Labour Day: MY Day of Rest

Jess and Todd decided to go home Sunday afternoon. We had a great breakfast and just chilled the morning away. Their visit was fabulous and now they know how easy it is to get here from Victoria and that my place is a nice place to relax.

I stayed home all day to keep the lawn moist. In the hot sun, it dries quickly. I’ll be stuck at home for two weeks tending the lawn except for any days that are cloudy or showery—but there’s only good weather predicted for this entire week.

By early Sunday night I was exhausted from the seizures and the company. I went to bed at 8:30 and slept for almost ten hours—me who lived for decades on four hours sleep a night. I have become a bed bug.

It’s bright and clear yet again. I’ll soak the lawn and take Sheba to Drumbeg for a morning adventure. I have to stay home in the heat of the afternoon.

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This morning on a blog I follow by an artist in Brazil, I saw horrifying photos of an inferno that I thought were archival photographs. But they weren’t. 

Yesterday a massive fire broke out in the two hundred-year-old National Museum of Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro. It seems likely that most all of the institutions priceless Brazilian relics are gone. I just can’t imagine the horror of losing such an important cultural institution.

I happened to be in Cairo during the Arab Spring uprising and I went to Cairo’s prestigious Egyptian Museum that had been looted. It was less of a loss that has happened in Brazil but I felt sick pondering the impact of the loss on Egypt’s people.

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Today will be a quiet lazy day. After all the work on the lawn and then guests, I’m pooped. I have the place to myself today and I plan to take it very, very easy.

I think Darrell will be back tomorrow to work on the vegetable garden. It hasn’t been my energy driving the garden; it’s Elaine’s. She is the boss in their family and she wants a vegetable garden. It will be fun to watch it come together and I won’t have a lot to do on it. It’s mostly Darrell’s work, but I will have to help with the wire fencing.

Fred & Ethel

Fred (brown) and Ethel have become very relational. They still do not like to be picked up but they love my attention and seek it out often. We play together and with each day we become more and more attached. We are a wonderful family.

Reunited and it Feel So Good!

I converted my studio into a dorm for three after going to the market for fresh vegetables and a pie to share with Todd and Jess and family. And I doted over the new lawn that’s now criss-crossed with deer tracks, keeping it damp in the hot sun.

The market was huge and thriving. Gabriola is flooded with strangers this holiday weekend—the end of summer holiday for everyone with kids and summer cabins.

Fall is in the air and in my mind. It’s quite cool in the mornings now. And next week an extended cloudy/rainy period is predicted. The time for sweaters and evening fires is fast approaching and big changes in play patterns with Her Highness.

Todd and Jess arrived at about 3:15 and we immediately fell into our comfortable familiarity. We talked, we ate, we drank, we hot tubbed and then came dinner. It was so, so much fun to be together. They all liked my place and my pets and that bodes well for more visits.

With two disabled members of the family, Todd and Jess really like just hanging out somewhere comfortable and stimulating and Pinecone Park fits the bill perfectly.

They had planned to leave today but I think I’ve convinced them to stay until tomorrow. Today is going to be a lovely one so we can decamp to Drumbeg together during part of the day.

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Rachel Notley cancelled her province’s participation in the federal climate change agreement in a snit over the annulment of the pipeline agreement. Fighting the pipeline cancellation—fair game. But fighting it like a petulant child, punishing the environment and the planet over the loss of a benefit to a single province? That’s just creepy and short-sighted. The entire northern half of her province is an oil spill and always has been. I don’t want one drop of her bitumen in our ocean, on “my” coastline. No way!

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Boris Brott chose the music on CBC’s My Playlist yesterday and included in his program was Mahler’s Fifth Symphony.  I was weeping as I was driving through glorious sunshine and island pastureland. Then he played Rich Little’s many voices accompanying the Hamilton Symphony’s version of Peter and the Wolf.  It was just delicious.

Todd and Jessica Day

Was it all the work? Was it because guests are coming today?

I had two bad seizures this morning—my back arching, breathing impossible and my mind full of the darkest of thoughts. When I’m in the throws of it, it’s hard to believe it will stop and I wish I could just die, especially during the second one.

I turned off all the lights and my radio. And I unplugged the fridge so that there was complete quiet and I drank in that quiet and welcomed the pressure of Sheba’s body against my legs to feel myself again—to drive the demon out. The trouble is, I have no idea what the demon is.

That worked. I felt better after half-an-hour of rest.

Today Todd and Jess come to visit Pinecone Park for the first time. They are bringing their kids Hudson and Sahara and Todd’s brother, Mark. We’ve travelled together often before so I’m really looking forward to being together again.

Plus, I’m moving no soil today; I’ve no heavy labour to do today! Instead, I will adapt the studio for their occupancy and go to the market for fresh veggies.

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Good weather is predicted until Wednesday. It will give the grass seeds good warm germination weather. And then the rain comes but on Gabriola rain is more like gentle showers and so it’s perfect weather for an emerging lawn.

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Darrell asked me to wait on the gravel for the driveway. He says he wants to bury some water piping across the driveway for the vegetable garden first. He’s removing some of the water system at their old garden and installing it here. That must mean he’s building the raised beds to know where to put the piping so Elaine and I will be already to go come Springtime.