Madame!

Sheba has been dealing with a damaged foot. This is her curse. Yesterday, she would not walk at all. I urged her outside to pee, otherwise, she was housebound all day. I was relieved to get her out to pee before I left for my 8:00 dentist appointment.

When I got home, I had an email from Sue, my respiratory therapist, who relayed that my lung test revealed my lung capacity at 100%! That’s up from 20% last August, and what better proof of the efficacy of Tezspire is there?

It wasn’t easy, but my phone is now registered with Koodo as belonging to a person requiring text communication with the 911 system. I feel a lot safer now.

After my teeth cleaning, I went shopping for things with which to make my dinner for tonight. I needed four things that they did not have in stock: radishes, parsley, walnuts, and lemons. Lemons! My palette pays a price living here. I called Ali to see if she had some lemons, and she did, and walnuts and daikon! I was set. I have Italian parsley in my garden.

My goal for the day was baking a meringue roll up cake. It did not go well, but it is salvageable. Besides, meringue tastes fabulous no matter how unattractive it is. I baked a flat meringue on a cookie sheet. I added corn starch to make it malleable. Once it was baked and cool, I slathered on a layer of sweetened cream cheese infused with mint, and over that, I piped lemon curd over that, and then I rolled the meringue as tightly as I could in parchment paper and I put it in the fridge. 

Once that was done, I made a pea pesto spread that I love. I got the recipe from Kris Gabbott, my friend here on Gabe. I’ll serve it and a mushroom spread that I made this morning with toasted baguette slices.

I cleaned up all the dishes, and I felt as tired as I do after a day working in the yard. The chaise was calling me; dinner was calling me. I was beat. The evening was the usual routine, but it was very, very welcome. I loved having my feet up and doing nothing but watching a movie after a busy day. 

I watched Madame, on Kanopy. I loved, loved, loved it. It’s such a clever plot and script. It’s loads of fun. The actors do a great job, but it’s the writer that’s the star of the show. I’m constantly choosing a movie by its log line. I watch at least one movie every day; sometimes two. Taking a chance on Madame, I was very richly rewarded.

Today I must make a complex salad that I have never made before. It’s blanched asparagus, walnuts, bacon, radishes, herbs and a dressing that I think will be fabulous. But it needs lemon. Sigh. I hope they have some when I go shopping, or I will have to use that horrid lemon juice that you buy.

I also must make the main. I was going to make a pasta that is my favourite (with lemon) but that’s not going to happen, so I’ll make a creamy shrimp and bacon pasta. I haven’t consumed bacon for over thirty years, so no guilt. I love making and serving new recipes when I entertain. Tonight is the first time I’ve entertained since Christmas.

I’ve been walking three times a week with Regina for almost eight years. Meryl joined us a couple of years ago; Nola’s been walking with us for probably five years. These are people with whom I am fluent. The part of my brain that makes me stutter and have seizures is my fight or flight centre. It’s stuck on high alert. It’s constantly monitoring my environment and my emotions. Understanding all this makes it logical that I am at my most comfortable with people I have seen so often for so many years.

When I had my accident and hurt my arm, I felt no pain. When the paramedics bandaged me, same thing, I felt no pain. It started hurting three days ago and now it really bothers me. Tonight, when my friends arrive, I am going to ask one of them to help me change my bandage. I can’t do it alone.

I have a busy day today before the dinner party. I’m going to crash after dinner.

Slow Day

Thursday passed gently. As my arm heals, it is hurting a lot, and it slows me down. However, work called. I had watering to do. Rain was predicted for last night, but I had no faith in the forecast, so watering was my one job for the day. But before the doing of chores, I walked Her Highness, took her home, and then I went into the village to meet Stacy for breakfast.

Her daughter married at her place on Saturday, and the entire south end of the island where she and her sister have homes, was plunged into a power failure by a huge fallen tree. Neighbours arrived with generators and the day was very, very successfully saved.

When I got home, I did the watering and soon thereafter it was lunch time. We ate and then I read for a while, napped and then took H.H. for our afternoon walk. Late in the afternoon, Pete dropped by for a short visit as mist gently descended.

The evening was the usual, and there was no sign of rain. However, this morning, it is wet, wet, wet outside. I checked the water barrels in which I collect rainfall, only to realize that although it was wet there had not been very much rainfall through the night at all. However, there is no sunshine in the forecast for the coming week. 

There may be rain today. It seems possible as I look outside. It’s windy and dark. I may have an easy week with lots of reading if the forecast holds. Temperatures are going to be mild but far from hot. What a break for me and my garden!

I shall visit the dentist this morning and then I’ll be baking a cake for my dinner here tomorrow night with some of my women friends from our dog walking group.

Days of Rest

What a weird day Wednesday was. I’d planned on spot watering and spreading fertilizer through the garden beds during the remainder of the day, but that didn’t happen. 

We went for our morning walk with our friends and then we went into the village to shop. When we came home, I went to bed. I felt astoundingly tired and my left hand was very swollen and painful. I have no idea why. We had lunch and then I went back to bed. Finally, I felt capable of functioning, so at 14:00 I went to spot water and found that I needed to do a thorough watering even though I’d watered thoroughly on Tuesday.

AT 15:30, I Zoomed with the board of SPACE until 17:30, and then it was dinnertime. I watched a movie but couldn’t finish it. I was too tired and so I was in bed again by 21:00.

Today dawned much cooler than it’s been of late. My arm is painful, and so I’m grateful to have a day of rest today.

How I'd love an entire day of rain!!!

Yay Spa!

I had my first spa since the accident yesterday, and oh it felt good. I kept my damaged arm out of the water. And then I was out watering at 7:15 yesterday morning. It’s such a comfortable time of day to water, and the plants get a good long time to soak it up before the hot sun hits the garden beds. And once I was done, I took Her Highness for our morning walk. Then it was home to rake and tote.

I have guests coming for dinner on Saturday. It’s likely to be a cloudy day, but I’m hoping they will want to see my garden, and I’m thrilled to have had so much time of late to tidy the entire yard in advance of their visit. They are four women with whom Sheba and I walk three times a week.

Watering: I thoroughly watered the beds yesterday morning. I decided to time myself. I did the front bed, the trees in the front yard, the edible garden beds and vines, and the four beds around the courtyard, plus some of the shrubs in the backyard that I can reach with the front-yard hose. All that took an hour and a half.

The beds under the trees, the backyard fruit trees and shrubs, the fern garden, the bed by the back gate and the moss lining the walkway I do with the backyard hose. Doing all that took 45 minutes, so the total time to water the garden was 2.25 hours. It always feels very, very good to do the watering early in the morning because I have the rest of the day for other yard chores.

It was a bright morning with ideal temperatures (19°), but there were lots of this clouds that dimmed the harshness of the sunlight. Our morning walk was wonderfully comfortable, and when we got home, it was soon time for lunch and some chill time.

But it doesn’t take long for me to be itching to get back to work. I did some pruning, and then the raking and toting began. It’s work I’m rather sick of and that I find hard on my back, and it’s tiring. But having a tidy yard is very pleasing to the eye. Now that the weed fields have become dry, lifeless and brown, the garden beds jump out much more.

By noon, I was getting very excited because I saw the end of my raking and toting getting very close. I used the leaf blower to corral the bajillion growth caps into a pile, and that was the last tote of the day, taking it all to the dump behind the back fence. It was only 23° but I was sweating like a racehorse. 

At 14:30, I was done! All the raking and toting was done, everything was well watered, and I got the table up on the patio and four of the six chairs set up around it. I am ready for proper outdoor eating now. And after eight hours of working, I had done enough. I came indoors to washup and cool down before going for our afternoon walk with Sheba.

I was desperate for a cool shower, but I am hesitant to get my bandage wet. Instead, I had a cool sponge bath and felt much more alive. It was 28° outside, and in the sunshine, it felt intolerable. The air was still. That was part of the problem.

Although I get pooped and hot, I love doing the work. I love how great Pinecone Park looks right now. It will stay this way until the next big wind. In the evenings, on the chaise watching a movie, I feel no guilt whatsoever after working all day. We’ve one more hot day to get through today, then tomorrow, when I am next to do a thorough watering, we are predicted to have rain for two days, and then several cloudy days. Hurrah!!!

For some reason, my arm is hurting me. I probably overdid it with all the raking and toting, but that is over so today should be far less painful. We shall walk with our friends this morning, and then I shall fertilize many of the plants in all the beds today. Plus, I’ll spot water because it’s going to be hot today.