Edwin Leaves

Salmon berries from my walk with Edwin.

Edwin’s visit was ideal in every way. I felt sad as I watched his plane take off into the late afternoon sun to take him back to Vancouver. He had a really wonderful time; his emails of thanks confirmed that. And I had a wonderful time hosting him.

Yesterday morning we left here on foot with Sheba and we walked down to Whalebone Beach. It was my first visit; it’s raw and beautiful so we walked along the beach to another beach where we could walk back up to the road. It was truly special walking alone but together early in the cool morning fragrant air and with the warm sun on our backs. It was one of the most beautiful experiences I’ve had so far on Gabriola.

I was alone but I wasn’t. I had a trusted long-time friend with me whose presence gave me complete confidence and a wonderful sense of security. It more than compensated for the horror of the day before that I didn’t tell you about.

When Fran and Sue came with their dogs, it freaked out my cats even though we kept the dogs outside, so Fred and/or Ethel (for the second time since I had them) shit and peed on my bed and it required a Herculean cleaning effort on my part to restore order.

After Edwin left, Her Highness and I went to Drumbeg (see photos above) for a walkabout before calling it a day. It was beautiful, of course, and quiet and calm. Heaven! And I live here. But after that, I was bagged — I had two seizures while Edwin was here and we were constantly doing something so I went to bed at 7:30!

Today, I’m taking things slowly. It’s cool but sunny. It’s a lovely day to chill at the spa. Tonight I dine with Sue, Fran and Patsy at The Surf.

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Another issue of The Stuttering FoundationMagazinearrived. I love this magazine like nothing else. This time I learned something super: Trying to start a sentence with “I” is really hard. I often use the ungrammatical “me” instead. But 11-year old Johanna wrote into share how she aspirates before saying “I.” She almost says “hi” but the “h” is so soft and gentle her locaters don’t hear it.

I tried it right away. It works with many words so I’ve a new tool to help me speak.

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There are no more visitors on the horizon. I am glad of that for a while as I get so much done at the Spa. I’m very keen to finish the fence and my spa sign but I have to get ready for Vanessa, She’s coming on Monday to haul away all my junk — junk that is in many places so I want to get some of the remoter stuff into the shed.

Once all the stuff is removed, I can start working on getting firewood. I plan to stack it all in the newly vacated places and build up a supply of six-to-eight cords.