Library Cats

We have had news of the keeper. She sent us a photo of these two beautiful beasts. It seems that the city library has two working resident literary cats. They sleep a great deal in the daytime but they ferociously guard books and DVDs all night--- difficult work.

She tells us that the rain flew down the canal today in great sheets of mist, like Harry Potter special effects. So, the keeper went to the community club gym and had library hour all afternoon at home. We hear that the rain stopped in late evening and the moon came out and flooded the canal and came pouring through the skylights.

Wild Beach

Still raining at home and at the beach. The keeper tells us that the coastal landscape is very very green and lush and the beach is wild, and we wouldn't lke it. Although in warmer days she has seen cats on leashes walking with their keepers on the beach. You will never catch us in that humiliating condition! The keeper says she will stay home and read all afternoon--right now it is They Come Back Singing about Gary Smith's life with the Sudanese refugees in Uganda and Water for Elephants.

Moss Mantillas

We understand that there are beautiful old trees at the beach but that they are covered by mantillas of hanging moss that catch the light and the raindrops. They look beautiful and elegant but they may be draped in green death. Ick. The keeper almost hit a young deer on the road from town today. He was grazing the salal and blackberry bushes alongside the road and it was difficult to see him in the mist.

She told us that it was pleasant last evening and that the otters came out and swam the canal with the baby ducks and geese. And the water was orange and silver. But then it started raining nails again, so she will be reading her books again. She finished Devil's Highway last night. A seering true story of the ill-fated crossing of 20 some immigrants and their coyotes across the Arizona/Sonora desert.

Wind Beach

We are home with the pet sitters. She is at the beach where the wind shakes the very roots of the trees that hang over her house. She said it rained nails on the roof and the skylights most of the night. And in the morning the sea gulls glided on the big gusts and then huddled together in bunches while the wild sand spray swirled and ruffled their feathers. She said that is why we are having so much rain and bad traffic here at home today. Of course we wouldn’t know much about it since we can not go out anyway.

They Are White This Year

The lilacs came out. We thought they were purple last year. But they are very beautiful. We watched as she planted purple phlox and blue litho-something with petunias. It was a quiet day. We even came inside when called in. We are having petsitters live with us for a few days starting tomorrow. We know how that works. We stay in. "Oh well." It is supposed to rain anyway.

New Mown Lawn, Rain, Impasse

A long day and it rained. But the sunflowers lit up our living room and we watched them mow our lawn for the first time this year. But we couldn't go out and smell either the rain or the lawn because, of course, she was gone, and didn't return till late. We don't think she even knows the lawn is mowed. And the new mowed smell is being washed away by the wind and the rain.

When she got home she was tired because she talked to her favorite 500 friends and that the convocation was great and she really liked what Ivonne Gebara and Shaun Copeland said about embodying hope on and in the margins. And she met Maria who spoke about negotiating impasses and a Carmelite named Connie Fitzgerald. Then she talked about having dinner with friends and learning about Mindsprout and Tune Town from their children.

We think that is all very fine but we hope that tomorrow we can negotiate the impassable door to the back yard and smell what we have missed these last days.

"Oh Well"

We were patient all day. It was a sunny warm day that needed us outside. But we were in, and as often is the case, the keeper left early and returned late. We waited patiently for a sign of the car. But no, just the classical music and the refrigerator humming.
When she came back she was all abuzz about a convocation for women about radical transformation of the world, and how someone named Cokie Roberts talked about how the phrase "Oh well" is very useful in moving past impassable obstacles like "No you can't" and "It's forbidden by law to do that." Cokie's mother used "Oh well" a lot when she was the ambassador to the Vatican. And very shrewdly and charmingly, she creatively moved people and causes past the immoveable point. The keeper also told us that many of the founders of women's religious orders enabled the impossible in the same way, and they were canonized saints while the bishops with who often put up the obstacles were not canonized, and in some cases, not well remembered either.

It is dark, it is late. The wild animals are out. Oh well, we would like to go out anyway. We don't think she is listening.