I Am With My People

Friday morning I put the meringue on the lemon curd tart. It’s deliciously decadent.

I had little energy for Defiant Dress. I just wanted to laze the drizzly day away and spent lots of time with playing with Fred, Ethel and Sheba. I started reading The Hidden Life of Trees, a gift from Beth that’s ideal for Pinecone Park & Spa.

We had lasagna we got at the deli for dinner and then we watched Strictly Ballroom, one of my favourite movies and an annual watch, and Beth loved it; then an episode of Grantchesterand to bed.

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Working on Defiant Dressis kind of nerve wracking right now. I’m confident of my skills with dialogue, I’m confident of my dresses and letters and I like the uniqueness of the concept and structure. All the working components add to the pressure I feel to find a worthy ending. I need an ending with punch.

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Beth and I have found a nice rhythm this past week that I’ll miss for a while — but not for long because Allan and Larry arrive. And before the do, the jigsaw puzzle and croquet set arrive; they’re hopefully buying and bringing the cards and cribbage board for me.

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I’ve come to really like the name and the whole idea of thinking of this place as a spa: Pinecone Park & Spa.Two of the three words connote guests being welcome. The bikes (I’ve got a second one coming), the slippers, robes and towels and now the games, reinforce that focus and speak to the importance of guests here.

So ‘ve decided I need one of those guest books summer resorts had when I was a kid. The kind I loved to look through to see where people were from.

People say I’m in the “honeymoon phase.” I wonder.

Peter Wohlleben, the author of The Hidden Life of Trees is more a fabulist than a scientist, I think. He anthropomorphizes trees and that’s just fine with me. I tear up reading his eulogy to the biggest plants on earth. 

When I was having seizures, I’d want to hold onto a person. If there wasn’t one available I’d want a tree; in private, I was a literal tree hugger.

I think I may have almost thirty monster trees on my land. Huge towering beasties! I am with my people and doubt the honeymoon will end.

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Proverbs from around the world:

• If two people tell you you are blind, shut one eye. (Georgia)
• Those who have free seats at a play hiss first. (China)
• It is in sugar that you see the dead ant. (Malaysia)
• Seven days is the length of a guest’s life. (Myanmar)
• Silence is a fence ‘round wisdom. (Germany)
• Good things sell themselves; bad things have to be advertised. (Ethiopia)
• Where there is most mind, there is least money. (Latin)
• Better a free meal of acorns than a honey feast on trust. (Wales)
• Only an owl knows the worth of an owl. (India)
• Good luck is the guardian of the stupid. (Sweden)
• At birth we cry — at death we see why. (Bulgaria)
• Errands are small on a spring day. (Iceland)
• The nail suffers as much as the hole. (Netherlands)
• The higher the castle, the nearer to the lightning. (Russia)
• A contented mind is a continual feast. (England)