OCTOBER 16th, 2026
Estate Lane, Nova Scotia
0*C/32*F
light rain expected
Dear Neighbour,
It's quite chilly in here this morning, and there's a heavy frost on the rooftops across the way. Its that time of year. We had quite a bit of wind yesterday and a lot of leaf came down. They were dancing all up and down the street most of the day and the back garden is full of them now.
Eileen cancelled her visit with her worker yesterday as she was not feeling up to it. She spent a lot of the day napping. I managed to get out while she was having one of her naps, but it was a quick trip so that I wasn't gone too long. I think she is feeling a bit fed up with it all. I feel for her. I think she was a bit depressed yesterday. Her mood lifted a bit when we got a package in the post from my friend Eileen (who I named Eileen after) out west. Eileen (out west) has been a friend of mine since Kindergarten. That's a very long time. She had sent us two jars of her homemade strawberry jam, some popcorn puffs, a box of DAVIDsTEA in my favorite flavour, and a cute little stuffed kitten and some cat patterned ankle socks for Eileen. She was thrilled. Especially with the little note that Eileen included for her. It was a very kind gesture for her to do this and Eileen's mood was greatly lifted by it. She has been sleeping with the kitten every since. Something to cuddle.
I am sure she is quite bored and it is no fun being in pain all the time. I wish I could take it all away. I keep trying to get her to focus on her blessings. Most of the time she does really well.
(source)
I am pretty tired myself. We have been in bed most nights this week by 8:30 and I am sleeping through til amost 7 a.m. most mornings. We have gotten into an evening routine. Dishes, feed the cats, scoop the litter, then I help her to have a shower and dry her off, get her dressed, etc. Then we watch a bit of television and are in bed by 8:30. There is a bit of routine behind that as well. I help her to use the loo, help her to clean up, get her her tablets, fill her sleep machine, etc. etc. I say we are in bed by 8:30 but by the time we do everything it is closer to 9:00.
I am very grateful, however, to be able to be here supporting her as I am. This is a special blessing for me and I don't want anyone to think I am complaining about it because I am not. Not in the least. This is a privilege for me to be able to do this for my daughter, and I am grateful.
(source)
October was well advanced, but steadily burning with a warmth
that made the early months of summer appear very young and
capricious. Great tracts of the earth lay now beneath the autumn
sun, and the whole of England, from the bald moors to the Cornish
rocks, was lit up from dawn to sunset, and showed in stretches
of yellow, green and purple.
~Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) from The Voyage Out, 1915
It always amazes me at how quickly our world changes between the seasons. It seems like it was only a few weeks ago we were driving through tunnels of green and then within days they became tunnels of azure and ochre, gold and russet and now you can see glimpse of bright blue sky peeking through the branches as they gradually empty, and this in only a matter of weeks.
It will be Halloween in only a few weeks now. I picked up some treat sized Rice Krispie treats in the grocery store when I was there yesterday. They had them on special. Halloween treats have gotten so expensive. I have been buying them a bit at a time. Even so, when I left the grocery store yesterday I had spent close to $300 and had only three (albeit very full) bags of groceries. I had to buy milk and cat food and a lot of other bits that I had run out of. These things all add up. I got Eileen one of her favorite Chicken Salad sandwiches to try to tempt her appetite and a box of cut up fruit. She took one bite from the sandwich, which was so not like her. She loves those sandwiches. She did eat all the fruit though, so that was good. I put the sandwich in a baggie and it is in the refrigerator. Maybe she will want it today.
I miss the Autumn in the U.K. at times. Yes, it was often wet, but there was a lovely smell in the air. Coal fires burning. I loved that smell, kind of acrid and almost sulphur-like, but very comforting at the same time. Smoky and earthy. Combined with the smell of the fallen leaves it was something I really enjoyed. Here we used to be treated to the smell of burning leaves, but that is seldom the case these days.
(source)
I always have the radio on in the car as I drive. Yesterday on my way back from the grocery store a song by Andy Kim came on, Be My Baby. I was instantly taken back to my teenage years when I heard it. Friday lunch time sock hops at school. 1969. I was 14 then.
I had no idea that Andy Kim was Canadian, (I did a bit of exploring on Google when I got home.) or that he had had as many hits as he had in his career. I ended up listening to a lot of them while I was puttering, the old memories coming thick and fast.
Its funny how music can do that for you. Instantly transport you to a different time and era and all the old feelings come rushing back. So I guess for a little while yesterday I felt like a young teenage girl.
(source)
A thought for today . . .
☾ ° ★° * 。
• ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • •。★★ 。* 。° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★
*I believe in kindness, also in mischief.
Also singing, especially when singing is not
necessarily prescribed.
~Mary Oliver
In The English Kitchen today . . . Nutty Honey & Maple Granola. I have been making my own granola since my children were very young. I love it and would never buy a store-bought granola having made my own. There is just no comparison. I hope maybe some of you will want to try it for yourself. This is an excellent version.
I hope you have a lovely Friday, once again. It crept up on us eh? Be blessed, be safe, and don't forget!
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And I do too!
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