Wisconsin Gold

Gainesville

I'm not worthy! What wonderful posts and pictures. Glad I thought to refresh the screen before opening a post, and caught the rest of the Ben and Charlie in the Garden pictures. Thank you! And how lovely to have the first Yukon Golds on July 1, and have them be full sized! As a potato digger in years past, I know what a miracle that is.

Great to have the rest of the Paris letter. Mom, speaking just for myself, I didn't hate the Flat Hotel -- in fact, one of the happiest moments of my life took place there: late one night, I happened upon a pair of Dad's reading glasses in one of the bathrooms we all shared. And Lo! I could SEE again! A miracle! For the past few months, I'd been coping with the fear that I was going blind-- I kept a fold-up magnifying glass handy at all times so I could distinguish one call number from another on xeroxed catalog cards, and I could no longer read the mass market paperback I brought along without it, either. Suddenly, I could read maps! newspapers! signs! I was reborn-- I wasn't going blind, I was just getting old, and this problem was easily corrected with a product available at drug stores world wide. Hallelujah! Dad had several pairs, and I wore those specs for the rest of the trip and for quite awhile afterwards. Sorry if I've told this story before, but it's such a wonderful memory that I love reliving it.

But back to Flat Hotel: It was a nice place, very comfortable, but it was up so high it took a major effort to go outside, and experience that we were actually someplace different. Yes, the view out the windows was spectacular-- but it seemed so far away, almost as if seen from a plane. It's fascinating that when Sandy was there, no such place would have been possible.

Today I read Lyra in Oxford, and the aforementioned Squires book. Just started The Science of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, by Mary and John Gribbin. It's basic science written for an intelligent middle-schooler-- which is about right for me, science-wise... I said as much to Bill, and tonight he picked up the book and said, "I need to read the books this is based on." Ah. Now if only I can FIND them-- I mean, how hard can it be to lose a boxed set of books I love and last saw just a few weeks ago?! It's here somewhere...

Didn't get out to shop, but had everything on hand to make a basalmic chicken dish that we all three loved (the cat especially) along with blanched broccoli and leftover spaghetti squash. Kitchen is good to go. Have a rough idea of what to do for the rest of the week.

With any luck, I will work up the energy to report on the Thursday afternoon Event which disrupted this past week before the details fade. (This is a note to myself.)