Our daughter came to the island last week for a few days. Between school, work and being 22 having a life she doesn’t have much opportunity to visit very often. She loves it here and comes whenever she can. I think she also wanted to check on the dog and make sure he was okay. We spent a lot of time wandering the beaches looking for sea glass. Her young eyes are much better at it than ours                  .

When it was time for her to return to L on Thursday, we went with her. E had to see a Doctor, I wanted to see my Mom and we both wanted to bring home L strawberries for jam. We paid 40.00 for two flats of 15 pounds of jam berries. Jam berries are slightly less than perfect looking.. (no green stems) almost too ripe….But make excellent jam. Our neighbours of 22 years in L had us over to their garden for dinner. With little notice they produced an amazing feast complete with wine pairings and a dessert worthy of a spread in Bon Apetit.

We did a quick turnaround. Only one night in town and back on the early ferry Friday morning.

Sami had his last surgery on Friday and his protective collar was removed. He has been pronounced all better. His sutures are dissolving and he is back on regular food… Ten days and good as new.. Absolutely amazing recovery. He is still pretty shell-shocked and doesn’t really want to leave my side but he will get back to his old ornery self soon enough,

By the time we got off the ferry, finished at the vet, bought all our supplies for July and loaded them on to the boat, off the boat and down to the house, it was 3 pm.

Then, we started making jam. With jam berries they need to be used immediately. We finished close to midnight. 48  jars of jam.. AW bought half of one of the flats off of me.. So for 30.00 dollars, we got 48 jars of jam. (plus sugar and pectin)… Plenty for my family and a few Christmas gifts… We fell into bed at midnight.

Saturday, friends arrived on their sailboat to visit. This is a real treat. We have friends from all our past lives and we are honored when they take time from their vacations to moor at PC and visit… Lots of food, wine and gossip ensued as we caught up on our lives..

Over at SoHo our eldest son is entertaining a few friends for the weekend. They are doing plenty of eating and drinking themselves with a little fishing in between. This afternoon they came by to watch some world cup with E.

It has been an insane ten days or so. Between surprise parties, guests, otter attacks, vets, jams making and a trip to V we are pooped, exhausted, done in, fatigued, drained and bone tired…. We have nothing stressful planned for July and intend on spending it drinking wine quietly in the garden or visiting with our neighbours and island friends.

For a person who is hiding out on an island to avoid stress, this Otter vs dog thing threw me back onto the edge.. Now it is time to step back and regroup…. Won’t take long at all…  This island has a way of renewing

my soul quickly.