Day 143, Year 11: Thanks to a Dear Friend
Date: Sunday, March 13, 2016
Weather: Sunny, Hi Temp 60’s (Lowell), Low 30’s F
Location: At Home with the Goldstones, East Falmouth, MA
Jed left during the night to head to New Orleans and Heather left this morning around 10 am to go to a luncheon off Cape where she was the guest speaker. Mark got up briefly to eat a little breakfast, but he went back to bed. So Sam, Jonah, Ollie and I were headed out to the garden when my phone rang. It was a dear friend from southern West Virginia that we visited briefly in mid-December on one of our ‘walks down memory lane’. Jean Mason still lives on her farm in Wikel and she, like Mark, is battling cancer. Since our visit, Jean has been reading our logs, and she called this morning concerned about Mark. Reading about the pain he has been experiencing, she just wanted to make sure that he was taking an anti-nausea medication to help with the stomach issue. Mark has the medication she recommended in Lowell, but not once had we ever thought of taking it. We had to call Mass General to get the prescription on file sent to our local CVS and tonight Mark feels SO much better. He is up smiling, humming, and reading. Thank you, Jean, for your concern and for the wonderful suggestion. After talking to Jean, I also talked to Heather’s neighbor who is a nurse, and she also suggested the same anti-nausea med. It does take a village!
While talking to Jean, the boys escaped and went to the garden without me. I was watching from the deck as they got every garden tool imaginable out of the shed and put them to use. Rakes and hoes were flying, so I had to sign off with Jean and get to the garden. It was a beautiful day and Heather wanted the spring peas planted. We don’t have a rototiller, so I had challenged the boys to see who could dig the most holes in the garden as a form of tilling. Sam dug one hole almost three feet deep! By the end of the day we had lots of holes and Ollie and I had cultivated and planted the peas along the fence line. The peas will hopefully start to climb the fence in a month or so and the boys will ‘harvest’ them as snacks when the time comes. The older boys went on to other adventures when neighborhood friends came over to play soccer, but Farmer Ollie stuck with me in the garden all day. By lunch time, there were so many kids that I just put a plate of sunny butter and jelly sandwiches out on the deck and did an all call. The sandwiches disappeared and so did Sam as he had soccer practice. I friend’s mother picked him up and brought him home. Her son, Ethan, then stayed with us for the rest of afternoon and at one point there were so many children between our house and the Keefe’s next door that I lost track. Heather was home by this time, but even she didn’t know all the kids. Molly Keefe, who is Jonah’s age, had a couple of girls visiting that we didn’t know. Certainly all of the children in this neighborhood enjoyed the warm and glorious day spring-like day. But Ollie keeps reminding us that it is not yet spring. His birthday is March 21 and he doesn’t want anyone declaring spring until this birthday. And when I looked tonight at the forecast for this week, his advice is right on. It is going to be 20 degrees colder tomorrow than it was today.
This evening, after a great taco dinner with fresh salsa made by Heather, the boys enjoyed a bubble bath. They love to give themselves funny hair styles and beards with the bubbles as you will see in the photos posted here.
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| 160313 Day 143 Cape Cod, USA–Lots of Kids and Bubble Bath |
