Lavender Cottage 薰衣草森林

I was not sure what hit her brain today when I asked if she would go out with me just for my sake and she obliged without an ounce of hesitation.

不知甚麼緣故她突然想通了，當筆者以“陪我出門走走”為藉口邀她時，竟然得到她爽快地回應。

Anyway, we packed and hustled out the door in less than 10 min. lest she changed her mind.

唯恐她改變注意，三下兩下收拾了東西，不到十分鐘地時間我們便出了門。

A less than 30 km drive, off we went and climbed.
三十公里不到的路程，先是平路，不久就爬坡上山。

Lavender Cottage  www.lavendercottage.com.tw A beautifully manicured courtyard on a sloppy incline nestled up at the mid level of the mountain ridges. Upon entering the place, one was met with variety of plants dotted with flowers of many colors neatly lined up on the path. And the air was filled with flowing fragrance of lavender. Green was everywhere, near and afar. Fresh breeze and mountain mist made one’s mind tingling awakening and sensory crispy clean. The whole place was sprinkled with purple.

這地方叫“薰衣草森林”，藏在半山腰中，躺在一片斜坡上，一個坐落有次的精緻小花園。踏入園中，開滿各式花朵的盆景沿路整齊地擺放著，空氣裡飄著薰衣草的芬芳，遠山近地草木蔥茸。清爽的微風和山嵐叫人耳目一新，為之興奮，紫色的花和物點綴了四周。

That must pumped up not just mine, but also, most of all, Eileen’s dopamine in her brain. Like Alice in the Wonderland, she trod through all parts of the garden high and low. That was quite an exercise equating ascending and descending our five story townhome few times, more to this, on much steep staircases in many of its wooded paths.

不止本人，藹玲更有其事，一陣一陣的愉悅感讓人有點飄了起來。她像是掉進仙境的愛麗斯，上上下下地踏遍園子的每個角落。算一算幾乎是家裡五層樓梯幾上幾下，又條林道的坡度遠比家中的陡。

This excursion cost about $15 per head including a sit-down lunch. Sitting on top of the property, its center piece was a three level Scottish cottage like building. Its white walls accentuated by dark brown trims and big window panels on all sides made its façade rather modern looking without a trace of ostentation. The building simply blended in well with its surroundings. Sitting on the top level where the floor was spacious and mountain and garden view were from different directions, we enjoyed our meals immensely. That was worth the trip!

門票加午餐花了千百來塊錢。一座三層樓高，看似蘇格蘭洋房的建築坐落在坡頂，其乃園子的中心。白牆黑邊，面面被玻璃窗包裹的外表透著現代氣息，與周圍的環境融為一體，不俗卻雅致。坐在頂層寬敞的樓面享用午餐 ，遠山近園的景致四面八方目不暇給，實在令人陶醉，值回標價。

On the way home, reflecting on the experience I probed her on why her jumping on my invitation of this field trip so ready. Readily she gave me the answer. The couple hundreds yard “long” walk to visit Daphne’s dad who was stricken with leukemia, after finishing up our own visit with Dr. Chiu at Taipei Veterans General Hospital the other day made her walking out of her own valley of the shadow of death.

回家途中，筆者不禁好奇地追問女主角今天刮的甚麼風讓她如此爽快赴約。她三言兩語高興地回答說，是前天在榮總看完邱昭華大夫的門診後‘長途跋涉’前往探視倩芬師母患白血病的老父親後讓她走出自己的死蔭幽谷。

As a matter of the fact, She realized that she was fit to walk long and didn’t collapse as she was anxiously anticipating. She had carried on a stigma, “I-am-too-sick-to-have-a-long-walk” since last surgery. She wasn't gasping for air after all, by which she was emboldened and relieved.

自肺切除手術後，她一直活在“自己元氣大傷無法長距離行動“的恐懼中，事實上那趟路程並沒有像自己耽心的攤在半路上，一路走下來上氣和下氣接得好好地，叫她如釋重負又壯了膽。

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28a)

“我們曉得萬事互相效力，叫愛神的人得益處”羅馬書八：二十八上

An emphatic amen. Another day this is!

阿門！這一天還真不賴。

She Is Doing Good 她又活過來了

Recently, the boys told us what happened in their school. One evening the school cafeteria was about to close while Reuben and Chuck were still finishing up their dinner there, back when Eileen was not doing too well. The woman who ran the cafeteria struck up a conversation with them. When she found out why they lingered at her cafeteria late was because their dad was out of town working while their mom was rehabilitating from cancer. She took pity on them, gave them free food and did this again and again.

最近兩個孩子告訴我們在學校發生的事。那是不久前藹玲的身體還在折騰的日子，兩兄弟晚餐時到學校的餐廳覓食，就要打烊了，餐廳的老闆娘過來跟他們搭訕，了解到家裡的狀況時，心生同情，此後常常給兩兄弟加餐。

Bless her heart for her kindness. This family encounters all sorts of kindnesses. Daily, one is reminded to count his blessings when misfortune strikes.

實在是謝謝她的好心腸。這些日子每每得人恩惠，在逆境時人當常常數算神的恩典。

Well, October brings relief about temperature and humidity. We can finally turn off the air conditioning and gone is the repressive summer heat.

中秋過後，天氣漸涼。總算可以關掉冷氣，告別了悶熱的夏天。

No news is good news. We went to see Dr. Chiu today and there is nothing alarming about her lung CT scan result. All seem normal.

目前藹玲的狀況無恙。昨天去見了邱昭華大夫（胸腔內科），藹玲兩週前照的胸腔電腦斷層掃描結果正常，可以安心。

Eileen, we will stop calling her “patient” from now on, is more of herself now. She regains her appetite. She complains often about how the food tastes dry now. “They don’t taste as good.” I hear this again and again. But don’t be fooled by this casual comment of her. She still finishes a large portion of a plate of deep fried lotus root slice minced with ground pork while salivating the food and mumbling, “Oh, they don’t taste as good!” at the same time. Go figure.

藹玲恢復得不錯，從現在開始可以不用叫她“病人”了。她的胃口也回來了，“這東西吃起來沒有以前的味道。”成了她的口頭禪，常常抱怨食物在口中顯得乾乾的。不過也不必對她的抱怨太過認真，上星期一盤“炸蓮藕夾肉”超過一半是她清掉的，還一邊不時大塊剁姬，一邊對筆者一本正經的說，“喔，這不如過去好吃。”儼然一幅食饕的口氣，叫人不知信她那樣才好。

The other day, Michael bought home few Italian dishes - pizzas, salad, chicken penne and dessert. One should see her putting on this jolly grin, following the boys to the dinning room, and munching on all food except Tiramisu while Michael kept on reminding the boys to let mommy have her pick as if she was the baby of us all. To tell the truth, the boys were little taken aback. Chuck for one in particular, when was the last time he ceased the privilege being the baby of this household, now he had to share his favorite dish – chicken penne with Mommy and the worst was Mommy kept on asking for more and more of his favorite chicken penne.

週末，筆者外買了一堆義大利食物，比薩，沙拉，通心粉炒雞丁，甜點。真正認識我們的人可以想像她一副因食物興奮的神情，跟著筆者和孩子圍上餐桌，除了甜點，每樣東西都不錯過。為此，筆者需要不時地提醒兩個孩子，讓媽媽挑她喜歡的食物。媽媽成了家中的老么，老實說， 兩個孩子多少有些錯厄，老二尤其。從來都是媽媽讓他，叫他把自己那份通心粉炒雞丁讓出來分給大家，真有點心不甘情不願，最叫他受不了的是媽媽還沒完沒了向他討通心粉炒雞丁。

Everybody learned to share at the dinner table that night and the meal could not taste better. As for Eileen, the food makes her whole and my dear wife is back to herself again, almost.

那一餐大家都吃得好開心，因為爭食搶吃，食物顯得格外美味。至於藹玲，食物讓她對生活充滿期待，我的妻子又恢復了生氣。

Honestly speaking, if it wasn’t her strong body build up over the course of these many years, she won’t bounce back as robust as today. For what she may come short on her form and shape, much is made up in her physical strength.  Hence my advise to people so obsessed about the appearance, think it twice before one sheds her or his extra pounds. This weight may come in handy in other time.

老實說，若不是她日積月累的好體質，換成另外一個人也不知需要多久才可以把她的身子調理回來。她的身材也許不夠苗條，體質卻不輸人。所以大家也不必刻意減肥，為那幾磅贅肉過於煩惱，說不定哪天還要靠它渡過難關呢。

Food aside, she starts to involve in boys’ school works. From time to time, one hears her raising up her voice like all overbearing Chinese parents when tutoring Chuck.

食物除外，她已開始介入孩子的功課，像所有過於操心子女的中國人家長，我們家中不時又可以聽到三娘教子時高兩個八度的嗓門。

There was a time she had this creepy numbness sensation running from her left fingers through the whole length of her arm up to her left shoulder. Doctors can’t figure out why and she has to live with it for the time being. Good thing about this numbness is it doesn’t happen too often. Last time was in July. This however is a stern reminder that we’re fine but nevertheless, not out of the woods yet.

最近，一陣痲痹的感覺從左手五個指尖開始，一直穿過手臂傳送到左肩，約有十五分之久，大夫們也說不出個所以然，一時還真沒轍。好在這種事情不常發生，上一次是七月的事。不管怎麼說，這事情提醒我們大難似乎過去，卻仍不可大意。

Until then, Shalom! Our beloved friends and families.

報告到此，祝各位至愛親朋平安！