Poor Charlie. I spent the entire day doing work in the yard and even though he walked with me to and from the house to the river, probably ten times, this did not satisfy him. But it satisfied me because I got so much work done while he swam and chewed sticks and lazed in the sun. Frank’s new benches by the river, and the wedding we plan to have here, inspired me to clear some brush and plant some perennials that I watered with a bucket from the river. My legs and arms are covered in fierce scrapes from the briars I pulled. I worked on the garden by the house, too, adding loam and weeding. Everything needed water. Frank worked on the tractor and helped me. In the late afternoon we sat on the benches. The breeze that blew across the field all day in the sun was the sweetest breeze I’ve ever felt. We sat on the benches, felt the breeze, gazed at the rippling Charles River and felt so satisfied. Then I remembered a lawn table and chairs we’ve stored and haven’t used, and we went and got that with the tractor and cleaned it up and hauled it out under a pine tree by the ferns and the benches. Now we can sit and have lunch here. No sign of a single mosquito today. The problem was, I exhausted myself. And then, company. We made dinner for the kids and Franks’s mother and father, both visiting. We’ve opened the windows and doors tonight in our room and that fabulous summer breeze is blowing right through our room and this is how I will sleep, soundly, with gratitude for a day of loving this land and this home. Charlie, I trust, will get his long walk tomorrow. For the first time since his heart operation my husband must travel for work in the morning. Bittersweet.
