Wood Sorting and Toting

The only times I feel somewhat lonely is when a guest leaves—well, to be honest, not all guests. Sometimes I am counting the minutes until they leave. But Neil was a wonderful guest. Plus, he had other friends here with whom we partied and that made his visit spectacular—no cooking for me!

I dropped Neil off at 10:00 and Kris was there to see him off as well. Then I went to Drumbeg to walk with Her Highness, and what a spectacular morning it was to walk in our extraordinarily beautiful seaside park. I was feeling blissful as we walked. Then I went shopping so that I could make a favourite dish—Thai chicken curry.

Then my first time watering the gardens. There is a lot more garden to water now, so it takes a good hour and a half. Following that, I started sorting and toting the branches and bucked logs felled by Rod a few weeks back. It’s going to be a lot of work, as is finishing the plantings of the garden-in-progress. Then I cooked the chicken.

I went out to the herb garden and noticed that the Garlic is really doing well. I am going to have a huge crop and going by the size of the plants, I think they’ll be nice big bulbs. And I have plenty of raspberries and a disappointing crop of blueberries. I was worried about both berries as I saw few bees during the blooming time. I think it’s time to fertilize. I’ve never used any and the blueberries need something.

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It's predicted to be 29° today, It’s 9:00 am as I write, and it’s already 22°, so we might make it. I am not a fan of excessive heat. Yesterday was predicted to be hot, as well, but there was a refreshing breeze keeping temperatures warm but moderate; today, there’s no breeze. I’ve got a lot of wood toting to do today. I’m going slow, sorting twigs (for starting fires), sicks, thick twigs/small branches, inch-wide branches, thick and large branches, small logs, and large logs. I stack each category separately.

The large logs must be split, everything else except the twigs must be trimmed to pieces14” or shorter. I’d say that there’s a few days of work ahead of me on this project. The results will help me use the fireplace efficiently; I can control the amount of heat by the size of the fire.

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Neil told me his thoughts about how his future might roll out. He leads a vibrant exciting life. I love his company and hearing his stories. He’s just leased a flat in The Barbican in London, he leaves to move in next week. He’ll stay until November, and then come back to Vancouver. He returns to London in the Spring to stay there for six or more months. London is his favourite city in the world.

“What are your plans, Chris?”

I want to live here every day for the rest of time during which I can function. Then, I assisted living, hospice, and death. I’d be happy to never leave home except to do things on the island, with the occasional visit to the hospital in Nanaimo.

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This morning I finally finished watering everything. I don’t water the lawns, but I have so much planted now, it’s an epic job to water everything. We’ll go for a walk, and then to our farmers’ market and then I’ll get back to sorting, trimming, and toting the wood.

I’ve decided not to use the chain saw I bought without someone here to be with me. Noise can make me go into a challenging state, so I don’t want to use it for the first time alone. Kris’ Steve has said he’ll come to get me started, so he and Kris will come over once I have all the wood assembled and sorted.