A Four-Eagle Day

Yesterday another friend emailed that she was making cloth masks to give away and would anyone like one. I said I'd love one, two if she had enough. This morning we spoke on the phone and I told her I was sick and she said she'd leave the masks outside her front door. I went over to pick them up, now I have three sewn masks and a bunch of bandanas I can use so I have a great selection. Pandemic fashionista!

Hapi doesn't like walking up hill and neither do I for that matter. Since the university campus where I have been taking her is on a hillside it means we are both very tired when we get home. Today I took her in the car to the far end of the local dyke and we walked there. This is the perfect time, no wind, not cold, no bugs yet, and the grass on the dyke is dead and flattened by the winter, making for easy walking.

The sight lines were great I could see other people—if they were there—miles away. Not a single person in sight, I got to walk mask-free and Hapi was off leash. She did manage to find a pile of manure in a field which could have been a disaster, but for some reason she chose not to roll in it (whew!). I walked pretty slowly but even so I came home exhausted.

Eagle nest in tall tree, centre

On the road to the dyke you pass under a big tree with an eagle's nest in it, the nest has been there for a very long time. I saw one of the eagle parents sitting in the nest, another brood hatching. Later when I was walking on the dyke I saw four eagles circling in a column, the highest one looked like it could almost touch the sun. Wish I could have photographed that.

My brother's birthday was yesterday, I called him and we chatted for awhile. It seems you can't talk to anyone without bringing up you-know-what. Later I called a dog-walking friend and she said she had seen me out walking earlier in the day and had yahoo'ed at me but I didn't hear or see her. She is healthy and still goes out shopping at local small markets. She says all the markets have protocols in place to enforce physical distancing and she always meets people there to chat with from a distance. She is a firm believer in homeopathy and is taking a homeopathic remedy that she says will prevent you-know-what.

You'll see, she said, I am protected.

Okay, I said, We'll see.

When I told her my birthday was a couple of days ago, she wished me happy birthday and said, Now you're almost as old as me!

I laughed. She's past 85. I may never make it that far.