Gerry brings home two flats of plump, sweet raspberries. I wash and crush some; cook and stir and sweeten them; fill jars with jam and set them in the water bath canner to process. It’s ridiculously cool outside for late June but in the kitchen where I work you’d never know it. While the jam
Gerry spends the better part of the day cutting down tall cedars next to our patio and deck, and tending to the aftermath. It’s a big job done on a hot day and the mosquitoes are merciless. The view from our deck is more expansive this morning, but there’s the issue of looking into our
In honour of the special occasion, Gerry takes an early morning trip to Costco during senior hour (the first Costco run since early March) to buy feta, and a handful of other things we’ve been missing (And yes. Toilet paper. The first package to come into our home since the madness began.) Now I snip
I wake with a reminder dancing in my mind. Think about the true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable things. The better things. The best things. And I think the Divine has whispered to me in the liminal space between sleep and waking. Low cloud hovers in the valley. There is no sunrise, just a
It snows again. The white is startling and pretty. It’s not as lovely as it was a couple of months ago because we’re kind of sick of it by now, but it makes for a good day to hunker down. I’m grateful for the opportunity. Gerry has a man cold, so he’s been hunkering for
I meet a young man who mentions he took vacation last month. “Where did you go?” It’s a natural question. ”I visited my family in the Kootenays for a week and spent another week at home.” He mentions how rested he felt when he returned to work. Like he had really been on vacation. I think about
We arrive home in the wee hours, exhausted. In whichever time zone I consider the hour it’s far, far too late for this old body to still be upright. Technically, it’s the day after we began our journey home. We stumble around suitcases and fall exhausted into bed. Unpacking will come tomorrow—or later today, depending