Wednesday dawned bright and sunny, and it was a comfortable 14° when I went outside at 7:00 to water the garden beds. I got a good chunk of the watering done and then, for a break, I came in to fetch Sheba and to go for our morning walk.
I loved watering in the cool fragrant morning air. I hear lots of birds that made me wish I knew which ones they were that I was hearing. I loved the cool air on my face. I keep feeling euphoric due to my love of all things natural. I’m so lucky to be a person who’s inspired and moved by the natural world.
Our walk was uplifting, and so was doing the watering. When I was finished the watering, we had lunch and then we did a fast run into the village to shop and then I hurried home to chat with Aidan at 14:00. We had a great talk and we could have gone on and on, but we signed off at 15:15 so that we could have a break before our board meeting at 16:00.
The board meeting went extremely well. There are a few of us who do a lot of work for SPACE, but most board members do little between meetings, so Aidan led a discussion about board members taking on more responsibility for driving areas of SPACE concern.
When that was done, I fed my lovelies and then I got into the spa to slow me down. Then it was the usual dinner and a movie.
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It’s very cool that Canada may become the EU’s first associate member! It feels wonderful to also read that Trump is angry about Canada’s increasing trade relations with the EU.
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I love Ed Sheeran. I feel terrible about what’s happening to his tour and reputation due to Mackelmore’s comment about Palestine (with which I am sympathetic). What a drag that politics is playing havoc with a good man’s tour.
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Today, I won’t be watering. Instead, I’ll be doing some SPACE work and some reading. Tonight I dine with Kris, Steve and Nancy at Woodfire.
Well, I’m chuffed! I’ve been struggling for weeks to figure out how to post a video as I’ve enjoyed doing in the past, but Blogger confounded me. I struggled for hours trying to post the photos I love to post ever day when the import icon in Blogger stopped functioning.
By some miracle, I figured out how to post this video today. There’s a ‘share’ function attached to the film on YouTube, so I checked it out and found an ‘embed’ option that copies code. When I saw that, it occurred to me to switch my blog to ‘HTML view’ and to past the code into my post, and as you can see from the video’s presence above, it worked.
Aidan and his colleagues made this video for SPACE. And yes, that wizened old man who appears in it a few times is me.
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Tuesday began cloudy, but at 11:00 the sky cleared and the rest of the day was brilliant and sunny. I was thrilled to get laundry out on the line to capture that wonderful sent clothes get when dried outdoors.
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen published the first detailed chemical analysis of clothesline-dried laundry smell in 2020. They found that Ultraviolet light hitting wet fabric triggers photochemical oxidation. Sunlight reacts with water, atmospheric oxygen, and organic residues in the fabric to produce volatile organic compounds, specifically a family of aldehydes. The same class of molecules appears in commercial perfumery and in wine, which is where the "freshly cut grass" and "citrus" notes in a Sauvignon Blanc can come from.
I finished the database for SPACE, signed into the new chat software we got for our members to use to communicate, and tweaked my speech for the event in October. And then, in glorious sunshine and lovely warm temperatures, we walked the Elder Cedar trail.
I am enjoying our walks more because it is always just us now. I have quit the dog walking group because the group likes to walk for an hour or more and that is now beyond Her Highness. I don’t miss the hijinks of Charlie and Billie, two enthusiastic puppers, and I miss neither Freya’s incessant barking nor Di’s loud speech. Now that it’s just Sheba and I, it is quiet and calm.
Last night was the usual, but last night I could stick the movie I chose to watch., so the night passed more easily than it did on Monday night when I couldn’t stand anything I tried to watch. And holy fuck, what a movie I watched! I have not enjoyed and been more impressed in a movie like this in a long, long time.
As I said, I’m getting sick of crime movies and there are many genres of film that hold no interest for me. So, last night I Googled: What are the best movies on Crave. I cruised a couple of annotated lists and chose Let Them All Talk, directed by Steven Soderbergh.
The casting is perfect and every actor made their characters totally believable. I delighted in the performances of Dianne Weist and Candace Bergen, but everyone really brings their character to wonderful life. But it’s the plot and the writing that that grabbed my attention from the beginning and never let go. It’s masterful writing; the ending of the movie is a delicious banquet of surprises. And that’s why you feel exhilarated when it’s done.
But the conversations, of two characters talking over games, for example, I thought they were both powerhouse scripts. Remarkable talent is on display in every department in this film. I’m writing like I know what I’m talking about. I just had so much fun watching these master performers bring such a clever script to life.
A Caveat: I apologize for raving about this film because from my experience that can have a downside. When people rave about something to me, that sets up an expectation, and that expectation can lead to disappointment. Part of what made Let Them All Talk so exciting to me was that it was a surprise. I’d never heard of it. In such situations, it feels like a discovery, and part of the excitement is how clever you are to choose it.
I cried when I saw Candace Bergen. I’d watched her father on TV when I was a kid. I thought she was beautiful and then I discovered how wonderfully talented she was. Hearing her voice, seeing her repertoire of facial acting again, made me weepy.
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I must share some bad news: The apple harvest is eaten. It has been such a joy to go out into the yard to pick an apple for dessert. It absolutely tickles me to be eating so much from my garden in Summertime. I’ve never been able to do this before. I’m thrilled that such positive outcomes since moving here. And I credit by breakdown for the gift of all that has happened to me on Gabriola.
I wrote a while back, to Can Stutter, the Canadian national stuttering association, to ask for their help to ask their membership about their experience with accessing banking services. I wanted to speak for more than myself when I complained to the Ombudsman of Banking and Investment Services about my account being flagged as probably fraudulent by my bank.
On Friday, I heard back from them. They said ‘no.’ They also denied my associate, Devon, permission to alert their membership to the SPACE survey about accessing medical services. They are an insular, irrelevant, incompetent, and petty group of people, who do not serve the constituents they claim to care for. They are a cluster of fucks. I haven’t been so spitting angry in decades.
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Yesterday began dull and dark. I lit a fire and started watering the garden beds. After I’d made a healthy start, I stopped to take Her Highness for a forest walk, and then, when we were home, I got busy with the SPACE database. It’s work I don’t mind doing at all, but after a few hours I stopped to go into the village to order a puffer refill and to get some groceries.
When I got home, I had a long Zoom with John and Bunny, and then it was time for Sheba and my afternoon walk. When I got home, I did more SPACE work, and then I had a lovely, long soak under cloudy skies. It’s such a privilege to be so wonderfully warm while outside on a dull and cool day. And to think that I wanted the tub removed when I bought the house.
As happens more and more often, last night I could not engage with the movie I selected. I am sick of police procedurals and all the clichés that go with the genre. So, I did more SPACE work and went to bed at 20:30. I don’t know why I was so tired, but I went directly to sleep when I got into my warm and cozy bed.
Today, I must stay home all day in case my Tezspire arrives. It is due either today or tomorrow, and I must be home to put it into the fridge right away. I shall finish the conference database this morning and then begin memorizing my bit for the SPACE show in October. And because it’s overcast, I doubt that I’ll need to do any watering today. Any day that I don’t have to water is a good day!
My Day dawned sunny, cool and bright. Fred ensured that I was up before 5:00. He was indifferent to my having had a night of fitful sleep. I fed everyone and lit a morning fire, had a lovely long leisurely soak in the spa in the gentle silence of morning. Then we went for our morning walk.
I am so relieved and happy that we are back to a new normal with Her Highness. She’s now a slow walker, but that suits my chronically painful left foot. She’s wanting affection more. Now, whenever we go for a walk, when I open the back door of the van for her, she wants a cuddle before she gets inside. And when we return to the car to come home, more attention is required.
When we got home, I made a veggie-rich pasta sauce for dinner. There are left over for more tonight and for tomorrow’s lunch.
I still get a big buzz of euphoria about living here and taking two forest walks every day. Now, our walks are just us, and I think she likes that. There are no dogs getting all in her face (in a good way). Last evening, as we walked along a forest path, the air smelt sweet with the fragrance of licorice. It was exhilarating. I stopped to savour it.
I still, every day, moments come that make me feel absolutely blessed to have this home and yard, and, of course, my beloveds. Post-breakdown me fits life on Gabriola perfectly.
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Fuck! I’ve got a hell of a lot of work to do. Aidan has put together an event. These events are celebratory and feature people who stutter. To be honest, I’ve not absorbed what I’ve heard about the cultural side of SPACE activities. I’m team advocacy.
But I have agreed to ‘perform’ at this event. It’s in Vancouver; he’ll pay my way over; I’ve done this before. This one is short. I haven’t timed it yet. And I like it. It’s called Voices. I’ll likely post it here when I feel it’s set. I’m waiting on word about it from Aidan once he’s read it.
Now, I’ve got to memorize it. Fuck. It’s a thousand words, much shorter than my bit for the monologue festival. But still, fuck. It’s work. A lot of work. I’ve got a month to learn it. I reckon I can do that.
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In response to anonymous (I got a comment) who asked about the verb, ‘reckon,’ entered my vocabulary. Short answer: because I cannot say the words ‘can’ and ‘can’t,’ the way I have always pronounced them before my stutter set in. So, when I speak out loud, I say those words as thought I have an English accent. But when I talk to myself and wrote, I use ‘reckon’ to avoid the c-word, even when I am talking to myself.
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It’s cloudy this morning and looks like it may rain. Oh, I hope it does. I must water this morning, but I am in no hurry. There is no sun burning down on the garden beds. First, we walk, then I water. This afternoon, SPACE work.
