I finally succumbed to Covid. For a couple of days I complained about a stuffed up nose. I felt uncharacteristically tired as I trailed across the hellishly hot parking lot of our local shopping centre. Was it some extreme hay fever brought on by the lush foliage of summer? Was I shamefully out of shape, diabetic, simply old? My three beloved grandchildren came to sleep over as they often do. I sent them home early ( unheard of!) as I was dog tired from not having slept well the night before. As soon as they left I fell asleep and awoke completely disoriented with a full on fever. A friend called. “ you sound like you have Covid.”, he said.

Whaat? Covid? Four times vaccinated, a veteran of dorm sleeping last fall on the Camino Frances….I couldn’t have Covid! I dug out a box of rapid tests and, sure enough … a positive result. Just goes to show you shouldn’t let your guard down. Who knows how or when I got it but the first 36 hours knocked me off my feet and into my bed where I slept in increments of three hours. Each time I woke up wondering if it was day or night. I was awoken by vivid dreams of my mother demanding that I fly immediately to British Colombia ( she’s been dead for ten years) or a totally convincing fire alarm that was only ringing in my dream. I read. I scrolled Facebook. I watched the start of ten lousy Netflix movies ( recommendations please) and today, the third day I feel better. So far none of my family show any signs of illness thank goodness.

My only annoyance is that I must self isolate. Tomorrow I will find out for how long. In the meantime I sit on my little balcony and read and hatch nefarious plans for “ when I am better”

The little leaf casings are sticky. The still folded leaves are as soft and smooth as velvet. The grass is green thanks to recent rain but the rushes beside the pond are still last-year’s pale straw. Only they remember the first hard frosts of last fall, the dark clear nights when only the stars circled overhead. The winter was long, cloudy and icy underfoot.

But all the life that was suspended, seemingly gone forever is coming out into the daylight.

Unbelievable as it seems I saw a red butterfly in a quiet section of the woods over a week ago. A week ago it was dark and cold at night. Sometimes it seemed to me that we were all under some winter spell and that we would never feel warm or complain that it was “ too hot.” But it is the coming out party for all nature… and here is the master of ceremonies.