Going with the flow

Jay and I have become good at going with the flow. In fact, if it weren't for the flow we mightn't get anywhere. This served me well on Sunday. We had nothing specific planned. We slept until almost 8:00am, Jay made coffee and we took it outside to drink in the shade of the horse chestnut. This seemed to be the right moment to ask him about something I'd been considering for a while. Would he be interested in joining me for a walk on ranch land just outside of Vernon to look for a place to scatter Jim's ashes. I hadn't thought until we began discussing this that it was Father's Day as well as my birthday. He said it was my decision but he would join me if that's what I wanted. So we went back inside for more coffee and cinnamon toast, removed Jim's ashes from the urn, put them in two bags in a backpack and drove to the ranch. It was a warm morning, perfect for roaming the grassy hills, which we did, with only fleeting fear that there might be ticks. We found a hill overlooking Swan Lake with a clear view of the valley of Vernon to the right and on the left fields spreading to more rolling hills and eventually the Monashees. There was still a bit of snow on the tops of them. We each scattered some of Jim's ashes in this place. I think he would have approved; it's a part of the Okanagan he loved.
We drifted back to town. Jay treated me to lunch at Eatology, a restaurant that makes unique and delicious food. Only Albert Pollock can poach an egg as well as they do.
Back at home we settled down to doing things. Jay washed his quad, truck and my car while I revealed myself to be more moved than I had thought by the experience of finally settling Jim's ashes. Or else I was just my usual distracted self. At any rate, part way through making the pizza dough for our birthday dinner I realized I was following the recipe I got years ago from Jim's mom for 'Flaky French Croissants'. I haven't made them since before Jim died but I carried on and made pizza crust too. We had TV dinner watching Idris Elba, a favourite of mine, in a very good but unsettling movie about child soldiers, 'Beasts of No Nation'.
I couldn't have had a better birthday if I had carefully mapped it out in advance.