I can hear the smooth voice of Ella Fitzgerald swimming around the house in a sea of foliage-scented breezes wafting through the screens.
I am sorry for writing like once every six months. Though livin’ is easy, it is busy. My job takes up a lot of time, and then the rest of my time is doing stuff around the house and meadow, reading, learning, doing things with Morgan, keeping in contact with immediate family (parent, siblings, kids, grandkids, and inlaws).
The highlights of the past six months were seeing the total eclipse of the sun in Mirimichi, New Brunswick, and visiting my daughter, her now husband, and newest grandson in the Southwest during her wedding and the week after. Ah, the memories: the EV community is strong and fun as we learned on our way to New Brunswick and back waiting for charger stations (there’s not enough in the Maritimes!), and the solstice was awe-inspiring, emotional, and beautiful. The first night we got there, we had reservations to eat at a local Irish pub, and they had a kitchen party that night! Two days later, though it was a cold day with the Mirimichi airfield grasses covered in snow, the sun shone completely and brightly. It was a time in a divided world where people came together to experience a spectacular cosmic event of nature. It was my first time seeing a total solar eclipse, and though we dislike traveling too far, we are seriously thinking about the next one in Spain in 2026. Visiting southern Spain has been my lifelong dream. We talked to many people over the course of the afternoon, and because we were at this airfield for hours and Morgan was in conversation mostly with a guy parked next to us—they were deep into renewal energy talk—I often stretched my legs, walking up and down the long strips where thousands were parked. There was also a First Nations band playing and singing all day.
We visited southern Utah and Nevada last month for my daughter’s wedding. I got to meet the wondrous Wyatt, who was awesome. He and I bonded a great deal. He seems to love being around everyone, and has quite the personality (just over a year old). And he’s such a cute little guy. He reminds me a lot of my daughter when she was young, including some of their expressions. It was like reliving early motherhood. He has this cute way of scrunching up his nose while smiling. I was dying. Highlights included spending time with him, my daughter, and her husband, boating at Lake Mead, the wedding at a mountain lodge, bonfires at the lodge, hiking at a nature reserve, buying a stuffed bat for Wyatt, and doing a morning run 8,000 feet up in the mountains on the cold start to the wedding day. Oh, and for Mother’s Day, my daughter and I were treated to an actual Mexican lunch. I say actual, because it was really good unlike whatever fusion stuff they have where we live. (I love some fusion, but miss good Mexican food!)
When we returned from the desert, we realized we had Covid, but this time I just worked (at home) through it. In early June, I planted the garden and learned how to drive our zero-turn mower. We’ve also just done our final indoor house project, which, over four years after moving in, was our very last: repainting one of the rooms in our basement, installing baseboards, and making a den out of it. Morgan did most the work this time. It’s a smallish room, but big enough for a couch, two end tables, and television. There’s also a hutch the previous owners left, which is huge and heavy and is still in that room. It’s such a relief to get that done. There’s still outdoor upgrades to make, but no hurries. I feel like we can kind of relax some and enjoy our summer, though we do have to build a new bat box and do a summer’s worth of work in the meadow and yard.