even any smoke in the air. The nights are getting cooler and the highs remain in the low twenties. Fall feels present.

Today I shall spot water, and I’ll be chillin’ during the remainder of the day because tomorrow, another trip to the big island for a bone density test in Chemainus.