"Nazzo Guido"

What time is it Mr. Hawking?

Guido Nazzo, an Italian tenor of the 1930s, sang only once in New York and received but one review: ‘Guido Nazzo: nazzo guido.’

— Willard R. Espy, Another Almanac of Words at Play, 1981

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Wednesday was a chill day; Sheba has to be kept calm so her sutures hold so I did very slow gardening. She loves to herd the wheelbarrow but won’t if I go very slowly. I got all my planters filled and planted with a few short walks together in between work sessions.

I’ve been blessed with an incredible work partner; Darrell has been here almost every day since October 27^th (with some time off for Christmas and this week); however, these days alone are wonderful. I really value the solitude I currently enjoy.

I make the porch accessible for the cats all day now; the fire keeps me warm even though the doors are open. It’s fabulous. I play classical music — no sturm und drang, all light and lyrical — and inhale my liturgical incense as I work and the cats go berserk.

The sun came out unexpectedly in the afternoon; it was wonderful. The sun set in a cloudless sky. The only downside of the day was sometimes thinking about Stephen Hawking and I’d be gutted.

I am into hero worship: Oliver Sacks, Joan of Arc, Luther Burbank (oh my God!), William Smith (oh my God, again; ground zero of geology), Oscar Wilde, Gregor Mendel (!!!), Charles Darwin (and even more so, his captain, Robert FitzRoy), Bill Millerd, Artemisia Gentileschi, Yotam Ottolenghi and Mr. Hawking are some that come to mind. It’s awful when you have a living hero who dies. But what life he had!

Late in the day I sat outside to do nothing but listen to the sunset song of the birds. It was warm enough to be out for a while in just a t-shirt. Then, getting into the hot tub felt deserved; my yard and deck are looking mighty fine for the good weather ahead. All that’s missing to be installed are my solar lights and the hammock.

This morning I go to a Gabriola Welcome Wagon event and then, since Chalise is sitting with the pets while I’m there, I’m taking myself to lunch and doing some errands in the village before I come home to add soil to the front garden.

I just got a large volunteer writing/editing project from the Arts Council to do and tomorrow wood comes and there’ll be stacking to do. So today I play.