Sunday, Feb. 6, 2005
4:34 p.m.

There are deer that come down from the park reserve up above this house, and hang out in our back yard. This one was spotted the other day and not long afterward she was joined by another three in a little grove behind the house. They are not terribly shy — not as jumpy as the wilder ones we encounter back home — so these you actually get to see standing still rather than looking at their white asses as they leap and bound away from you.

It's been a busy week but as usual I do not know where the time goes. I've worked my minimum of four hours a day at the computer, and have been over to Mom and Dad's a time or two; spent three hours dusting over there the other day and have yet to go back and do the bedrooms.

Mom's been over here a couple times too. Life seems so normal these days, with her taking an interest in her usual pasttimes again. She has got all three of her daughters — myself, Karen, and Joan — making quilts now. So she was here helping me prepare, showing me how to cut out squares and so on and so forth. I find that part of it tediously nitpicky, and look forward to when I can actually sit and hand-stitch. That, I like.

I invited Mom and Dad over for brunch today but Mom wasn't feeling well enough to come over. She is having more back pain, I think she said, so Dad has been giving her some extra medication in hope of vanquishing the discomfort. I just called again to say I was putting a batch of bread into the oven, thinking if she was feeling at all better that might entice them to come for supper, but she is not venturing out. Karen and my niece are going over, and it's snowing, too. Probably winter's last stand here in the Okanagan Valley.