Huge Forest Fall

During the recent few weeks, I was coughing up a lot of mucus from my lungs. I was of a mind to ask my doctor if I should go back on Spiriva, the inhaler I stopped taking on his advice, but I gave myself my Tezspire shot last Thursday and the coughing stopped. It leaves me worried that my asthma is winning. I’ll be starting an asthma diary (much like my psych diary that I keep for Dr. Shoja.).

It was wonderful to rise and attend to my morning chores without any coughing. I started watering early, getting most of it done before walking with Her Highness who has a new problem. She has a small wart-like growth on her leg that she irritates, so I have bound her leg for the short-term to see what the growth looks like after being protected from Sheba’s incessant licking.

Then I came home to finish the watering and discovered a very large branch lying across one of my garden beds. It had crushed part of a Rhodo and another shrub that I can’t identify. There was lots of damage and it was a challenge to clean it up without doing more damage to my plants.

This bad news came after discovering a lot of damage to my Jasmine vine and my front bed from deer. Both the deer and falling branches are part of life here, so I wasn’t disturbed by my finding. What disturbs me is finding dead birds that have crashed into my windows. There was one poor wee beauty on my deck this morning.

I did SPACE work, read and doomscrolled the early afternoon away, then Her Highness and I walked the Elder Cedar trail. It was a glorious afternoon and walk. I love it when it’s only in the low twenties during the Summer. Then it was time for dinner and watching a movie on my new huge TV!

Wow, the weather has really changed. Today, and for the ensuing two days, a mixture of sun, clouds and showers are predicted, followed by several overcast days. It’s as though the end of August tells the weather to change. Thankfully, I have books to read and more arriving soon.

I have very modest goals for the day.

The backyard last evening.

The branch that fell and crushed part of my garden bed that
lies under several trees. The photo does not do justice to the
size of the branch. It is HUGE and I must saw it into pieces 
today so that I can throw it into the forest.

My showiest Fuschia is spectacular.

 IF you look closely (click on the photo to enlarge it) you can see
the vines through the doors of the Virginia Creeper spreading along
the gutters outside. And it covers one of the windows I look out through
when I am at my desk. I love how 

The famous fish tacos I get most Summer Sundays
at the Firetruck Grill food truck in Silva Bay. 

François and Eoin's new baby ducks. They hatch them in an 
incubator. They have a lot of ducks; they sell the eggs and eat 
the meat of the males. They must carefully balance the male/
female ratio of their flock.

Lake Canuck

Tuesday few by! We went for an early walk together before I took Sheba to the groomer’s for a makeover. While she was getting cleaned up, I did some shopping and then I went to pick her up. Once back home, it was soon lunchtime and after lunch I did some doomscrolling and some SPACE work, and before I knew it, it was time to go for our afternoon walk. 

I had a lovely long soak in the spa before we went for our walk. The walk was spectacular. The forest has dried out, and the fragrances were incredibly stimulating. They turned my mind to recollections of walks in Africa, India and southern France.

At 17:00 I attended a Zoom meeting of US health professionals who stutter. I was the only Canadian in the chat, and the only person who is not a health professional. However, I reckon I earned my place at the table because the host thanked the two nurses who chaired the meeting and me. I was the only participant thanked and I know it was because of the points I made.

There was quite a bit of discussion about disclosing. Should they declare that they stutter or not was at the centre of a long discussion. I waited a long time before I spoke because I was not certain I would be welcome because I was not a health worker, so when I did speak I began with my own disclosure. I told then I was Canadian and not a health worker and then I told them about the work I am doing with Aidan to make medical services easier for dysfluent people to access.

The discussion was framed around health care workers who stutter and about how to function as a stutterer in a medical setting, but when I spoke I spoke as an advocate for patients and I told them that stuttering patients needed them as allies and that by not disclosing their stutter to their peers, they were deciding not to educate them about dysfluency. That, I said, is a disservice to people who stutter. I could see them nodding in agreement as I spoke and I was thanked for speaking up for patients. It all went over very well. 

Then Her Highness and I went for our afternoon walk. It was a long one and at first she balked at walking in the heat, but she finally relented and we had a good walk. And then it was dinnertime followed by a movie on my huge and fabulous new TV!!!

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Let’s rename Lake Michigan Beaver Lake or Lake Canuck. Yay Canada for standing up to old Fuckface. 

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Today, of course, is sunny but it is going to be cooler. Yesterday it was 27° when Sheba and I went for our walk. It’s a major watering day for me today, but we’ll walk with our friends as well, and I shall do some work in the garden.

A change in the weather is coming. Sunday, the sun will be behind a cloud cover for at least three days.

The Big Picture

 

It's not this big, but it feels this big!

Monday was a sunny and bright but comfortable day. I spent the early morning enjoying a long soak in the spa and then doing chores around the house before going to the Windecker trail to walk with our friends. There’s still no need for me to water, thanks to the soaking of heavy rain on Saturday night, so I had the day to enjoy without two hours of watering.

All my plums are eaten and now, the apples on my trees are slowly disappearing. It’s such a wonderful thing to be able to go outside into my own yard to pick fresh fruit to eat, and the fruit I grow is so wonderfully delicious.

When we got home from the walk, my new TV was on the front porch, so in I came, all excited, to get it hooked up. Of course, it was techno Hell at Pinecone Park for two hours. Everything went easily and well, except I could not figure out how to access my cable channels, plus I could not install the Kanopy app on this new smart TV. After three hours of fiddling, and three calls to the help like of the manufacturer, everything is working.

Sadly, I still have a plethora of remotes, but I can live with that because it is so much quicker to access things, and I love the huge new screen (55”). I could hardly wait to watch a movie later in the evening, once I was done. But man-oh-man did the whole experience drain me. I felt like a truck had run over me by the time I sat down to get ready for my Zoom with Presentation House.

Once everything was put away, I put an ad on our community Facebook page to give the old TV away, and then I got ready to talk to Aidan and Keltie from Presentation House. It’s the 50^th anniversary of the theatre I built there, and they are making plans for some sort of celebration.

Talking with the Presentation House people was not what I expected. They really wanted ideas about how to earn income and increase donations. We had a good talk, but I am too long, too far removed from the career I once had to be of any relevant help. So, after an hour of talking, I signed off and took Her Highness for our afternoon forest walk.

And then we came home and I prepped and served everyone their meals. And then I turned on the tv! What a total blast it was to watch a movie in such a grand size. I had a great night with my new toy, and then I fell into bed exhausted from a day in which I did little but had a lot of stress over getting the television working.

Today is sunny and bright. Sheba goes to the groomer nice and early, and I will have the rest of the day to read and putter. There is no need to water the beds yet, they are still wet from Saturday night’s downpour.

Slow Daze

Sunday was the best My Day that I’ve had in a long time. I had no responsibilities, no commitments, and the weather was such that I was not seduced into doing yard work. Her Highness and I had two forest walks together, and during both walks I couldn’t imagine feeling any better than I did with the gentle cool breeze on my face and the fragrances of the forest infusing my brain with memories of times past. I am so glad that I moved here!

I have a quiet, slow week ahead of me. I have few demands on my time this week, and on Thursday, my new television might arrive. I’m excited about having a new smart TV. I’ll be retiring several remotes and my Apple TV device that enables my current TV to access streaming services.

The quiet will last until Sept. 2^nd, when I must go to Nanaimo to an appointment at the hospital Pacemaker Clinic. I expect to find out what will be happening with my device. The kind of pacemaker I have has been recalled. But until then, I’ll be primarily reading, walking Her Highness, and watering my garden beds.

And so here I go: another week begins, and it is predicted to be sunny every day for the foreseeable future, and afternoon temperatures are likely to be in the low twenties.