Respite

autumn quietly arriving in the Cache Creek area (a few years ago)

Summer here has been cool and wet.  Today we have been greeted with morning fog, which when burned off, revealed blue sky.  The forecast is for 'hot' temps (well, hot for us!)

It will be a rare sunny and hot day before we fall into autumn.

Up and down the street the mountain ash trees are laden with berries, ripening.  We even see a few plums have set on Doug's trees.  Whether or not they will ripen remains to be seen.

This year has been strange in so many ways.  I know I said I didn't want to travel the way I used to, but I was looking forward to a couple of teaching trips.  Both now postponed (although I have not had confirmation that my contract for those classes will be valid for 2021 - or even if the pandemic will allow for classes to happen, given that the Olds program always has a large segment of American students.)

Visiting with a friend the other day who lives east of me but about the same latitude, we talked about the change in daylight hours that is becoming ever more apparent.  I have lived in this town all my life and to me it was strange to have sun set in the summer at 8 pm.  Part of the attraction for travelling to the south was to have more sunlight than we usually get here in winter, given the track of the sun.

The other night Dr. Tam talked about the coming second wave.  Here in BC we have seen a worrying upward trend, just as schools are set to open for the fall semester.  She urged people to wear masks, maintain distancing, wash their hands.

But the spread of the virus is not consistent.  There are huge swathes of this country that have seen few cases and people become complacent.  "It's not that bad" they think.  "No one I know is sick" they observe.

But it only takes one person, returning from a hot spot, to set the spark into a population who is complacent.

I worry for my friends because many of them, like me, are immune compromised in some way.  Many of my friends are my age and older folks don't do well fighting off the virus.  Some of my friends are also living with cancer and have compromised immune systems.  Some have other health issues that also compromise the immune system.

So I worry.  It is a constant background 'noise', much like my tinnitus.  At times louder and cannot be ignored, at other times quieter so I can function without taking up too much of my attention.

No one I know has died of Covid-19 - yet.  But friends or family of on line friends have been ill, some of them left with lingering deficits.  No one knows if those will eventually resolve.

Better by far not to gamble - wear the mask, maintain distancing, wash hands.

Today I am going to go weave a towel or two, then the stitch group will meet here in the shade of the carport.  Doug has been leaving the long 'table' up as some friends have been coming over to visit in person.  But the calendar shows that autumn is round the corner and soon it will become impossible to visit outside.

Stay safe everyone.  Keep the virus at bay so that next year will be better and we can meet as usual again.  {{{hugs}}}