A transition month: one son moved out; after a hot and smoky spell, the weather turned to autumn, but it hasn’t rained much yet. In Scotland, the Queen died; in New Zealand the albatrosses fledged. Meanwhile, we harvested tomatoes, basil and cucumbers; our other son moved back in (temporarily?..), and we have had more post(?)-Covid social meetings – with new neighbors and old friends – that feels good. New vaccines, a new clothes dryer, some new knitting and three hikes (in the next blog post).
Knitting…
I finished four more hats for the guild service project, a Musselburgh Hat (Ysolda Teague) for a family member, and the Choose Your Gnome Adventure mystery gnome by Sarah Schira for the September/Year of Gnomes.
Neighborhood and garden…
The Queen and the albatrosses…
I have no particular relationship with the Queen, except that she has always been there my whole life. She modeled devotion to duty, and lived a life of extreme privilege, but seemed to learn from her mistakes. She represents some part of the fictional world where I have spent so much of my reading time, as many of my favorite authors are British. I feel compelled to remember her here.
Family friend, meeting the Queen in BC about 20 years ago.
Working until the end…
Inspirational message during the pandemic lock down.
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II sits alone in St. George’s Chapel during the funeral of Prince Philip, April 17, 2021(Jonathan Brady/Pool via AP). A heartbreaking image depicting what many experienced during the pandemic (though in less posh surroundings).
Rainbow over Buckingham Palace, from News media
And I continue to watch the albatross web camera, from Dunedin, NZ. The chicks were fledging all month – this one in the pouring rain.
September 3rd, 2022. The Royal Cam chick, 220 days old, fledging. She has been named Lilibet in honor of the Queen.
Inspirational thought:
Blog note: I am trying to resize my photos to address storage issues on this blog. There is so much I don’t know about how it all works, but I will try, as I want to keep the blog going.
Margaret Quilts 
Most photo editors will allow you to change the size of your photos at will. I still use Picasa 3 (I’m that old!) which can turn a 7MB photo into a 400KB one with not too much loss of fidelity. Photoshop can do the same but it’s a less obvious process.
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