* A gift....'The Dig'

MOTHER, down, dance

* 1971 : "Take down that picture. My MOTHER won't like it."

* I meekly take it down and dispose of it.

* 2017 : I buy again the print ('The Precious Stones:Topaz, 1900). I frame it, hang it. I dance around the room singing the artist's name, properly pronounced. 

direction, days, beautiful, 90's, words, books

* A new direction : I will relate my decisions and thoughts kindly (mostly through e-mail) instead of keeping them 'bottled up' until they become putrid, festering and painful.

* unknown : The first five days after the week-end are always the hardest.

* unknown : It's Tuesday, and you are beautiful. And it will be exactly the same tomorrow...only Wednesday.

* unknown : I miss the '90's when bread was still good for you, and no one knew what kale was.

* Word contractions are not for me. 

* I have jumped on (trudged, sore muscled through) collecting my books into one room which I can keep unheated. Three fourths of them are there now. 

choice, mice

* To cultivate sanity it is necessary to preserve choice. I have a blob inside that must be chopped out. No choice. Proven methods must prevail. No choice. So dear nurse practitioner do not tell me to stop taking notes because at the end of the consultation you will hand me your notes. I write. I get to write. I will do this. My choice.

* No mice since before Christmas....

sit, nap

 * Sitting. Occasionally, a mild harassment wanders in. "I really should be doing _____" And bubbling up. "Nope".

* A nap on the sofa. Dogs as parentheses.

windy, lion, light, shadows

* In the windy yard most of the day, lumberjack hat on tight around my ears, the fur frames my view. I move the carefully placed last fall Granny Smith green bench closer to the house and wallow, sun-bask on it, reading. At intervals I putter at chores--watering the new trees, raking leaves left lying since November, snapping tree limbs blown from their homes, remarking the hoped for patio. What beauty is life!

* Grace Clement : If you live with your head in the lion's mouth, it's best to stroke it some.

* Shafts of light touch a mug filled with yellow mums and greenery at the end of the dark hallway. 

* I consider that I should be productive today then everything that appears urgent gets struck down so that I end up sitting, watching what the moving shadows do.

BBC, painters, cake, German, ice cream

* BBC Scotland :  The Scotland of tomorrow will thank the police of today for a brighter week after next.

* Finnell Brothers Painters : We don't send men, we go ourselves.

* J Farrell : Pretty wild how we used to eat cake after someone had blown on it. Good times.

* from Instagram : Tell someone you love them today, because life is short. But shout it to them in German, because life is also terrifying and confusing.

* A quiet house in the just about dark time when I put on my shoes to buy ice cream. But only buy it if the parking lot has fewer than 12 cars in it.