Friday, June 26th, 2020

Youngest son arrived early this morning with a virtual chauffeur's hat and a delightful invitation to go for a drive....which I so readily accepted!!!

Since reaching this venerable age, and since my driver's licence expired I am not so inclined to make these  drives down through the Valley, - the ones that Charles and I used to take on the spur of the moment, and found so enjoyable.

Without even checking my hair or my lipstick I was out through the door, down the steps and into the car, ready and raring to go!

This is a drive that we used to take fairly often, poking around in all the nooks and crannies of Cawston where we lived for so long, with apple trees and sheep and a wonderful family of children. 

found that things have not changed drastically, - many things still the same to stir my memories of the thirty-six years we lived on the Cawston Bench with our children, Charles' father, and a flock of sheep.

Different occupants of the houses and orchards from those who planted the Benchland;  all veterans of the Second World War, as it was a "Soldier Settlement" project, as they called such entities after the First World War.

So probably the community is somewhat different, and perhaps the farmers are not all so young, and peers of the military, and there may not be so many children, but the orchards are all looking green and vital and cared for, and here and there are the remnants of some of the veteran families whose children have stayed with the farm.

 All sorts of memories came flooding back, - the year we had all black lambs from the beautiful silver/black ram we had, and the field above the fruit orchard was ebony dotted with his offspring.  The children of various ages, all catching the school bus, and the involvement of the ladies of the Bench in the Parent and Teacher's Association - the festivities in the Cawston Hall, and the Father and Daughter dance that opened the evening - the wonderful feeling of comradeship among these young veterans and their families, -  stirring up Memories' Well can result in great nostalgia, and it is enough to say it was such a pleasure to be in this small community again.

And there were the other memories of the fields of tomatoes we planted for the cannery, while we waited for the orchards to produce fruit and provide us with a living.  I remember playing bridge with friends in their unfinished house (as most all Veteran's houses  were - unfinished -.as the money had all gone for trees and irrigation equipment and tractors) and one of the rooms was stacked with tomatoes for the market in Vancouver.  The smell of tomatoes in great quantities always reminds me of that bridge game.

.We went a little way down the Valley, saw a raptor flying overhead - my son tells me it is safe to call this lovely soaring bird a "raptor" as it wasn't an eagle, or a raven - although I have seen eagles in the Similkameen, and I have heard that old timers have called it the valley of Eagles.  Probably my most memorable sight of them was a lone eagle,flying in circles above a funeral cortage of an indigenous pioneer of the valley.

Ah, to be young again.  

 And how much pleasure these memories give me, 

- and how much I appreciated this unexpected little drive!!!   

On the whole, life is very good!!

Thursday, June 25th, 2020

Ten o'clock, and it is time to close up the house.  The thermometer indoors is 23C. and outdoors on the porch, where the sun shines relentlessly from the time it gets up until about noon - there it is 30C - and climbing!!!!

I have  come in from moving sprinklers around, and picking a few flowers to replace the ones who recently brought pleasure to the house, but have now just faded away!!!  The Shastas are starting to bloom and the yellow daisy types threaten to give me total privacy as they tower above the back fence that runs along the lane.  I should know the name of these plants, but it has escaped me, as so many names seem to do now.  When people inquire about the blooms I should not sputter and fluster but just name them confidently, - any old name!!!!  Evidently the enquirer doesn't know, and would probably forget immediately whatever I tell them!!!! Or better that I should admit to being forgetful, and don't know....😞😞

My memory these days works best in the middle of the night, when the name of some old acquaintance suddenly comes to me!  It's a good thing I am at home almost always, - it saves me from that embarrassing flounder for the right name to call someone, - I use "Love" a lot.  It covers up my forgetfulness and gives the recipient a feeling of affection!!!

It is time to retreat to the loom room, where the warp lies waiting to be threaded.  I still have not decided if I should stick with a plain weave or search for some exotic pattern that requires me to concentrate on a more difficult order of threads.  To be truthful I am very inclined to go with the plain weave - I like to tell myself it is more absorbent in a towel, although I know this is really not so.....  1,2,3,4, 1,2,3,4,....allows me to wander in my thoughts, which is sometimes a good thing for the ancient!!    

 Before I go, here are a few pictures of the garden.  I say this confidently, not knowing where I should go next on this new and confusing blog order (confusing to me, anyway, but that may be because I am NINETY-FIVE and in love with THE WAY THINGS WERE!)

Well, there are three pictures, - eventually I will get used to this new way to Blog, and then, of course, it is quite possible someone will change the whole order of things!!!!!  And where will I be then??????

out in the garden eating worms, poor thing -

this is a little rhyme I used to tell the children, when they pouted or were down in the mouth.......

"You'll be out in the garden eating worms,

poor thing!

Long, slim, slimy ones,

short, fat, furry ones!!!

Oh how they tickle

when they squirm, yum, yum!!!"

............Accompanied by a fond tickle to the tummy, and soon they were smiling again!!!

I found a few worms the other day when I was digging around, and it reminded me of the days we used to collect worms to go fishing, and I did miss Charles!!! And the fishing trips with grandchildren, - all grown up now......but still sweet in my memory....

This and That and new ways to confuse old ladies!

Another day "confined to barracks" as was the wartime phrase. I don't complain - there is so much here to keep my hands and mind busy and creative, and out in the garden the greatest pleasure is to sit with a book, a cold drink and a hammock to rest my feet upon!!

I have just finished reading Chris Arthur, - his latest book of essays "Hummingbirds Between the Pages". I am very taken with books of essays - they give you something fairly short to read, and then to ponder. The last chapter of his Hummingbird book is entitled "Thirty-six Ways of Looking at an Essay" and he presents this list as a defense of the Essay which he feels is a victim of the misconceptions that "too many people dismiss the essay as "something of little interest, a relic occupying a literary dead-end or a chore that belongs in the academic backwaters of student assessment,"

 This is surely not the case in the group of essays that Arthur has put together. which covers a wide range of subjects including (from the back of the book) "Charles Darwin's killing of a South American fox to the carnal music sounding in the statue of the Buddha" - whether he's looking at sea shell, skipping stones, old photographs or butterflies, the book is just pure pleasure!!!

 I was taken back to holidays at the lake, when I was a child, and the underhanded skill of skipping stones into the water to the point where I would really like to go out and determine if I still have that movement that comes so naturally when I think of "skipping" stones, and how many times you can make the stone graze the water, and what shape the very best stones are, for doing this!! Ah well, all this is probably many years behind me and I don't envision the opportunity to see if I can still make stones skip - not any time soon!!!!

 If nothing else keeps any elderly lady home this current pandemic surely does!! Luckily there is lots to do here.... I am in the midst of threading the LeClerc with a cheery towel warp - orange and apricot with a few brown stripes to make the colours glow. And besides that I still have boucle towels to hem, and a new Cello DVD to watch and listen to. Nevertheless, it has been a long time since I've even toodled down the street, or around the block, and each night, as darkness falls, I think about the 'morrow and the plans I keep making to run over town on the Scooter that sits in the garage, ready for adventure.

 The day is bright and the sun is shining, after a little bout with thunder that really put the wind up poor Bruce, who came looking for reassurance. Blogger has introduced a new and unfamiliar way to draft a post, and I am not much into new ways, but appreciate the familiar that doesn't tax my brain too much. However, I will see if I can publish this, and maybe I might even be able to add a snapshot or two!!!  If I can find where you click to add photos!!   Or even where you click to "post"!!!!!

Oh dear oh dear, - change is inevitable, but often not welcome as the years go by and you cherish the old and familiar!!!

If I find the POST icon hopefully you can read this!

And more good reading!!!!!