An Artist's Wife

I passed, I am now at the age of 58 officially allowed to drive the car alone. I had never driven before, living in a City like Toronto you don't need to and I had never had the desire.  But here, in the Hamlet of Cooper I needed to learn. My Mother who is always so supportive, six months ago offered to pay for my driving classes.  So there I was last April every other Saturday morning for the next 6 weeks sitting in the cold basement of a church alongside 32, 17 year old's learning how to drive. The Theory was the easy part, it was the practice that took me some time to come to terms with. But here I am 6 stressful months later with my G2.  Time to get exploring out there ... I will be tested again.

It's been almost a year since I retired. Time has passed since I was last here, it was an amazing first summer of retirement. I am unsure where to start so I am not going to think much about it. I could start with the main reason I wanted to come back here and write our story again, our dog Rupert. He died very suddenly last week, we had him 10 years. Damm, we loved that dog. Terri had never had a dog of his own, Rupert was good for him. He was good for all of us. Max can be a challenge, Rupert made it easier. He made us smile each and every day, I will miss talking with him, he loved to talk with me. Every morning when I woke we spent the first 10 minutes talking, it was like he had saved up all these things he needed to share with me after laying there all night waiting for me to wake, 

It has been quite a ride these past few months. Sometimes after I have not been here for a long time, I become reluctant to return. I feel obligated somehow to bring the blog up to date, to fill in all the details of the months I have been absent. Although there is much to document, the most prevalent issue for me is the recent and sudden passing of my Dad - Vince, I have always loved his name, it suited him it is a strong name. It has been almost a month, my thoughts are always close to him, I think about him constantly, I recall my childhood at the strangest moments, old memories are closer than they have been in many years. I feel profoundly sad at times, and a type of melancholy can overwhelm me if I let the thoughts of my Dad's death dwell for too long in my head. I now feel I have never understood or shown the apathy that was deserved when others that I know have lost a parent. I thought I truly felt for their loss, but I did not understand the depth of their pain

This past week I shared some of my paintings with my co-workers - it was both scary and very exciting.

One of the best things about owning a little country home in the country is September means harvest time. We are far from a true "harvest" but we grow lots enough for the two of us. Last weekend we were able to supplement with the few items in our tiny bar fridge (yes, that is right still no fridge) enough vegetables from our garden to make it four days and not having to go into town to get groceries. Terri loves a dish I made him - he lovinging refers to as spicy potatos - there is something special about eating his own potatos, with some of the hot chili peppers and onion. Note to self - pick zucchini when small :).

We have been renovating for a while now ... Ok truth be told we have been renovating since we bought the house. But we have reached a new level it seems lately, when we first started renovations we barely knew what we were doing, now I think I could hire Terri out as a general contractor. This past weekend, we reached a new level - we installed an eight foot wide header between the two main rooms. And even took the bold step of removing our propane wall heater, we hated the beast. It was so noisy that when it came on (and it seemed to come on every other minute) you could not hear yourself think. This now forces our hand to get the wood burning stove we have always wanted. There is something that excites us both about the idea of living as much off our own property and as simply as possible, and one thing we have a lot of is dead trees. This weekend - we take on electricity - wish us luck.