Monday evening and I offer thanks to my friend Luke, who read the blog and figured out how to fix my challenge, with the result that you can now find some of the links I suggest to you, in the sidebar.

Today I climbed a hill. (This reminds me of a delightful movie, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain...yes, that's the title). Anyway, we live on a hill, quite a steep one, and for several months now I have been trying to convince myself that I could probably climb it. So for today's walk I decided to return DVD's to the corner...which would mean going down, and coming up again. It took me almost an hour, and the down part was a little tricky on the left knee, but climbing...wow! I enjoyed the wild roses, and the gardens I watched...and continued envious of people with swimming pools. I did, however, make it up the hill and home again. Yay! Perhaps after another century of exercise I'll even be able to bike it.

This afternoon Mireille Hutchison and I went to have an afternoon with our friend Kathleen in her lovely garden. To our delight, she was visiting with another friend, Linda Bishop, who is returning to Haifa tomorrow after a few weeks at home in Canada. We had mutual friends in common and sat in the garden, in the shade, drinking juices and Perrier and I sat in delight as I watched a family of four squawky blue jays flitting throughout the garden and the wood behind. There, too, small chickadees, so pretty and delightful, and a female red cardinal (actually orangish in colour) and yes...hummingbirds. After Linda left the three of us went for a Vietnamese dinner (what is it about fresh mint that I so enjoy?). It has been quite a lovely day. Thanks to Kathleen, I came home with black eyed susans, tall mint, and a promise of lilies in the fall.

A promise of lilies in the fall.