Pumpkin Season

It's pumpkin season in rural Ontario.  A few farmers plant a big pumpkin patch, and sell pumpkins for Hallowe'en at the roadside.  Sometimes quite a big operation; sometimes just a small patch.  We stopped at one of the bigger farms on the way home;  here are a selection of pictures.

We're Home

Like I said yesterday, we're home, though not without some issues.  It was a 4 hour trip, but mostly on nice rural roads.  After not being in a moving vehicle for 7 months though, it was a little uncomfortable!  We stopped several times so Mrs. F.G. could get a break, but I stayed strapped in my chair.

We were driving through farm country, with a wide variety of barns.  This is a new hog barn under construction.

There were a lot of soybean fields, some nearly ready for harvest.

Lots of corn fields too, this one with a 10 foot strip of Sunflowers around the field,though their blooms are finished now.

A lot of the corn fields are already partly harvested as forage.

A few farms had pumpkins for sale at the roadside.

We stopped at one of our favourite country stores, which started as a roadside stand about ten years ago.  Not only is the store humming with fresh fall veggies, they are building a large new store behind the present one.  We'll be watching to see what this turns into.  The white spots are raindrops on the window.

We drove through several towns, villages and hamlets.  This is an unusual church that still retains its bell tower, in the hamlet of Swinton Park.

We got home to feel very welcome!

Although we don't entirely know who arranged this.

Home Safe!

 After some 210 days in two hospitals, we're safely home - not without a lot of little problems to work out!

Discharge Glitches and Dreams

We're still on track to head home Thurs. morning, though not without the usual glitches.  Twice in 10 days my wheelchair has not charged overnight.  And in some circumstances the battery drops like a stone, so I have to keep a careful eye on it.  We also haven't received our final estimate for the chair we want, with the 'eye-level technology'.  I'm getting the impression that this vendor really doesn't want to sell us a chair.

The ceiling lift is not yet installed at home, but at least the short lift at the garage door is installed, so we know I can get in the house.  After some last minute phone calls we're getting a portable 'Hoyer' lift to use in the meantime.

Medication lists seem to be left to the last minute, but there are still some unanswered questions.  Hopefully they will all get resolved tomorrow.

The biggest surprise is that we may not get any homecare!  The medical team here recommended two hours per day, a common pattern for homecare assistance here, but in fact there are no staff available in our local community so apparently we're not going to get any.  A few politicians are going to hear about this!

On the positive side, it will be wonderful to be home, and for Mrs. F.G.'s 4 hour trips to London to be over.  It'll be nice to see friends and develop our routine at home with all the exercises I'll have to be doing.

I have hopes that I'll be back on my big computer in a few days, and be able to regale you with pictures of the gardens here.  I may not be back for 2-3 days, but wish me a safe transition.

The Healing Power of Social Support

Nature is a great healer, but so is the support you get from relatives and friends.  I wasn't really aware of what was going on for the first few weeks way back in Feb., but recently I've learned that my wife, my son, and my sister were all there for three weeks straight.  That was a huge part of my survival!

After that, they all took turns coming for 1-3 days a week.  Sure made me feel wanted!  My room was known to the nurses as the room with the music, the photographs, the cards and the flowers.  It was all an enormous support.  Other  friends supported my wife, who I'm now totally dependent on.  The role of caregivers is sadly under-estimated.  We have a long list of friends wanting to visit once I get home.

I can't leave out the nurses, who provide all the day-to-day care, and the therapists who have brought me to this point.  And here at Parkwood the patients get to know each other.  It makes you feel like you have an extended family.

I'm even at the point of appreciating social media.  When something like this happens, you need all the communication tools you can find.

   

The Healing Power of Nature

As I near the end of my stay here at Parkwood, I think about things that have helped me recover.  One thing that was really important were the people who supported me.  The other thing was nature, the outdoors and the fresh air.

 It doesn't have to be wild nature.  As my cousin said on one visit out in the gardens here, "It's just so GREEN!"  For me it's the trees, the huge ornamental grasses, the breeze in the leaves, the birds, the pathways that let me get out and enjoy it.  There's lots of shade and lots of sun.

Parkwood is unusual in this respect.  Originally built at the edge of the city, it retains a lot of open space around it - there are no city buildings in sight to the south or east at all.  But above all are the gardens, several acres of pathways, trees and resting spots, ideal for visiting.  They have made good use of ornamental grasses, there are two water features, the frog pond and a small fountain, and there are seven raised beds of flowers and veggies.

This morning, like so many others, it was beautiful.  I was out early, and the sun was shining bright green through the leaves.  And along came a pair of Monarch butterflies, their wings brilliant orange in the sun.  Out again later I saw two Monarchs again, these ones by the frog pond.  The flock of House Sparrows is still here, lots of Blue Jays are calling, and now there are other birds, apparently heading south.

The chance to get out in this magical place every day has come to mean a great deal to me, and I know the gardens have been great therapy for me.  I'm a firm believer in the healing power of nature.

Travelling Vicariously Through Blogs

I've always enjoyed blog posts that tell the story of a big trip.  Before this all happened my wife and I had big plans for further travels in the next decade.  Now that's not going to happen, but I fully expect to find bloggers writing about their travels so I can follow along.

In the immediate future, Al and Kelly of Travel with the Bayfield Bunch, are leaving for the maritimes in the next few days.  I expect to really enjoy their trip, as will many others among their faithful followers.  Another style of blog is Travels with Gord and Cathie, written by Gord, a good friend of mine.  His blog is in the form of a trip journal, something they have always kept over years of travel.  He only established his blog recently, but he has uploaded the stories of 11 different trips dating back to 2007.

There are numerous other blogs that emphasize travel, a number by full-time RVers.  Let me just cite three examples.

The first blog, Island Girl Walkabout, by Hector, Brenda and Angel, is now retired.  But you can still read it, and find the story of their several month long trip to Alaska in 2015.  It's illustrated with spectacular photography; Hector now has a professional photography website, H.M.Lopez Photography.  And there are lots of stories of their trips around the southwest where they now live.

Another example is The Chouters, who went on a similar trip to Alaska in 2016.  Their stories made great reading.  Finally there's Take to the Highway, by Suzanne.  Suzanne travelled through all four of the Canadian Atlantic provinces in 2017, and provides some great stories of the out-of-the-way places she visited, especially lighthouses.  Her photography is spectacular.

I'm sure there are many others I could cite, but these ones stick with me.  Do you have any favourite travel stories from the blogs you read?