Friday, July 24th, 2020

It is evening, and the thermometer has gone down a few degrees.

There is a slight breeze,  a VERY slight breeze but enough to encourage me to open the house to the faint flutter of the leaves - windows and doors open, - all the fans on low, but whirring persistently.  How one welcomes the evening coolness after a hot, summer afternoon.

Mornings are lovely.  Bruce and I were out early and I had my "Begone-Thrip/Mite Sprayer" tucked in the walker basket, all set to do battle with the bugs.  I started with the lovely white climber rose that marks Callie's grave and went on to hopefully demolish all the red mites that were crawling up the stems of the yellow daisies (I may have written about this skirmish before, as it seems to be a daily occurrence!)

Bruce disappeared back into the house, and I sat for while and enjoyed the garden and the summery hills that have not yet turned brown and sere.  I snipped a few lilies to take back into the house, and some of the lovely perennial sweet peas that make up for their lack of scent with gorgeous shades of mauve and rose and cream.

Saturday, July 25th, 2020

8.15 a.m.

Lovely visitor interruption, and now it's morning - cool and pleasant and the bathroom smells of lilies.  Good world - take it as it is and enjoy because Monday they say the temperature is planning to rise to 36 degrees C!!!!!

Woke early, - had a delicious bowl of fresh peaches with toast, for breakfast.  Brought back many memories - some wonderful memories of peach upside down cakes and fruit, fresh off the trees, with the delicious juice running down your chin as you bite into them.  Other memories not so pleasant of being tired and sweaty and covered in peach fuzz as we picked for the market and the packing house.  A shower was always a must!!!!!

What a wonderful surprise to open the door and find it cooler this morning.  Before I had breakfast I stopped by the Glimakra (loom) and did some sleying so that later in the day I can tie on and weave a bit.  Will it stay cool, - if so I will dust and mop and weave, - ---   If the sun decides to descend upon us and the temperature rises I will find a cool spot with some lemonade and a book.....

Off to the garden to inspect the stems of the yellow daisies, and hopefully the dead mites and aphids that should be clinging to them.....

It should be cool and refreshing in the garden this morning, - inviting for morning coffee and a little session with the current book - a re-read of the Language of God.  I would enjoy a McCall-Smith but that would have to be a re-read too, as I await the publishing of his new book.

On the other hand I am inspired to tuck these peaches into a pie and make a chocolate cake to to with them......

This hot, hot day....

Fishing and other things to do on a hot, hot day!!! Our oldest son and our youngest son went up into the mountains to fish today, and they will be enjoying the coolness of the lake and the greenery surrounding it.  

Here it is hot!

 The thermometer said 45 degrees C on the porch, where the morning sun was shining.and it still says 45 degrees although the sun has moved further to the west and is not broiling the immediate vicinity. I just went and poured some gingerale,fizzing on a couple of ice cubes, - just the sound of it made me feel cooler!! Before I brought it in to sip I held my wrists over the sink under the cold running water, and it reminded me of by-gone summer days we spent on the Cawston Bench with all the rest of the Veterans who had settled there, along with all the resulting children! It was not the thing to stay home and swelter, when we were young- there was far too much going on during the summer months, and too many young ones needing adult supervision and participation, - but I can remember holding my wrists under the cold water in the Community Hall, and the little cool respite it provided before going back into the fray!!!

 I am one of those weird people who do not sweat, and not having my own little air conditioning helper I am inclined to get quite hot and bothered when the thermomenter passes 30C 

The house is lovely and cool. The AC is working away valiantly and I have three hardy fans blowing the hot air into something moving breezily, rather than settling in stolid heat. 

 This morning I rose early (as is usual when the weather is warm, warm, warm) and even before I had breakfast I snaffled the two bananas on the counter that were getting soft and spotted and morphed them into some delectable muffins. Then I quickly turned off the oven and decided that was it for baking today, at least.

 I heard a rumour that there might be showers tomorrow, but my SIL squashed my hopes by saying he had heard officially that tomorrow would be just as hot as today!! Despite the heat the garden is blooming with great abandonment, and if I can snatch a few pictures from my Ipad I will show you...... My regular camera needs a new Flash Card, and confined as I am to home, and the restrictions this pandemic has placed upon traveling, I foresee going without one for a little while. 

Callie's white rose is doing beautifully, = climbing up a garden cone, and despite a horde of red mites all the yellow flowers are flourishing. Especially the Barn Flowers that are taller than all the rest and wave gracefully in any breeze that might favour us!!

 Well, I will try to retrieve a few photos....this new Blogger really baffles me and I have to apologize for shortened lines and odd paragraphs....and I can't find an icon that indicates photos!!(sigh) oh yes, there it is!

Sorting old photos

I spent the majority of the afternoon with one of the boxes of old photos (which I do treasure) on the table beside me, sorting through these precious snaps and making sure that the people in them were identified, and perhaps adding a small note as to time and place and memories. 

 For some reason I found as the afternoon passed I was getting more and more depressed, and this was a puzzle, as most of these photos are of places or people that I have been fond of, and one would think they would bring back affectionate memories. Well, they did that. At least some of them, - even the graveyard pictures. They reminded me that I have work to do on genealogy and as one ages you just simply have to face the fact that time is limited, and you can't put off these things forever!!!! 

I rescued many of these pictures of the older generation from a cousin who was on the verge of throwing them away!!!  How could he!!!

 Perhaps that was what was causing my blue mood? The realization that the photos depicted the past, and as wonderful as the memories were, in many cases the chance of making more memories with these same dear ones was long past.... I have a little file of photos of grave sites of grandparents and great uncles and aunts and cousins, and even parents. They are precious to me, but a lingering reminder of time and its habit of "passing" - never to be retrieved. It leaves in its wake these dear nostalgic memories. 

There is a picture of my great grandparents "gingerbread" house, and a whole raft of relatives on the porch, in the picture below, - my father, his sister, for whom I am named, my grandparents, and my uncle Bob, leaning nonchalantly against a post, and a couple of aunts who were swept away when both were just newly married, by the pandemic of 1918/19.

And the young girl sitting on the steps, who is the image of my own granddaughter.

I muse over a picture of one of my grandmothers, standing close with her own mother, - and a dear, sweet photo of another grandmother at the age of probably two, seated on her mother's knee and looking so much like my sister.

 

 Oh time and genes,- how they accompany us into the future and the inevitable end, when only memories remain ...maybe THAT accounts for my nostalgia, which was a little bit morbid as well as grateful for the past. On the other hand, that time and those genes and that future bring the joy we all enjoy in the present, - despite that darned pandemics!!