Covid Round Two

      Hello again you evil fiend. I had hoped you would stay well away from us. Just when life was settling in to a nice summer routine, my husband and I were taken down with our second bout of Covid. We first had it in the beginning of the pandemic, two and a half years ago. This time around, it is a variant of the original virus and is reported to be not as deadly. I can testify that, for me, it is still a very miserable thing to have. We caught it locally at a small, unassuming meeting that Steve attended. He came down with it first. Although he mostly stayed up on the second floor of our home while he was sick, I soon caught it too. Anyway, the good news is that after one week we are much improved and we get to continue on our way in life. I hope for everyone to stay well. Covid is still out there and, as we know, it's not going away. Steve and I take every precaution that is reasonable yet we still catch this virus. I know some people who have never caught it and I would love to know the secrets of their immune system.

     I was able to stitch and read during the first couple of days of illness and this buoyed my spirits. I had a small stack of used books that I bought at the Bedford Library a couple of months ago. I like to have a reserve pile of books to use for traveling or for when I just like holding a real paper book. I enjoyed both of these stories immensely. "My Italian Bulldozer" is a very simple story about a writer who publishes books on food and wine. He travels to a little Italian village to finish writing a book. The story transported me away to Italy, to the sights and sounds of a tiny village and life in a far away place.

     Equally amusing and pleasurable to read is this old story of "Greyfriar's Bobby". (Some may remember Disney making a movie of this story back in the 1960's.) It is a sweet, amusing story of a little dog that is dedicated to his owner, an old shepherd who sadly dies. The little dog is adopted by all the village folk, old and young, and the story tells of his escapades. It is written using a lot of Scottish dialect but once I encountered the phrases over several pages, my brain clicked into it and I was able to carry on in amusement. The story takes place in the mid to late 1800's which made it even more interesting to me.

A few stitches a day might see this finished by the end of summer. It is done using one thread of floss over one thread of 40 count linen so it's an eye-crosser for sure.