Big news today!

To the woods

Photo of friends' children. It's one of my favorite photos. Click on it if necessary to make it larger. Then to reduce it again and return to the blog, hit the back arrow on your tool bar.

Dear family and friends,

It's amazing, isn't it, how little things become so important at times. This morning, I decided that I could try the visiting nurse's method for getting up the four stairs to my bathroom with its shower stall. He had held onto me so tightly that I have black and blue imprints of his fingers on my arm. So the question was whether I could do it now, since I am stronger, without his hands to help me. I decided to try it with Merwin standing by. What a great success! I got up using the "good foot up, bad foot down" method, and it worked beautifully. Hardly a bit of discomfort. I had a shower! I washed my hair! I had a massage with my nice body lotion! The wonderful walker took me to the bathroom door off the bedroom but couldn't get through the narrow sliding door. Fortunately, the little bathroom is so small that I can hold on to something to get from one spot to another. I had gained 2 lbs in these 10 days, a result of an enormous appetite, little exercise (though some, for sure) and prednisone: it doesn't worry me at all. The trip down the four stairs was just a tad more difficult than the trip up. And there was Merwin at the bottom, anxiously watching me.

Sergei has just come in to install the second banister for those 4 stairs, and with that the going up and down will be even easier. Hooray! It was so good to see my cozy bedroom again. I will, however, continue to sleep on the recliner until I can turn from side to side. That will take a while.

Yesterday, Barbara did come for supper, which we enjoyed very much, chatting about this and that.

The flowers are blooming here by the minute. There's a fruit tree outside the study window that I am enjoying, and from the bedroom window I could see the miniature daffodils in the front yard.

Today Sylvia is coming with a shopping basket full of food for Passover. I hope also to get to the study work table, now pushed to one side and loaded with papers, and sort things out that I need for the Sea essay. which I hope to submit soon, maybe a matter of days.

And so it goes: the usual.

Love to all,
Bernice