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Life here has been business as usual.  Joe and I planted our little garden and bought some flowers for the balcony.  We live in a condo and I volunteered to plant annuals at the front.  It looks quite beautiful when you drive up our hill and see a blast of colour.  Last year they didn't plant anything in it except the shrubs towards the back.  They had lovely pots of flowers on the patio but nothing right out front.  I am not a gardener but I do like beautiful flowers.  Today we put the last one in - an ornamental sunflower in a bare spot.

Life is about to get interesting.  On the 22nd, we will be welcoming a Ukranian lady to stay with us while she gets settled here.  She is 51 years old and is on her own.  Her son couldn't come because he is of age to be drafted.  I feel sad for her.  In her email she said she fears that by the time the war is over, there will only be boys and old men.  The rest will be dead.  It will be an interesting experience having someone who speaks very little English living with us.  We are accustomed to having people stay with us for extended periods so we are not really worried.  We also taught English in foreign countries so are quite adept at charades!  I just hope we can make her comfortable.

Having said that, I am going to Ottawa on the 10th of June to help Cevyn out for 6 weeks.  By that time I am hoping Lena will be comfortable sharing a condo with an old man!  

It is Cevyn's birthday on the 16th and Andrew's on the 17th. We are going up to Edmonton to celebrate with Andrew (eat out and have cake) and Facetime Cevyn.  On our little getaway, we will to pop in to visit a couple of friends.  I am a bit apprehensive about seeing Barb.  She was a nursing classmate.  I think I wrote about her before.  She has terrible arthritis and has had her hips and a knee replaced.  The last surgery went bad - she ended up with a dreadful infection which took 2 further surgeries to repair.  She spent a full year either in the hospital or a reahab facility.  A couple of months ago, her daughter told me that she was bringing her mom to Edmonton as she now has Dementia.  Barb lived next door to her sister in London, Ontario.  Gladys was getting burned out.  I can't help thinking that the surgeries etc contributed to her failing memory.  She is in a memory care facility now.  She came about a couple of months ago and promptly got a bladder infection which caused serious behaviour changes.  Melissa says her mom is better now but needs to be in care.  She has better days and not so good days.  She thinks she is working in the facility and gets annoyed when some of the other residents just sit around.  

I am not sure where the time goes.  I don't seem to do much but time flies anyway.  Joe and I both miss traveling.  Somehow going back and forth to Ottawa is not enough!  I look at the photos posted on FB of far flung places and dream!  I have to tell myself that if I don't go out of the country again, I have no regrets.  We have seen a lot of the world.

I miss Lisa more than ever.