It’s a sad day around the Ranch Barn. Today we learned that a wonderful blogger has passed. Helen Devries was an extraordinary human, not to mention a brilliantblogger. Our acquaintance began after she followed me, no doubt due to our mutual friend, Max the Maltese’s blog “Within the K Streets” (he now writes “Reiko’s Journey”after Max’s passing) that I followed back in the ‘Sam years’ when I first began blogging. When Sam earned his wings in 2020, she privately reached out to me to make sure I was ok, I was particularly touched. She and I bonded over our dogs and she had many, which she fondly referred to as “The Thugs” (I can only recall Black Tot, Scruffy, Mr. Darcy and Plush, though I know there were several others whose names I don’t recall). When Elsa passed last year, she reached out privately on Facebook to convey her condolences and shared a story about the aforementioned Black Tot who had suffered a seizure shortly after being attacked by a pack of dogs. She had also made a sizable donation to the rescue in Elsa’s honor for which I was particularly touch by her generosity as well as her sympathy.
I spent a fair amount of time re-reading years worth of Helen’s blog posts today. It made me laugh out loud between tears whenever she shared stories about the Thugs. We were nearly three years apart age-wise and given my recent health issue, her passing hit me extra hard. Mortality has a way to bringing things into a crisp focus. She had posted last month yet gave no hint that she was not well. Helen was never one to wax on about personal things, always being stoic and rarely giving mention of a hospital stay except in minor passing. Her Scottish hardiness was embedded in her comments and posts. She never complained beyond sundry dealings of aggravation with the local governmental bureaucracies she experienced in Costa Rica or the ongoing dispute with the ever oleaginous neighbor, Don Luis, and when she mentioned any malady, it was always downplayed. I knew she had been in and out of hospital over the past year or so but she never sought attention beyond casual mentions and always managed to bounce back.
Helen always entertained me with her stories of growing up in the 60’s in the UK on her blog. I always smiled watching her YouTube posts that further entertained me about her topic but often needed to look up the significance of them as I felt like such a plebian. I learned she had been a student of the London School of Economics and Political Science when we became Facebook buddies and her knowledge about historical goings-on and cultural matters was quite impressive. I got the sense she did not suffer fools lightly. One always needed to be on their toes when commenting on her blog and I never wanted to be considered ill-informed. You never casually breezed through one of her posts. You. paid. attention! She was a master with a pen, and I needed to educate myself on more often than not on historical matters lest I appeared to be yet another ignorant American. We’d go back and forth about the absurdity of governmental bureaucracy and she provided me with a wonder about UK history as much as my curiosity about European continent history. She seemed to possess an amazing historical and cultural knowledge of life and I was in awe of her. She and I talked privately about her beloved Leo (often affectionately referred to as a Higher Authority on her blog) and his health decline. She never complained about taking care of him when he was wheelchair bound and when moving him was challenging with her dodgy knee; she let me know about his passing via private message. She never sought any limelight and I so admired the two of them, stout of character with a lifetime of shared adventures. When she mentioned Leo had a property in Spain he was trying to sell, I so wanted to express interest but my life at that time was in a bit of shambles and I needed to make a conscious decision not to pursue it, tempted as I was.
Like those of you were familiar with Helen, I will sorely miss her wit and sardonic observations of life in general and her kind, generous comments. Tonight I will hoist a gin and tonic in her honor and sing the famous poem of Robert Burns, the Scottish poet. Rest in peace, dear lady-you will not be forgotten. May all of her Thugs receive a good ear rub tonight.
Auld Lang Syne
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!
For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
And surely ye’ll be your pint stowp!
And surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou’d the gowan fine;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fitt,
Sin’ auld lang syne.
We twa hae paidl’d in the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin’ auld lang syne.
And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere!
And gie’s a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak a right gude-willie-waught,
For auld lang syne.
For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
Welcome to this week’s episode of Nature Friday were we join our pals from 
I tried to do a hard boot, but alas, it clearly work. Stay cool peeps and have a good Monday.
