From the days before the coneflowers started dying a month earlier than normal because of no rain and relentless heat.
I get depressed every time I go outside.
Anyway, I’m tired today after a week of coaching, so I’m going to take it easy. Except for the usual: watering plants outside, watering plants inside, cleaning, laundry.
And working on the puzzle.
Maybe dressing a doll or two.
And finishing my book which should have been finished long ago. My attention is a bit scattered lately and it shows in the slow pace of my reading.
Next Saturday, I have to drive to Rochester – clear across the state of New York – for a run-through of Jane Eyre. And the following week, I’ll do it again. I don’t know if I’ll have much, if any time to explore Rochester, but it looks lovely. At the very least, I’ll drive to Lake Ontario to take a walk by the lake. I’m a Great Lakes girl, having grown up in Michigan. I’ve spent a lot of time by and on all of the Great Lakes and I miss them.
I miss lakes in general, having also grown up going to the cottage owned by my dad’s family. Eventually, the siblings sold their portions of the cottage and my beautiful Aunt Lettie (and Uncle Charlie) became the sole owner. I’ve got photos somewhere of my grandfather and his sons building the cottage, which, at the time, was either the only cottage on the lake or one of only a few cottages on the lake. Now the lake is overrun by increasingly bigger houses. I think I was last there about 20 years ago? Maybe longer. Summers at the lake are part of my DNA, I guess. At this time of year, especially, I yearn to sit on the dock listening to the water lap against the shore. If I have one regret, it’s that we somehow never managed to have the money to buy a small little cottage on a lake.
My cousin Eileen and me at the lake.
Me and our dog Friskie at the lake.
Don is, of course, an ocean guy. He grew up in San Diego. And I love the ocean, too. The few times he has taken a dip in a lake, he has been amazed at the ‘smoothness’ of the water compared to the saltiness of the ocean.
I know a feeling of peace is ephemeral. But I always feel that I’d be a bit more at peace if I was at a lake on a daily basis. I miss it terribly, more so the older I get.
Ah well.
Stay safe.
Happy Saturday.
