Rest Day

I woke up this morning and read, just for me. I don't remember the last time I took a half hour, first thing in the morning, just to read for me.

We had had almost an inch of rain fall in the night, so with the sogginess, we decided to take a break.

For some reason, the day still felt full. After doing the dishes and listening to Car Talk (which Jadon loves intensely: "Only 14 hours and eight minutes more until Car Talk," he said last night), I took Socks away.

It was several hours before I got back. As I drove, I listened to Mendelssohn's lovely oratorio Elijah, the second most popular oratorio in English after Handel's Messiah (which is sort of like saying that Mars is the second best planet to live on after Earth: maybe it's true, but there sort of isn't a second best in the category). Popularity aside, I have long loved this oratorio, taken from Scripture. The chorus has a lovely duet, "And he shall give his angels charge over thee," and I drove and cried.

When I got home, I read and ate the last ice cream bar (ha!) and slept for an hour.

In the evening, Butch came to visit and Phil and I sat and talked. I peeled and cut up a paper bag full of the worst of the apples, but it was a pleasant way to pass the time.

Phil read one of our favorite books of the summer, Belly Up, about the death of a hippo.

And so we come to the end of a day in which the farm stood still and we recharged.