shadow, errands, olives

*I move a lamp to the bedside and when we go to bed it creates a shadow on the ceiling. We alternate saying what the shadow looks like:a narrow broom, a cricket bat, a diving board...until one of us misses a turn and a loud snore escapes.

*He says he likes driving around with me.

*The olive bar at the store. And they supply toothpicks for samples.

petunias, stickiness, aroma

*Purple velvet petunias dashed about by the wind.

*Mysterious stickiness completely scrubbed off the floor.

*Clothes drying on wooden racks bring a soapy, clean aroma to the room.

light, ginger, wrinkles

*Goggles strapped to my head, I submerge into a muted world of dancing light through a prism of water. A shadow glides through the dancing light--me.

*Sushi with one sushi-loving friend and an skeptic. By the end of the meal, the skeptic has found sushi that he likes. And neither of them want their ginger--yum!

*Ironing out the wrinkles in a cambray shirt.

bundle, lines and notes, asparagus

*Rumaging through the glove box I come across a short bundle of desert sage wrapped up with red string and remember the trip to Santa Fe.

*Something is to be dug up on the corner and the street, the sidewalk, even the grass has cryptic colorful notations and lines.

*Why is asparagus so cheap now? I thought it was a spring veg--not complaining. Just marveling at the sudden, inexpensive appearance of my favorite veg.

tubing, greeters, square

*While walking the dog I come upon 3 exuberant girls giggling and dashing about carrying deflated inner tubes. "Where are you tubing?"--I ask. "The river, of course." And they pile into a small car and buzz away.

*Early morning bike ride:"Morning!""Morning!" As I pass joggers.

*When I open my eyes in the mornings I can see through the breezeway of the opposite building to a square of blue sky.

rain, rosemary mint, maps

*As I walk the dog it begins to rain--tap,tap--onto my straw hat and the pavement gets spots.

*Rosemary mint shampoo--it tingles my skin.

*I like books that inspire to dash to the atlas or Google maps to find out where the story is taking place.

parking, wet, canned food

*When we pull up to the parking space I say, "Oh, this is my favorite space!" and she says,"Yes, I know that and everytime it's empty I park over there and save this one for you."

*When the light begins to filter into the room I am vaguely aware that he gets out of bed to take the dog out to the grass. I hear the squeaky door open, the leash jingle. Then quiet. And a thump against the bed. I drop my hand down and know that it is drizzling out because her fur is damp.

*The dog has not been eating much so I've begun putting a tablespoon of canned food into her bowl with the dry to entice her. Canned dog food is pretty gross but this morning (in an attempt to make light out of a disgusting necessity) I sleepily remark how it smells like Spam (a comfort food of childhood). From beside the table comes, "Yeah, yeah. Let's not talk about it."

brook, boxty, cool pool

*Walking beside a busy brook with a friend.

*A boxty with mash.

*Coming home to a cool water pool and trading stories of the day.

swim, untouched, mattress

*I swim everyday in the sunshine, something I have not done since 1960.

*Anticipating a girls' day out to a city untouched by time.

*Making the spare bed and knowing that the next person who sleeps in it will be my son. But also knowing that he has a surprise because I bought his favorite kind of mattress.

trolley, rainy day, hail

*I like to peek into the child trolley pulled behind bicycles that I encounter on the bike path--sometimes the child is snoozing, sometimes the child is looking terribly bored. Today in the rain the "child" was a golf bag full of clubs.

*The sky and sun is generally so intense here that it is a treat to have a rainy day and curl up in a chair to watch Coraline.

*Just as I begin to drift off to sleep I faintly hear rain which gradually crescendos into hail--I dash to the balcony sans culottes to move the lavender out of harm's way.

lily,clouds, movie

*A weather beaten dog eared faded fence through which a lone golden day lily pokes.

*Seeing dark clouds forming in the west--can we finish our swim before the rain comes?

*Sitting through a complete movie without interruptions.

eludes, web, counting

*Sleep eludes me (shower-check,teeth-check,dog out-check,dog in-check,fan in window-check). I move to the balcony and watch the night until keeping my eyes open is impossible.

*When I spritz the plants a tiny, delicate spider's web appears.

*My WIP brings me back to my first grade counting:one, two, one, one, one. Back to a more simple life.

hairs, Holmesian, beginning

*Delicate blond-white hairs on a tanned forearm.

*Observing the surrounding tenants and discerning in a Holmesian way.

*Beginning the first book in a series and knowing that hours of satisfying reading stretch before me.

lillies, signs, sage

*Little Stevie from below tries to rouse my anger so I take the dog for a walk and around the corner...the daylillies are blooming my favorite yellow. Something yellow and special is always around the corner if I just walk towards it.

*How thoughtful for the city to announce by way of huge sign that in a week this street will be totally closed due to stimulus spending. I can plan to my route without any tedious, hot delays.

*The Russian sage is blooming. Woe to anyone who tries to shape and trim it! As with forsythia, Russian sage is most beautiful when left to its own sprawl. K runs through bushes of it and the musky aroma clings to her the rest of the day. When I touch the chair after the walk I leave a sage stickiness that is still there the next day.

photos, spritz, trellis

*I bring out some family photos and the apartment begins to feel comfortable and homey.

*The wind pushes some of the spritzed water back onto my face unexpectantly and the heat on my skin dissipates.

*The morning glories are charging right up the yarn trellis we tied together and soon we will have to extend it.

Good Day

GOOD DAY

motion, yellow, pomegranate

*I stand on the Path and all around me is motion: the aspens, red flags, blue flags, darting insects.

*Yellow deer, yellow umbrellas half way up the Stupa.

*K whispers to me, "Come see." The icons from cut marble are worked into the floor: a lotus, flowers on stems. By her feet is a pomegranate of marble. But wait! The pomegranate has been sliced open, exposing red beads. Seeds.

the Path, silence, observing

*We follow the Path to the Stupa up,up,up. We walk slowly because the Path is quite steep and the altitude is, gasp. But we also want to savor this walk--a son with his fiancee, a mother.

*The silence is deafening interrupted only by the crunch of the gravel path and the wind through the trees.

*We walk around the Stupa with B observing, pointing out the saffron deer, the discreet drain pipes (a lot of snow to drain off) which I call the gargoyles of the temple.I realize that this could be 24 years ago. We used to walk together while I pointed to, showed him things, taught him to notice the world.And now we walk together and see the world.

river, going down, eavesdropping

*Two seconds after one of us says "I wouldn't want to go down the river when it is that high" five rafts zoom past us. We watch as two of them collide, disentangle, then continue down the river.

*Going down to the city from the mountains.

*Eavesdropping on people in the restaurant to figure out what they do to earn money.

knobs, icon, drift

*Cara talks of her childhood home and what it meant to her. When her father finally moved out of it he replaced all the very old doorknobs with reproductions and gave her the old knobs.

*Submerged in a sea of "he was an icon" I am content that "icon" means something completely, totally different (and more sane)to me.

*Listening to Mma Ramotswe as I drift off to sleep.

reflection, suitcase, face

*The houses on the foothills blend into the vegetation so that I cannot see them during the day--but the early morning sun reflected in their windows sparkles so I can tell there are houses there.

*I have one suitcase of my mother's set and when I look at it I remember all the happy family trips we took together.

*We've devised a barricade across the bathroom doorway to keep the dog in during the night. We had to add a quilt to muffle her scratching on the barricade. Now when I get up in the morning her sweet face is patiently poking up over it.

bat, water,glories

*We find a level place on the rocks just off the bike path in the cool shade under the bridge and set up our chairs with the dog attached to a leg. I sink into Dreaming in Hindi by Katherine Rich and get submerged in India. The dog does not settle to nap but instead watches the tubers as they rush by on the high, frigid water. Birds swoop above us--in and out of the mud packed homes they have created under the bridge. Plop! A foot to the right of my chair a winged animal drops--a bird, no, a bat. Not fully in love with bats, I shudder. Then because it does not thrash about or fly into my hair I remain totally still and really look at it. I can see the individual hairs on its body and notice that it is not all black as I thought bats are but instead its back is a rosy pink.

*I grew up in the water of Hawaii but my friend did not get into even a swimming pool until he was in his 20's. Everyday he challenges his comfort zone and gets into the pool to water walk with me. To mask the terror (for him) I get him to do a new "trick" in the water. Yesterday he held onto my hands and took his feet up off the pool floor.

*After lunch Kaitlin walks out on my balcony and is delighted by the way I have landscaped (balconyscaped) it with plants. As she turns to enter back into the apt her eyes find the morning glories.

balloon, post, it comes back

*Just as I am opening the blinds a fierce dragon breath exhalation sound startles me. A red hot air balloon glides by close enough to reach out and touch.

*Neon bright post it notes against a white dry erase board.

*How lovely and satisfying to have guided and taught a child! And now that they are all brung up they take the time and have the patience to teach me things.

deadhead, beginnings, patterns

*In the fading light, I groom the balcony plants. New to the apartment, I did not know where the sun would be during the summer at various times of the day but since everything is in pots or planters I can move them around to accomodate their water and light needs. When I am done they almost perceptively vibrate with joy that the dead flowers and leaves have been taken off. "Whew, now I am so pretty and what a lot of dead weight has been removed!" Like the dog who wriggles with pleasure after I brush her.

*Sitting on the newly tidied balcony after I have taken the dog out in the early morning and listening to the neighbors come awake, seeing them freshly showered with coffee cup in hand getting into their cars or onto their bicycles beginning their days.

*Weather patterns roll so quickly through here. The day begins with a glaring, persistant sun and brilliant totally blue sky. At 2p hail and heavy rain is falling.

swim, sleep, food

*We swim in the pool for the second time of the day in almost dark time. A father comes to the pool with his four young daughters who chatter away so that R and I play the "What language are they speaking game." The speech is so cute and chirpy that we are not sure until the father says a word and then we know--Arabic.

*Not being able to sleep, I go out on the balcony and breath in the early morning cool air.

*Our dog is very old but still frolics like a puppy when I give her food.

bend, angerless, book

*As I round a bend I come upon a group of young boys with bikes. The adult leader is shooting an arc of water from his water bottle into the mouth of each boy. Laughter and chortles abound.

*Making a decision about how to handle something for which I feel anger and then experiencing the absence of anger.

*I buy a book that I used to read to my children at bedtime for a friend who has expressed interest in the subject.