I managed to get the last full week’s long blog out late Saturday afternoon, so that day was covered. Now it’s Sunday, and I slept in, catching up on much needed rest from my busy days and nights in Seattle. John already has started his work, in a chilly, but beautifully sunny environment. He’s still working on multiple yard tasks, including protection (deer & rabbits) for blackberries, strawberries, and asparagus. He’s also whacked the old apple trees (severe pruning). I’m still inside resting. I did start cleaning up dishes to put in the dishwasher, and will continue that as I can. Also need to unpack my suitcase. Nothing on the schedule but Taize’ tonight for me. I’ve been following up on leads I picked up for colleagues at the conference this week, and need to finish those. Monday all day was another rest day. I didn’t even go to town for my exercise class. I was just too beat.
Tuesday was another very busy day when we left the house about 9:25 and didn’t return till 4:00, and then I went back in for a 6:00 engagement. Here’s the scoop. This morning at 10:40 I was due for my 3 month check up on the device monitoring my heart. They need to check to be sure it is sending signals all right and the battery is still functional. That was quickly completed, and all is well. Then we were off for a leisurely drive through the older part of Yakima’s residential area, to enjoy the flowers and flowering trees. The area is somewhat hilly (mostly a wee bit over 1,000 feet) and “spring” just arrived there. (Home is 2,200 feet and it will be “spring” soon – we hope.
After the device test and the flowering plant search, we drove down the hill to Yakima Regional Hospital where I spent all the time in 2009-10, in ICU, and visited the mother of a good friend who had a stroke. She is doing really well getting physical therapy before she returns home to Ellensburg. After a nice visit with her and her daughter who slipped in on her lunch hour, we went to the ICU nurses’ station to see if there were people there who were my caregivers. There were two people there who remembered me and others had just left for the cafeteria. We visited awhile and then went to the cafeteria where we found 3 more. My favorite male nurse was there, and very happy to see me doing so well. He was one of the prime drivers telling me I would recover and play music again. Then off for lunch and on to Costco for dog food and a few other things. Home by way of KVCH for a blood draw for me (to check my INR for the Coumadin I take). Home for a short while, and then I took off for a nursing home to visit our accordionist who had hip replacement surgery recently, and then to play at the same nursing home with “The Connections.” It’s a religious music group. Now it is only 9:00 p.m. and John and I are both ready to go to bed.
Wednesday: Great lunch and visit today with a former student from Ghana (now in California), he was a consistent blog-reader through all my illness. He would call me regularly on my cell phone, once I was allowed to have one. Check out this link to hear about his master’s thesis work with us, and see the results for villages in his country, suffering relocation by the construction of a large hydro dam and reservoir.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/31753290/In-Their-Own-Words-Voices-of-Affected-People
Yesterday I was walking out of the Yakima Heart Center, and just turned my cell phone back on. They do not allow them at all in the doctor’s office. I received a call from him that he was in town for a week, and wanted to get together. I arranged to meet him today for lunch. It was really cool, and we had a nice visit, over a piece of pizza and a Pepsi. He brought me a gift that is a couple of yards of wonderful, colorful cloth he had his mom send over from Ghana. He cannot afford a trip over right now, as it is $2,000. He is working part time and going to school taking Biology and Chemistry courses.
I always admired his shirts, and he said he wanted to make one for me but he cannot sew and couldn’t borrow his sister’s machine. I told him I would either have someone make one for me, or I would frame it and hang in our house. It is really a lovely pattern of greens and other colors, such as yellow, red, and white.
John moved our old camper today (hadn’t been on the road since 1994) and is all destroyed but is full of cans (aluminum) and dog kennels, and who knows what else). We need to clean it out and then take it to the dump. It is beyond help. One of the jacks is broken.
The camper was out in our orchard in the way of where John wanted to extend his “garden plot”. So, he moved it back out of the way. He’s really been doing a lot of yard work since he quit pruning grapes. I think as soon as all the strawberries and asparagus are planted he might get back to training horses.
He just came in and cut off a piece of the pork loin we bought at Costco yesterday, so we will have a decent dinner later. It’s baking now and smells scrumptious. Tomorrow is another lighter day for me. I will go play music at a retirement facility (Dry Creek), where everyone is in semi-decent shape and sometimes a few get up and dance. I have finally gotten my stamina back and today after lunch I went to my exercise class. There were 12 of us there, and we have lost our teacher (she graduated from CWU and has to find a job), so she left town. We led it ourselves today, and will continue.
The dogs got to be outside in the orchard today working with John. They loved it. An older female won’t stay with him if he is cutting brush or trees. About 8 years ago she wandered under the tip-top of a tree as it came down and didn’t appreciate the experience. Just her feelings were hurt! When John isn’t actively urging them forward, they have time to find things. So, while John worked, one of them dug out a shrew and killed it. I saw it when I got home, and John picked it up and buried it. It looks like this:
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/resources/mzm2/43.mr2.jpg/medium.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrew
Thursday; not much today but a trip to town for both of us, John to shop while I play music at Dry Creek. We had a full slate today, with several violins, viola, bass fiddle, guitars and a banjo, plus a singer (who will be getting on her viola to join us some day. We were missing our accordionist who had hip surgery. The wind was wicked today, reaching 45 mph gusts a couple of hours in the afternoon. John managed to feed the horses and take the dogs for a spin, plus work on cutting up apple branches from a tree he pruned severely yesterday. Last night in the middle of the night, our kitty, Sunshine, caught a mouse in the hallway outside the bedroom and bath. John retrieved it (with a glove) and launched it into orbit. Well, it was dark, so maybe not.
Friday. I slept in this morning and then had a small breakfast and took off for a shoulder massage at 11:00. After that I came out of the door in the Sr. Center and saw a person who sometimes plays harmonica with us. He told me he had a heart attack last week, and had to have 4 stints put in. Wow. Then on to a scholarship luncheon at the SURC (Student University Recreation Center) at CWU. On my way there I passed a garage sale, so I stopped and got a roll of Burlap for John for $2. It was a gorgeous day — for Earth Day, too, and John was doing his part. He planted pines and Rocky Mountain Maples –
http://classes.hortla.wsu.edu/hort231/List04/AcerGla.html
The pair of winged seeds (paired samaras) have a swept-back shape (V-like on a jet plane) while Washington State’s other native maple, the Vine Maple, has seeds like the wings of a Piper Cub.
http://classes.hortla.wsu.edu/hort231/List04/AcerCir.html
On the word “samara” and related maple word lore:
http://www.billcasselman.com/canadian_garden_words/cgw_three.htm
On the way into the SURC, I heard a guitarist sitting on an outer wall, singing and playing. I slowed down and listened and heard some of the words of the song, with Okanogan in it. I walked over to him and told him he had a beautiful voice. We visited a bit and he said he was going to be playing inside for Earth Day at 1:00 to 2:00. I went down to hear him after lunch. Our lunch was good, with different kinds of Foccia bread (with toppings), salad, and big yummy strawberries. Lemonade to drink.
The singer/guitarist had introduced himself to me (Dana Lyons), and said he had a web site and I could go there and download his favorite song, he wrote, called Cows have Guns. I stayed at his concert till he played that song, and then I left, getting to my exercise class a little late. He plays an electric guitar that sounds very much like an acoustic one, just like the performer on the electric violin I told you about a couple of months ago.
http://www.cowswithguns.com/cgi-bin/home.cgi
. . . will give you a taste of his talent.
Saturday. John has already started his yard work by packing the “farm truck” with apple tree prunings and carrying down into the pasture to add to the quail condos.
Ours are the California types and sometimes called “valley quail” . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Quail
They frequently cross roads in front of cars but unlike most sensible birds they rarely fly away – they have an elegant running gate. Because they travel in groups (a covey) they will reverse directions – darting back and forth in front of the car. This suicidal behavior means you cannot drive for long in the Valley without hitting one. And they are so cute! In a compensatory gesture, John makes brush piles with interior spaces for them to hide and nest. The dogs will point them, and that’s fun to see. Once in awhile a small hawk with quail-for-lunch on its mind hangs around.
It is Saturday evening: I have been doing work inside the house, mostly on my computer. I’m off to play at a special Easter Vigil service. I’m expecting another violinist, a clarinetist, and pianist. It’s not till 7:00 p.m. and we won’t be doing the Taize’ service tomorrow night.
John is to put this into the “cloud” and feed the horses, dogs, cat, and himself. I get snacks at the church. Maybe they will have a chocolate egg or a chocolate bunny. Funny – the things we do.
Happy Easter.
Nancy and John in Ellensburg, WA