Abstract Rose

It is a David Austin rose straight out of our garden and straight out of the camera. The repetition of the petals in this old fashioned rose seemed beautifully abstract without anything but a little bit of a crop.

The day began rather inauspiciously with a heavy 'marine layer' reminiscent of the summer fog we got in Berkeley which never lifted. And which, I might add, was one of the reasons we moved. Although the paper said it would be sunny in the afternoon, the heavy cold drizzle enveloping us belied that prediction.

Things improved with a walk up to Spike's meadow which is an upper in any weather because he loves it so much. Any vestiges of green, or wildflowers for that matter, disappeared when it was mowed a few days ago, and the newts are back in the pond so he can't go in it but none of that phases him.

A call from the vet revealed that the $175 PCR test reveals that Spike does not have an active case of anaplasmosis, just antibodies for it still floating around in his system. No idea how they got there unless he had it before and got over it on his own....The vet thinks he either has gastric reflux or hears something we can't hear that makes him anxious. 

Things went downhill pretty quickly after that as we discovered that someone was trying to scam us and succeeded in talking John out of information he shouldn't have given before he became suspicious and hung up. I told him the scammers have become so sophisticated that we need to run any strange messages by each other before we act on them. Sometimes it takes a village...

John spent the rest of the morning at the bank, the computer place, and on the phone to yet again cancel our credit card. We'll be without for a week until we get new ones and then another morning will be spent remembering who has the number and changing it....

Was life really simpler before the advent of the internet or was it just complicated in a different way?

Little else has been accomplished today. It was too cold and bleak outside to inspire garden work and I spent a couple of useless hours on my own computer trying to figure out what has happened to Safari and why I have to sign into Blipfoto every time I make a comment. I think they're related but haven't worked it out yet.

Tonight we'll revert to an evening before the fire and a warming meal of some kind....and hope for a return of spring tomorrow.