Heart warming

Thank you all for commenting on my blog after this long hiatus. I am touched. And I have missed all of you, also.

Here at the home, we have missed our bus driver, Keith. He has spent several weeks in Sweden and Norway. He should be back any day. He promised he would buy the third book by Steeg Larsson in Swedish. I will be able to tell you if the translator does a good job. I am in the middle of another 900+ book and it is riveting. Called the OUTLANDER. While my computer was down I read THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH. Another 900+ page book. I highly recommend both of these books. Early history of our life on this earth. 

Aging is a strange experience. When I was 89 plus 395 days, everyone I met said 'I can't believe you are that old'  You should see me now! I am struggling to walk with a cane. I have a walker but am hesitant about using it. My face is aging faster than my legs. And for the first time I have rhumatic kind of pains in joints most people don't know the names of. I don't want you to think I am complaining. I am so lucky to be able to do what I do. I love my cat. I love my children. I love living where I am. And I am lucky to be able to drive and be that independent. I am mentioning this only as a surprising thing I have discovered. 

Gilbert, my son, who is living in what was our house till he bought it years ago, is in southern California. I promised I would go down to keep his dog company. Rusty is the father of Cap. I go down around noon. On my way there I buy lunch to go, and eat it at our dining room table. Rusty knows a few crumbs will fall to his benefit and he is happy to see me arrive. Then we go out in the fenced yard and when he has done his duty we go back in and I sit in what was my chair to read whatever I am reading. Quite early I drop off for a nap and I am sure he enjoys my snoring. My naps rarely last longer than half an hour. A very nice neighbor takes Rusty for a walk in the morning and another in the evening.

Next week my three daughters are coming for a four day visit. We are going to celebrate Jane's birthday. I have a large bag of frozen raspberries in my freezer. Jane loves to can things and we are going to make jam and all share what evolves. A friend, Donna, picked the berries in her yard, froze them and gave them to me. What a friend. During the days they are here I have a feeling there will be no blogs.

my computer is working again

Fun things have happened since the last time I wrote. Chris, my daughter in law, and I went into Seattle on the Senior Center bus to shop at IKEA. I drove a mechanized shopping cart for the first time. Easiest thing. Wish I had tried much earlier. Didn't buy much, but so much fun looking at all that merchandize. The meatball lunch was great. On the way home we stopped at Trader Joe's  in Tacoma and there I bought their triple Ginger Snaps. Yum.

Here, back at the farm, things are developing. The place is more beautiful than ever. The gardens have been manicured and it would be difficult to find a weed anywhere, nor a blade of grass that is longer than it is ordered to be. All our windows have been cleaned on the outside. The flowers are sensational. We have a marine layer of what looks like fog, but isn't every morning. It lasts a few hours in and then you  could imagine you were elsewhere, for it gets warm in the afternoon. No one is complaining.

We have had two cottages unoccupied for a while, but now they are all rented. A couple from Minnesota are moving in to the one directly across from my place. May turn out they are relatives of mine. For all people from Minnesota are Swedes? So I have heard. Lots of relatives went to America around the end of the 1800s. A lot of them never wrote home after they left Sweden. So who knows.

To all the wonderful people who have blogged, wondering why there was so much silence coming from my blog, I appreciate your concern and your care. I have missed blogging, but now that my computer is healthy again, I will try to get in touch more often.