Done with this

Still snowing off and on. Yesterday afternoon I stepped off the back steps, headed to the hospital to visit a friend and saw the snow had collected on the pansies, covering them with what looked like sugared icing. Tempting. It took some of the bitter edge off the fact that it is late April and still winter. Someone remarked that the photo of the flowers were  “amazingly beautiful …. like life in a nutshell.” Yes, I think so. God knows I hate being trite and yet how I fluctuate from slobbering sentimentalist to mean cynic. But who can help exclaiming when our best efforts are capped with icy beauty beyond what we could imagine.

Then I rescued a couple and fed them to Honeysuckle. She’s another beauty and a sucker for anything that makes photosynthesis.

We were innocent back then

     Marsena snuck into the bedroom when we were visiting last summer. I was reading The Girl With theDragon Tattoo. Denis, well, you can’t tell, but he says he was reading Last Call a book about prohibition. He takes the jackets off hardbacks to keep them nice and doesn’t allow me to handle them. Last Call. Don’t you think the title is a little disturbing for someone his age? I was thankful when he was done so I didn’t have to check on him in the middle of the night. Forty-three years of marriage. You were probably curious, weren’t you? You thought we climbed into bed, reviewed Daily Light on the Daily Path, held hands and prayed for our grandchildren. Stop lookin at me like that. I have nightmares and must be very careful. Last night I taunted a lion and it came after me. Denis had to wake me up. I’m not kidding. It only gets better.

Chickens for Toad Hall

      I've always wanted more chickens ever since we had a few hens back in the dark ages in Albuquerque, and I was putting us through eating hell. One of my little phases of you- may-not-eat, in this case, sugar of any kind. So for the paradox and inconvenience of my philosophy we kept bee hives,  fought the desert to raise broccoli, and included pinto beans and green chili in every dish. 

     Today I have a new flock. Anita knitted them. They require very little care and it looks like they’re already laying. Little Cadbury eggs. How nice. And so you know how far I’ve come, this afternoon I'm eating two of their eggs and am also baking a strawberry rhubarb pie – with sugar – to take out to Heartbeet Farm to share with Joe and Becca for the evening meal.