June is coming to an end

The month is winding up but I still had posts but not enough days...  It's funny how some weeks nothing happens at all but other weeks are so jumbled together.

After my disasterous day of losing my Kindle (it did not turn up), a couple of days later I went to complete my task list of getting a blood test...  only to find after skipping breakfast that morning that I wasn't scheduled for one til July.  My head seems to be screwed on backwards.  On the way to the doctor's I thought about what I needed to tell him...  Japanese humid summers are hard for me and I had a variety of ailments that I'm not worried about but I might as well tell him about...  Dare I mention that I've given up going to the pool?  No.  What else can a doctor tell you than to get more exercise and I didn't want to be told that!  

"So, how are you Mrs. Watanabe?"

"Actually not as great as usual.  The heat gives me headaches, and every summer I get stomachaches.  My hip hurts and I've had a specialist check it out.  I'm going for acupuncture treatment now."

My doctor sort of raised his eyebrows.  I don't think he has a positive view of acupuncture.  He politely asked if I thought it was helping any.  It's hard to tell...

"Pool!  The best thing for hip pain is the pool!"

"!!!... yeah... I knew you'd say that."  

and I burst into tears!

My poor doctor was flummoxed as I laugh/cried hysterically with my forehead on his desk.  

"What?!  What's wrong with that?"

"My husband keeps telling me, asking me, hinting, advising, suggesting that I should come back to the pool but I don't like exercise and I'd vowed that chapter of my life is finished.  But if you say so..."

My doctor sympathised and said he didn't like exercise either but to think of it is preventative medicine.  He pointed out that I've had hip pain, headaches, stomachaches and more since I stoppped going to the pool.  

"A long hot bath after the pool will be good for your hip AND your stomach!  It will be good for you."

I embarrassedly thanked him and while waiting to pay, texted Tetsu I'd be renewing my pool membership.  His response.

*****************************

As for needle work around here, I got pulled into the crossstitch I was making and couldn't stop so machine quilting has been put aside.  I was telling M-san the quote/philosophy of the front and back side of a piece of embroidery...  I'd written it down in my Bible.

Our life is like a piece of embroidery and we can only see the back side, full of loose ends, knots, a tangle of colors.  But God has made a gorgeous picture on the other side that we will only see when we get to heaven.  We don't understand now, but He will show us someday.

Not "gorgeous" but completed.

*****************************

 I had a lot of fun with artwork this month...  

The crosswalk and sweet shop in front of the school.

My neighbor's farmhouse.

Luka at the beach.

I actually did it twice to keep one in my bullet journal.

I'm taking another online class from Sandy Allnock and this one is called Travel Sketching.  On the left, an attempt from her lesson, on the right a paiting from a picture I pulled from a few years ago in Matsushima.

The second lesson on grasses didn't come out as I'd hoped but I translated "grass" into "rice fields" for my Nikko painting.

And so it goes...