First thing in the morning, after my usual coffee and toast of course, I drove to the Kenny's Farm outlet to buy fresh strawberries. They are only there during strawberry season, it's a small barn in somebody's back yard. They used to sell their berries from the back of a big cube truck but now they have access to the little barn once a year. Unfortunately I was there an hour too early so rather than drive home I took Hapi for her morning walk on a nearby trail. It was still cool and quite lovely, I hadn't been there since some time last year. Hapi waded in a small brook under a footbridge.
The walk back to the car was hotter, the clouds had burned off and it was shaping up to be another hot humid day. We got back to the strawberry barn just after it opened and I negotiated for some strawberries. It was cash-only and I had forty bucks which was more than enough for one flat (eight quarts) but not enough for two, and they didn't like to break up flats. However they did have one half-flat for $14, I had $12 leftover after buying the first flat, so they sold me three quarts from the half-flat. These strawberries were on sale because they were picked the afternoon before and left in the barn overnight. A bit bruised but still in pretty good shape. I drove home.
I started processing the strawberries for freezing right away, washing and trimming and spreading on cookie sheets to freeze individually before throwing them in freezer bags. It takes about 15 minutes a quart, so almost three hours all told. I did 7 quarts right away and had some lunch. Later I checked the garden to see if anything needed emergency watering in the heat of the day, the squashes and lettuce looked a bit wilted. Hapi's walk was enough activity for her so she spent the time sleeping under a big clump of Solomon's Seal.
I phoned my dying friend on the west coast and we had quite a long chat, she is feeling much better than she did the last time I talked to her. Her meds have been changed and that has helped. She was getting palliative care but that has stopped because she is doing so much better. She thinks she might make it through the summer, she is feeling so good. I used to kind of resent our relationship, she does all the talking and I hardly get a word in, so we end up talking about whatever is on her mind, hardly ever what is on mine. Now I just let her have at it. I have lots of time to say whatever I want to, she probably does not.
I walked downtown to pick up Hapi's pain meds at the drugstore, ran into a friend outside the store and chatted a bit, then returned home. On the way home I stopped at a home-made ice cream shop and got a salted caramel ice cream cone to eat as I was walking up the hill. I can only buy an ice cream cone when Hapi is not with me because she goes bananas for ice cream and I have to share. I probably should share since one ice cream cone is really too much sugar for me, but I don't like to.
The walk home up the hill wiped me out, I had to stop a couple of times to catch my breath. That's not normal. Was it all the sugar in the ice cream cone? At home I sat down and read for a bit till I felt recovered and then in the late afternoon I took Hapi for a walk around the block. She insisted on stopping by a friend's place, it is as if she is my social director making sure I get enough socializing during the day. The friend had had a hectic day and wanted to have a beer with me to relax but I said No, I still had 4 quarts of strawberries to process before the end of the day. And I wanted a bath.
Between the ice cream cone and all the strawberries I ate while processing them I was not hungry for supper, I just had some corn chips and guacamole. There was rain in the forecast but these days the forecast is so unreliable that I watered the garden anyway. It rained. Hapi had an early supper and went to bed in the basement, later I got her up for one last pee before I went to bed. One of her rear legs wasn't working properly so she slipped on the stairs. I was right behind to catch her so no harm done, but it is gut wrenching to watch that happen.
She returned to the basement on her own and I left the back door open so sometime in the night Hapi let herself out again. She was asleep in the grass this morning, drenching wet.
2 comments:
Yum on the strawberries. Like you, I never expect my wipeouts, energy evaporating, willing but flesh too weak to continue.
I like how Hapi conducts your social life, Ansa would do that too, march up the driveways of friends who had buttered crackers (her fave snack) for her at the ready.
I saw the pics of cars pouring in across the borders to NS yesterday. JFC.
XO
WWW
Hi WWW, the lineups of cars crossing the border on Friday was disconcerting, note that the lineups were going both ways. It's a warning to not get slack about social distancing etc. We have students who come to our neighbourhood from the city to party on the weekends, also not a nice thing (they leave their drunken mess behind when they go home!).
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