Just recently, while having breakfast, I noticed that Ruthy was checking the calendar. " What are you looking for?" I asked.
Shaking her head she said: "I wonder where the summer went? This is September the 15th and in a week fall will arrive!" I had to agree that - with the exception of two wonderful weeks back in July and a heat wave in August, there was not much of a summer this year to speak of.
But those two weeks in July were gorgeous! My daughter, Julia, was here at that time and she sure lucked out! She took part in the Harrison Festival of the Arts, went for walks and even swam in the lake though the water was still quite cold. In between we had a regular Skip-Bo Tournament going on (on the balcony). What more do you want? She already booked the same time for next year!
Earlier Ruthy and I had gone to Manning Park Lodge for five days with some friends where it rained off and on for most of the time.
Still, we enjoyed the pure air, our mini-suites, the restaurant's good food and friendly service, not to forget the well stocked souvenir store! The people in the gift store, especially, were happy to sell us all kinds of stuffed birds which, if you pressed a button, let you hear the authentic cry of each specific bird.
And, the young clean-up crew at the lodge had seemingly never seen a group of ladies our age having a get-together at 11 am in the morning and telling the crew to forget about the cleaning since we had done it already!
Back home we took part - as we always do - in the Sing-alongs at the Logan Manor and Cheam Village. With four musicians this is always fun, good for our mind and soul! Not to forget the special treat we always get when Peter Schwanke comes to visit and plays all the Louis Armstrong songs on the trumpet!
And then I did something exciting! I went to a meeting of the Horizon Group, just to see what it was all about! And so, picture me sitting around a table with about ten very sophisticated looking computers staring at me!
They all seemed to ask the same question: " why have you abandoned us twenty-five years ago? We have come a long way since, baby - no way you can catch-up with us now!" At first I felt like arguing with them, but then I put it off for another time. Instead, I decided I will enter my short stories and see what will happen.
For the rest of my visit, I watched one of the ladies working on her project. She did something with photos she had taken on a trip to Greece that I would call "artistically enhanced photography".
It looked very interesting and might have triggered my recollection of the eight photo collages I had recently made for my great-grandchildren from selfies not good enough to stand up by themselves (no pun intended).
Why not do another collage during rainy summer days and also write about it? It would also give Ruthy something to do!
She could look through all these boxes of old photos, I told her later, and pick a theme. One thing I have to say about Ruthy: she is always game for something new and exciting! And so, the result of a rainy and cool summer is another large collage depicting the many get-togethers with relatives and friends around the year 2004.
We had lots of fun doing it and I also took Ruthy's advise and entered it, too, into the Horizon Project, complete with "how to do it instructions".
But first, for those of you who wonder about Ruthy, I should perhaps explain a few things: Ruthy and I were born at exactly the same time ninety years ago.
She is my alter-ego and has been rather quiet for most of our lives until - she thought - I was getting too serious! She felt - so she explained - that she had to speak up once in a while to keep things even - to see the funny parts of life as well as the serious ones!
Til next time!
- Ruth and Ruthy