A long time since there has been a post here and that is mainly because it's taking me a long time to adjust to this tablet. I yearn for the old way of doing things but see that the screen comes up with lots of suggestions so if I pay attention I should be able to zoom right through this. ...beautiful fall day....Bruce and I should shoot out the back door and gather a bouquet of asters and greenery to brighten up the house....we are on our way down the back stairs........

tuesday August 23rd well, I seem to have a different way of posting and one that I may find it difficult to manage but I guess I can only persevere and perhaps it will get easier. life does keep changing and really really, one does get a little set in one's ways, and it would be nice to have a pointed finger. I will post this and see what happens

Thursday, August 11th..... The month is slipping away, and I am also whiling it away doing little of anything productive, except enjoying the last of the summer days. I have been eyeing my closet with a critical eye, reminding myself that it is over stuffed and crying for attention. I have so many clothes that I don't wear any more since my social life has shrunk quite a bit. That happens in the summer but it also happens as one gets older and less involved.... I am pleased to say that my clothese have not shrunk and still fit me, - it's just that my social life is not what it once was....is that good? It has its pros and cons..... It is good to see friends, but I find, alas, that almost all my closest buddies dwelll elsewhere - in the heavens I hope and believe..... I was thinking the other day that it would be lovely to gather together four bridge players and spend an afternoon sipping wine and bidding above what my cards would suggest, but alas and alack, I would have to raid heaven to find a foursome it seems. I have to be content with memories of Saturday night bridge games and the dear ones who participated. It is clear today - the blue skies are a treat - so many wild fires (not threatening) have spread smoke all through the valley. But today is lovely, - I think youngest son is out with the ladder clearing gutters. Bruce and I shoulod be outside too, even is it's only to sit and enjoy the fresh air. But he is asleep, and I am here at the computer, thinking that it is time I was posting a little blog. Some years ago I got in touch with a company who prints blogs and all I had to do to get printed books of all my blogs was to tell them where to start and where to stop. Wonderful!!! All those wonderful memories tucked into my book shelves, - I was reading this morning, blogs that were written when Charles and I lived elsewhere, up the hill in the countryside, and it left me with such precious memories. It is almost noon - what happeed to the morning when I had planned to do so many things.....well, I spent at least an hour at the piano, and a fair time going through books that hold the daily posting from twenty years ago when we made that lovely crew reuniom trip to Britain, and later the wandering through France, visiting Charles' brother's graves (from War years) When I think of all those times that lie behind me I get alarmingly aware of just where I am in the nineties decade!! Well life is still good, and it's time I went and made myself some lunch, to sustain it!!!!

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2022 Life goes on......the weather is terribly hot these days. I venture out with the dog for short intervals, sitting in the shade, admiring the blooms in the garden while he intends to his business. The house is cool, thanks to the air conditioning, as I think I have said before. Cool, but very enclosed. No doors or windows open, - no breeze wafting through..... I sometimes think of the house we (husband) built - (our good friend, George Angliss designed it) when we first moved on to the VLA project in Cawston. We had rectangular screens below the windows, enclosed during cold weather by little doors, but in the summer they were shaded, and were wonderful places for cool air to circulate, - of course if there wasn't cool air, and just hot sun,every thing got closed, and kept the hot air out..... The house was located at the top of the orchard, - pasture for the sheep above, reaching up to the hills that shaded the valley. Well, sometimes shaded - in the mornings, at least.... In the late evening on hot summer days we still had sunshine, located as we were half way up the hillslide. The sun chose in those summer months to go down through a slit in the hills, so it was with us well into the evening shining through the one narrow window we had looking out over the valley. But we were young, and hot weather wasn't the problelm it seems to be these days.... Well, I really don't know what I intended to say in this post, except for the little weather report. I guess I will go back to the beginning....."life goes on". I get a little weaving done - no baking or housecleaning, except for the duster twirling around some days.... I am pleased to have youngest son staying here with me, - off working during the day, but lovely in the evenings and good to know there is someone else in the house as the night goes on. Bruce and I went out into the garden for a short while this afternoon. I admired the great swathe of those golden flowers that tower over the fence - at least ten feet high, and (as I think I said previously) great for privacy. We didn't stay long, - even in the shade it was fairly hot, and I thought about a nice tall glass of lemonade, or something equally as thirst quenching. I have been doing a little knitting, and a fair amount of reading. Still reading Robert McFarlane, and I reached Teilhard de Chardin down from the shelf to muse a bit about his "Hymn of the Universe" I thought something nice and light would be great, but I am a very sparse visitor to the library these days (age - quit driving - etc....) and I didn't find anything light on the shelves here at home that appealed to me. Son has just come home and we were discussing Jordan Peterson and his Daily Wire, which gives us both much pleasure and information, and helps to form many opinions as to what goes on in Canada and in Canadian politics. There are wild fires burning here in B.C., - and I guess elsewhere. One of them is fairly close to us (although certainly not close enough to cause us any concern that we would have to deal with it). The yellow rose in the garden has grown tall and wide and carries with it great quantities of blooms and buds. Tomorrow I will get a picture of it when Bruce and I go out for a little fresh (but warm) air. The weatherman says cooler days coming - soon, I hope....

Wednesday, July 27th Going out for supper tonight, - lovely thought. Youngest son has just been to the store for me. The thoughts of not having to cook the chops that he brought home, tonight, fill me with delight!! We are going through such a spell of terribly hot weather. Bruce and I went out into the garden this morning, but didn't stay more than five minutes, or so, it was so full of sunshine, and hot, hot, hot. The sun is just great in the months when the rest of the weather is cool, but in July!!!!! A shady spot is more to my liking...... Picked a couple of raspberries, which are nice and red and juicy;, but there are a number of bulbs that have just shriveled up and have died in this heat. It is cool in the house, thank goodness (or thank the air conditioner, and I suppose that is 'goodness' right now,) and I am lucky, lucky, to have it. I find refuge at the loom, and the air conditioner makes sleeping such a treat when one isn't hot, even with the blankets thrown off..... Right now the house is closed up tightly, and the shades are drawn. I am off to the loom, and this July day will pass, fairly comfortably..... Soon it will be August, and then September, which I think is my favourite month of the year. The start of everything good!

Sunday night.. The start of a new week, and I am hoping that it will be more productive than this last week has been. The weather has been so very hot, and I have been so very languid. I wander around the garden, poking here and there, and enjoying the flowers in bloom, but I don't really have a lot of energy to do anything but 'enjoy'. Brought in a few blooming stems to plunge into cool water in one of my fancy vases, and a rose bud that has taken up residence in a tea cup on the window sill.... And a bunch of those lovely yellow wall flowers, - I don't know the exact name for them, so I just call them 'wall flowers' as they grow tall and sturdy and provide great amounts of privacy in the back garden, growing against the fence as they do..... There was a 'do' today in honor of one of the ladies of the parish, but I am ashamed to say that the terribly warm weather (and my age, which is getting quite forbidding when it comes to gadding) kept me indoors where I read a bit and watched some interesting television, and was, on the whole, quite happy with a book in my easy chair, with the house so nice and cool. If I had been 88 I would have been moved to go, my sense of duty being stronger in those days than it is now that I am pushing 98. Being that age has its pros and cons, - it makes a lovely excuse for staying home, but on the other hand it is a dreadful reasons for missing some nice outings.... I have a warp on the loom that is challenging me to finish it this coming week, and as it is not a very exciting warp I am faced with the chance to finish it off as soon as possible, or putting my stool at the loom far down on the list of things to do next week. I think I should bite the bullet!!!! In the last few months my bed has developed a voice that gets louder as the evening goes on, and I hear it calling to me now, so I will gather up my Ipad and a good book and go and so what that bed feels is so urgent, - probably lonely again and wanting my company!!!! I hope for cooler weather this coming week, but the weatherman doesn't seem about to harken to my wishes and so I guess the sun will shine, furiously, and I will look for shady spots outside and keep the cool air coming inside from the cooling doo-dad we have going.

Happy Birthday to the First Born.......