sheep, sunny side, bubbles

We drive up a narrow canyon with sheer walls.A river, frozen over except for a thin slice of rushing water, wanders to the right of us then the left under the road and around a bend. We are on our way up to this mountain town for the first time since fall.

*Bighorn sheep nimbly graze on small clusters of vegetation which cling to the walls of the canyon.

*We choose the sunny sides of the streets to meander around the town -- the chill in the shade is too much.

*We stroll by the same river in town -- when we go back down the mountain will we pass by the same molecules that we are walking by now? There is a crust of ice on the river here with a slice through which we can see rushing water. At some places the ice has formed layers with a shelf of air between them. When we peer over a bridge there are round moving shadows on the bottom of the river--shadows from air bubbles in the water? What?

rolling in the lake, uncovering, choices

*As I sat on a bench by the spring lake I noticed two ducks wrestling. Wait. No, it was two ducks mating in the water. As soon as the male jumped off of her back she began to duck (sorry) her entire head into the still frigid water, shake it and fluff up her feathers. Females of different species act the same.

*Uncovering the garden, picking up the dried dog poop (how many dogs do we have? when did we get the elephant?), releasing dead leaves from the grip of the irises.

*I use to have to wait for the warmer temps in the afternoon before riding but now I get my choice of warm temps in the morning or the afternoon.

crazy, reassurance,writer

*Overheard at the circulation desk:"And then she went-----." "Then she said--." "But that's okay because meeting crazy people gives me something to talk about the rest of the day."

*Man pauses at a magazine rack at the store:
"Look at this guy's body. No one has muscles like that. I've never seen a guy
look like that."
Woman, stroking his arm:
"They airbrush those pictures, honey. I know, I in journalism."

*Finding a writer I've never heard of and filling up my bike basket with her books.

forsythia, ride, "Daddy"

*Forced fragile forsythia screaming at me as I go into the market, "Take me home."

*Shall I tidy up the garden (such a jolly warm sunny day) but wait, no wind (for the first time in days)must get on bike.

*As we stroll along looking into shop windows ("window licking" the French say)up behind us come 3 nannies pushing a pram and pulling 2 wagons (5 children in all). We smooge to the right so they can go around us. We catch up with them waiting for the cross light. While we sit on a long bench they walk up a block and turn around to come back past us. Just past us they pause and chat. Up comes a young man and one of the wagon riders shouts, "Daddy!" Daddy picks him up (still in diapers, must not be too far over 2). But oops! After hugging and talking Daddy must go and little boy howls.

yarn,Hugh,teeth

*Using Noro yarn and watching as the colors manifest themselves as I knit.

*Bertie Wooster as played by Hugh.

*Squeeky clean teeth in my mouth fresh from the dentist.

granola, after dinner, lying in the sunshine

Sorry for the lapse in posting DIAMONDS--here are today's.

*Flax granola from the local healthy store. After I eat a really small bowlful I wiggle my tongue around between my teeth to edge out the flaxseeds caught between. Then a chomp and yum. The healthy store is such fun to visit because everyone inside--workers and visitors--are happy, smiling and it smells so good there. Right inside the door is the flower section which is heaven for me.

*After dinner we sit with our laptops--talking, joking, explaining the day. I jump up to lift the dog onto the couch and have to repeat the lifting time and again as I get off to get a pencil and SHE jumps down ("She's going into the kitchen--she might drop food on the floor."), ("She's turning off the porch light--well, she has to walk through the kitchen to reach the switch.") and so on all night until we climb the stairs to bed. If we stay up beyond HER bedtime SHE climbs the stairs halfway and reproachfully looks through the banisters at us. SHE for the fluffy one of us.

*I lay on my birthday chair in the garden, a tea towel over my eyes. I turn the chair to follow the daily-growing-springlike sun as it moves around the garden. And of course I garden plan. Shall I give the weeping crabapple tree to Cynthia for her daughter and dig a pond in its place. What kind of pond. On and on until I go into the house and view my face raccooned by the tea towel.

knit,tea,silence

*A challenging sweater pattern (heck, I don't usually even use a pattern), varigated yarn (with silk in it) and a snowy day stretching before me.

*Green tea with honey and ginseng.

*Living half the day without radio or tv on and with no phone ringing.

dogs, tea,cafe, smile

*We travelled south on a road with rounded hills past yellow fields of chirping prairiedogs standing on their hind legs swiveling their heads round almost 360 degrees.

*Off the road is a tea producing place--an enormous building which imports all the ingredients for the making of tea, mixing up the tea (without the water), then delivers it.We find a place in the car park far away from the entrance door and walk next to the long building to the door. With each foot that we walked we were immersed in the aroma of a different tea: mint, green--gosh, I cannot name them all but by the time we make it to the door my head is full of tea and part of me just wants to stay outside and smell the teas. (I dream of living nearby.)In we go. Once we took a tour of the place. We had to wear little white coats and hats so that we would not taint the tea. The mint room was incredible. Today we enjoyed all the tea paraphernalia (tea pots, mugs, cups, cookies----)and bought some.

*Full of tea tastings we sat in the garden where I noticed a sign with an arrow pointing to "the Celestial Cafe".

*The lady digging in an urban garden shared a huge smile with me.We did not say a word to one another and I understood her joy at working in the soil once again.

chat,movies,hats

*Hearing the chit-chat around a table at the yarn shop--the give and take and cross currents of women talking.

*Old black and white movies in an Oscar schedule.

*All the men and some of the women wear hats.

bookstore,icons,puzzle

*The staff at our usual Sunday morning bookstore hangout and read place leaves us alone in deep chairs bathed in sunshine from a window. I jot down book ideas, urls, design ideas until we feel the grumblings of our tums and saunter out to the car for the trip home through late winter fields toward mountains shrouded in haze.

*Icons--Byzantine, Greek, Russian.

*Racing with him to finish the Times Sunday crossword.

ride,pants,wind

*Spent a long time on the bicycle today. The path is cleared of snow with just enough water draining across it to swish as I pass over. The pale yellow grasses on the banks of the brook bow down in the direction of the high water flow.

*I shed my winter snow pants for this day.

*Last night on the way to bed I said "The wind tonight sounds like Jimmy Durante blowing his nose." "That sounds like something your mother would have said." It is nice to carry on a part of one's mother and still be yourself too.

listening,kite,clean teeth

*Listening to The Hermit of Eyton Woods. Books on tape require a certain part of the brain to kick in. Also, the pronunciations and Britishism are enchanting.

*Kite weather! A mild spring smell is in the air and the wind is brisk.

*A dog with clean teeth, just back from the vet.

Lessing,nap,walk

A horrible day yesterday--I was angry all day and forced to do things I really did not want to do. But today:
*I lay in bed reading Doris Lessing's autobiography of her early days in Africa.

*Napped in the afternoon.

*Woke to a light wind, sunshine, and mild temperature for a walk.

family, Selvedge, mountains

Seen through the bookstore window:
*Four members of a family walking single file like stair steps looking down at the ground with hands in pockets.

*the new Selvedge at the bookstore. The colors leap from the pages.

*Rummaging through Selvedge on the ride home and pow!when I take my eyes up the mountains with snow force me to gasp.

walk, apples, blueberries

*We walked along a pedestrian mall -- arm in arm; strides of similar lengths; left, right, left, right-- perfectly in sync until one of us goofs up and I giggle.

*The apples on the crab apple tree stay on. I thought that hungry birds would gulp them up in autumn when ripe. But no, they wait until it has alternately froze and thawed. Then (now) fat robins and flickers bob up and down on the tree munching on crab apples.

*Taking from the freezer the blueberries which I packed inside while I was sweating last summer.