Thursday

A cup of tea and a walk with George the dog, up and around the hill. About a half hour, brisk pace...

For breakfast, I cooked up porridge for Ellie and me, with the usual tidbits of dried fruit and nuts and a dash of milk and half-and-half. Some home maintenance work at the cottage, washing the tall window in the sitting room and untangling a string of lights at the front of the house from the overgrown bougainvillea. Good exercise, too. Today, I have to work on the replacement.

A light lunch: cottage cheese and a slice of ham, plus a few crackers and the last of the creamy blue cheese.

A nap, to prepare for an anticipated late evening at the opera, followed by a cup of chai and a quarter chocolate chip cookies. At 6PM, an early supper over the Democratic debate: soup and a very thin slice of fig and cheese pizza, then off to "The Magic Flute," with a small pack of trail mix at Intermission. And, arriving home late, I chose a nip of pear brandy as a nightcap--the last drops in a bottle I'd received as a gift a couple of years ago. I have been enjoying a very occasional, always much appreciated taste of it ever since. And so, as Samuel Pepys would say, to bed...