All Things New

 

            The rainy season was just barely beginning. Some nights were still clear and mild, and then some were damp and chilly. A few desultory yellow leaves drifted down in the Home Clearing and were tossed around by the wind. It made a pretty sight.
            Looking on, Ramona nodded and acknowledged the turning of the year. The children were growing up, and things were changing. She saw that it was good.
            Rose was beginning to pick up speech. Like with any child, first she learned names. She was delighted with her own when Twigg showed her a late blooming wild rose in the meadow. Cherry brought objects to Rose’s attention and told her their words. She helped Rose with pronunciation too.
            When Cherry rose and drifted in the air, Rose followed her flight with fascinated eyes.
            After learning the thing and name words, they all went on to intangible words. Rose learned fast because though in her life in the water she had never spoken, she did sing, so she understood about making vocal sounds. Or maybe she learned fast with a little extra help from Twigg or Ralph.
            Maeve also was very involved in the project. It amused her very much to hear Rose utter “evermore.” She also made sure that Rose understood raven and bird.
            Twigg hadn’t decided to make any big changes in his living arrangements. He told his mother that he was fine sleeping on the floor near Rose when it was rainy outside, not that rain really bothers the sons and daughters of the forest.
            Sometimes on special nights, when the sky was clear and the stars looked down, or the moon took her turn through the sky, Ralph and Twigg would camp out by the fire circle talking late into the night about life, and everything. They left the cave to the girls on those nights. We must assume that they were also chatting about life and everything in their turn.
            Ralph didn’t steer his son in any particular direction. He waited, with attention.
            One afternoon a tremendous thunderstorm blew in, the big brother of the beguiling summer breeze. It grew dark under the firs. The sound of deadfall crashing out of trees combined with the howl of the wind to make a terrific amount of noise. Rose wasn’t frightened though. She had seen many storms on the Sound and outside the Sound on the great Pacific Ocean. In fact, it pleased her like an old friend’s call. She watched it all with her mouth open and her green eyes shining, remembering her life in the sea.
            There were strobe-like flashes of lightning. It lit the mighty trunks of the surrounding trees intermittently. Great drops of rain blew in sideways, rendering everything sopping wet in no time at all.
            As Twigg and Rose watched the storm the tips of the firs swayed one way and then the other. Branches whipped in the rushing wind.
            Rose stood with the rain in her face, listening and hearing it all. She rose on her tiptoes and called out, “Happy! Happy!” She threw her arms in the air and twirled about, a creature of the tempest.
            The storm revealed her essential wildness to Twigg.
            The thunder bursts came closer and closer. It rolled and kept rolling. And in the dark flashing sky a mighty creature of flight soared over Twigg and Rose. Bigger by far than Maeve, black, appearing like a raven, wings appearing and disappearing in the flashes of lightning.
            It dropped down near the forest floor as if searching. It saw Rose there, enraptured, and called one long harsh call, then wheeled powerfully back into the wind, as if swimming in the very sky.
            Rose looked at Twigg and said, “Help me, Twigg! Help me! Oh help me! I must go, Twigg!”
            She became bent over with the power of her weeping and her desire. Her body pulsated with sobbing.
            So, Twigg gently helped her to stand. “I will,” he said.
            He stood her before him and took her hands in his, right on right and left on left. Then he sang a song of his own devising. It was a song of freedom and releasing of bonds, sung into the wind and rain with authority.
            Her hands slipped out of his grasp, and she rose into the wind, and was gone, transformed again. She followed the wind and the essence of the storm, rising over the peaks of the mountains.
            Twigg walked back to his home cave and stepped inside. For a moment his family could hear the crashing storm, then he closed the door.
            “Where is Rose, Son,” said Ramona.
            “She wanted to follow the wind, so I helped her, Mama,” said Twigg. “She’s gone.”
            “Are you very sad, my dear?” said his mother.
            “A little,” said Twigg. Then he smiled again.

A Friday Comment From Suzy on Saturday

 

 
            As I woke this afternoon, Friday that is, Suzy, who had been snugged in beside me, also woke. She looked a little concerned, in that very Cautious™ way she has sometimes when she wants to tell me something.
            “You look like a cat with something on her mind,” I told her.
            “Listen,” she said. “I’ve heard all this talk about that fishy woman being remade as a Daughter of the Forest. It’s a nice idea, but Toots and I think it sounds pretty “fishy” if you ask us.”
            “Oh come now,” I said. “I thought it was sweet! She will get to experience all the pleasures of life on the warm, pleasant land with others who love and care for her. It has to be better than hanging around in Puget Sound and rivers eating fish and singing weird songs out over the water at night to scare people.”
            “Exactly. You’d think she’d be grateful,” agreed Suzy.
            “I think she is! Did you hear how she ran up and down the riverbank on her new feet, throwing her arms in the air and shouting for joy?” said I.
            “Toots and I want to know how she knew to go to Twigg. What about that?”
            “I thought that was happenstance, or maybe a miracle,” I said.
            “You are a big softy, P-lady,” said Suzy. “What if this fishy person is still cold-hearted even though she’s wearing a new suit of clothes and walks the land?
            “We don’t trust her,” said Suzy. “We don’t want anything sad to happen in the story. You know?”
            “Now, who’s a big softy?” I giggled. “What would it take to convince you that she was reborn for real, that like the Velveteen Rabbit, she had changed?”
            “Oh. We didn’t think about that. You wrote it! You figure it out!” insisted Suzy, rather pointedly.
            “That’s what I’m going to do. In fact, I think I know what happens next, but I won’t tell. Your concerns have been noted. Tell Toots I appreciate her interest, too!” I said.
            “By the way, Willie is surprised that Twigg didn’t pop her in the bag with the rest of the fish,” said Suzy.
            “Well, he didn’t, and he wouldn’t. For one thing, she was too big to go into a burlap bag, and Twigg saw that she wasn’t only a fish,” I said.
            “Well, OK. But I don’t think anybody should turn their back on this Rose! That’s all. They should keep a little caution in mind.
            “We just want Twigg to be OK. You know?” she said and went about her business elsewhere in the house.
            “Don’t worry, Suzy,” I called as her tail disappeared around a corner. “Ralph will keep an eye on things! He always does!”
            “Maybe she reads my mind while I’m sleeping?” I wondered to myself.

A Rose In The Forest

 

 

            Summer was winding down. The nights in the Great Forest were becoming cooler. There was mist laying on the ground when the sun first woke the forest in the morning. The leaves of the softer trees looked a bit tired and worn.
            It was that sweet moment just before autumn begins in earnest.
            There would soon be rain, a lot of rain. This forest was, after all, built of rain, wind, stone, and the mighty trees.
            Maeve and Ralph were up early, conversing over by the river, so they didn’t wake anyone still sleeping, which was, in fact, everyone else. Ralph sat on that same rock where Twigg had sat when Rose had first appeared, with his feet also in the running water. Maeve, feeling the chill a little since she was a rather mature Raven, sat on his shoulder for the sake of the warmth.
            “Well, Boss. Now what will you do? You have a wolf at the door. Well, inside the door. The puma bros., a son who is nearly grown, a daughter, your dear Ramona, and now you  have this changeling,” chuckled Maeve, in her Raven voice, which Ralph understood perfectly well.
            “It’s more crowded in the cave than it used to be, Maeve. That’s for sure,” he said.
            “I’m a nosy old bird, I know it, but I have to know where you put everyone to sleep last night?” said Maeve.
            “We tried this: Twigg gave Rose his bed, and he slept on the floor at her feet wrapped in that big quilt Thaga made for him. We had an extra quilt which Rose used for her first night with us,” said Ralph. “It was not ideal, but for an emergency it was doable.”
            “Ah, Twigg. What a fine fellow he is, Ralph,” said Maeve.
            “I know it, Maevie, I know it. But he can’t stay on the floor forever. Something will need to change, and I have an idea. By the way, you called Rose a changeling. Why? Do you know something I don’t know?”
            “Maybe I was there, Boss, when he found her in the river!” whispered Maeve. “What he said is true as rain, as far as it goes. There is more to it,” she said. 
            “It’s a nice quiet morning, everyone is sleeping. This is a good time to tell the tale, dear old bird,” said Ralph.
            “Very well. As I flew up the river yesterday, just feeling the wind, and drifting upstream, I noticed a large silver creature swimming up our river. Something I had never seen before. It was like a fish, but not quite fishy enough, if you know what I mean. As I looked I saw arms, a long finny tail, and drifting hair in the current.
            “When I got up to the very spot where we sit now, I noticed Twigg sitting here, summoning fish, as you taught him to do.
            “I lighted up high in that tree over there, silently, and watched to see what would happen. I could imagine several possibilities. Some good, some bad, some merely nothing at all.
            “What did happen was this. This finny woman, for such she was, gazed upon Twigg through the water. She swam near him where the water is shallow and slow, and she sat up. I could see that the water woman was enraptured by what she saw. Twigg is a remarkably handsome young thing!
            “He spoke to her. He gave his hand to her, and he drew her from the water to sit beside himself here. He named her, though she didn’t speak, but only nodded.
            “Oh, Ralph, here is truth, though it sounds like a fairytale when I say it. He took her face between his hands, and he blessed her and held her, and as all of heaven and earth is my witness, she changed. She became as you are. I saw this. I am a true witness,” said Maeve.
            Ralph looked long out over the running water. At last he nodded and smiled.
            “There is a lot to be done, Black Leg. Much to be done!” said Ralph.
            “Ramona will be a mother to this changeling. We will all speak to her until she speaks back to us. So it will be,” said Ralph. “Cherry will teach her to play.”
            “I will be her father,” said Ralph.
            “Yes, you will,” said Maeve. “And I will watch over her from the sky,”
            “The rest is for Twigg to decide,” mused Ralph. “I wonder how it will all turn out!”
            “Whatever Twigg decides will be good. You know that, Boss!” said Maeve, giving him a little bit of raven side eye.
            “I do know that. Now, how about we go home and build up the fire for Mona! Anything to aid cooking something for morning is a good thing!” said Ralph.
            “It’s always a good thing when Ramona cooks,” added Maeve happily.
            “Let’s go, I think I was born hungry, Maeve,” said Ralph.
            

💚

The Changeling

 

The Skagit River Delta.

            Her home waters were the chilly murky depths of greater Puget Sound. As a mere nestling, a fry, she had lived and breathed there contentedly. Hers was an easy life, a peaceful aquatic drift of days and nights.
            As the days grew in number, she grew to maturity. She was lithe, cold, observant. She was, perforce, a huntress.
            Artistic representations of such as she, both modern and antique miss the point entirely and prove the artist to be no honest observer. Forgivable, considering. What if he had been honest? What would a human observer see?
            Not a bosomy maiden down to the hips and a fishy extremity below there. No, that was a polite, cheerful fiction. She was profoundly more alien than that. Some might have considered her monstrous. She had the voice of a woman and could sing strange wordless songs.
            One day, in the fifteenth year of her swimming, she caught an unknown scent. It was a watery scent, but different in some essential way. It called to her. She followed it, swimming for the first time with intention, her curiosity aroused.
            There was current in this water. Not just the eternal rise and fall of the tide. It was more than that, strongly directional. She swam into it. In short, up by Whidbey Island, she swam right into the Skagit River, right through its delta!
            The fresh river water fell upon her like a changing song, a spell. She breathed the fresh water, and she became a huntress of trout. She swam further until there was a branching. She entered a smaller river, one that leads quite close to a Great Forest which we know well. Still, she swam on, further and further upstream into the Cascade Range.
            A last she came to a straight stretch of this smaller river. It felt good to her there. She rested, with just her long finny tail waving slightly in the current, to hold her position.
            Looking through the water, she could see such sights as she had never beheld before. There were the mighty towering Douglas firs! There were the great bulky riverside boulders. There were unfamiliar birds and their calls. There were wild roses and fireweed growing near the river. It was dazzling!
            As she watched, a youth of the Forest People came walking to the riverside. He carried a bag. He was very tall and covered in soft dark hair that moved with the breeze. The impression he gave her was of sweetness, and once more she was dazzled.
            From her position in the water, she saw him sit on a large rock just at the edge of the river with his feet in the water. He began to sing a fishing song learned from his father, and to dangle his fingers in the water. As she watched she saw spotted trout one by one approach his fingers. Then he would pick each one up and pop it into the bag. This went on for some time.
            As they used to say in old-fashioned stories, her heart smote her. She loved him with all of her mind, heart and soul. Helplessly, she swam to him sitting there, just as the foolish trout had. She sat on the river bottom there and raised her head above the surface and gazed upon him.
            Now, Twigg, who had been catching some fish for Ramona to cook for dinner, watched intently as this strange creature rose out of the water before him. She was scaly like an ocean fish, perhaps like a salmon, she had fins, down her back and on the backs of her arms. She had gills but seemed to be able to breathe air anyhow in the time he had been watching her. Her face had the familiar features of a hominid, and her eyes were green he noticed. Her long pale wet hair hung over her shoulders, dripping river water.
            “I greet thee,” said Twigg, in formal Saslingua. He smiled.
            She gazed into his kind brown eyes but didn’t speak. Speech had never been asked of her before. She shook her head a little.
            “Would you like to come out of the water?” he asked and held out a hand, keeping the bag of fish secure in the other hand. She took his hand and came out of the river. He helped her to sit beside him on the very large rock.
            “Do you have a name?” said Twigg. Again she shook her head.
            He looked at her sitting there beside him, and said, “A lady should have a name. I will name you! Does that please you?”
            She nodded at the question in his voice without understanding it.
            Since he was a young thing, he called her Rose, as foolish as that may seem, since she was of the water, not the land.
            But, maybe it wasn’t foolish, for in some ways Twigg was to be greater than his father. He had a way of knowing that became being.
            Twigg took her head into his two hands, looking deeply into those adoring green eyes and he said, “I bless thee,” in the deepest most formal form of the old language passed down from the earliest times. Rose nodded slowly, in acceptance.
            Then, as they sat together, Rose became a daughter of his people.
            She wept. She examined her body over and over. She compared it to his and she laughed for the very first time. She stood on her feet. She walked up and down the riverbank. She stretched out her arms to the sky. Rose exulted!
            So, Twigg took her hand and led her home to the Home Clearing, bag of fish in his left hand.
            Seeing them arrive, Ramona said, “Who is this fair young thing my son?”
            “This is Rose. I found her in the river, Mama,” he answered his mother.
            “She doesn’t speak yet, but she will, Mama,” Twigg added.
            Ramona held out her arms to Rose, who came to her, and became her newborn daughter in that moment.
            There is much more to be said, as you can well imagine, but that is a story for another day.  

 🐟        

Snow Day, 1967

 

Mine was just like that one, and would have gone there! That is in France.

        In view of how sultry the weather has been lately, since it’s Summer in America, I thought it might be refreshing to post a story about a snow day. It’s a true story. It happened back in 1967 around Christmas.
        It was one of those winters like we used to have. It was below freezing for weeks at a time. We had quite a bit of snow back then. There have been many green winters since then, and a few white ones too. Sometimes ice a full six inches thick would form on the pond down in the pasture where we used to play and ice skate a little.
       I must have been home from my classes at the community college in Everett. Back then it was called a junior college. But my younger siblings still had some school days before Christmas.
        It had snowed during the night and it had stuck. Not a lot of snow, but enough to keep most people from driving, since we lived in a hilly area between three small cities.
        My parents had both gone to work that day. So, I had the only vehicle, my Renault 4CV. It was like a bug, but smaller and lighter and cheaper. It was a real lawnmower car. Men laughed at it on the street. However, it was good on snow and ran super cheap.
        The buses were not running maybe, or maybe I just decided that it would be fun to run the two younger ones to the junior high in Kenmore. My next youngest sister must have made different arrangements to get to her high school. She didn’t ride with us that day.
        I had my snow routes. By driving way around the long way I could avoid steep hills, or even much of an incline. I decided that I didn’t need to get dressed. I would do the run in my long flannel nightgown. This was rash, but I was probably 18 years old.
        Back then, as you know, if something happened you were on your own unless someone took pity on you. No phone! I may not have even brought my wallet? Who knows what the child was thinking, or not?
        The drive to the junior high went fine. We went around the long way, and I got them there on time. I always have enjoyed the slight challenge of snow driving. I liked playing it like a game of strategy, seeing if I could do it and get back to where I started.
        As I remember it, the sun was shining on the new snow, which highlighted all the details of the landscape in fresh bright wintry fashion. I found this quite jolly. I’m always happier when there is snow on the ground. This has not changed.
        I drove toward the house by the same route I had left. It all went fine until I got to a level spot, oddly. I was within a mile of home when I slid into a ditch. It was enough of a ditch that I couldn’t weasel my way out of it.
        Oh dear! And there I was in my silly nightgown.
    I got out of the car and stood there wondering what to do next. Should I walk home? Wait for my dad to come home and pull it out?
        The Book says that sometimes angels appear, and they did!
        Across the street there was a new housing development being built. Work was going on right at that moment. I have to assume that some of the carpenters saw my little accident because two big strong carpenters came over, laughing at me in my nightie and my silly little car in the ditch. They really didn’t say anything. They just picked it in their hands and pulled it up to where I could get enough purchase to drive away. Then they went laughing back to their job on the new house they were building.
        I drove home. No harm was done. The Lord helps goofy girls I guess. Actually, that has been proven to me a lot of times. Also, I never went to town in my nightgown again.
        The buses were running in the afternoon, so the kids came home by bus and all was well.
        School buses look pretty cool coming through the snow. Everything looks pretty cool coming through the snow! And a snow day is a wonderful thing!

🚗

Happy Butter Your Cat Day! Don't forget to butter your cat!

😻

Meowderators' Rest Day & Open Thread

Eastern WA.

 

Dear Readers:
            We wish you a late summer Tootsday like no other! Even though the year is moving on, it feels like mid-summer. It will, no doubt, be another warm day with abundant sunshine, even up here in the PNW.
            We may as well enjoy it for all the joy that’s in it. I’m sure that will include lots of chat, which is a good thing!
            All the very best, from us to you!

💙

Ramona's Big Flat Pan

 

 

            Ranger Rick, that affable fellow, had an idea. The more he thought about it, the better he liked it. He had the handwritten notes Ev had written for him, the recipe so to speak for the huge Timber Topper pizza like Tony made it at Lou’s place.
            Now, he had never been physically present in the Home Clearing, but he and Ralph had discussed all aspects. He was clear on the fire circle, the grid Ramona used to support her big flat pan, and all her various cooking adventures.
            Where did the big pan come from you wonder? It’s a good question. Perhaps I can suggest a provenance. Originally, it came from the galley of a Navy vessel. In the fullness of time this vessel had been decommissioned, and its accoutrements had been released into the wild as salvage.
            Some guy bought it for his wife, but it wouldn’t fit in their oven, so the wife sold it at a garage sale in Milltown. Ooog happened upon this garage sale. He bought it by bartering a sack of new potatoes and brought it home to Thaga. She said he should give it to Ramona who cooks for a crew unlike themselves. So he did. That’s how Ramona got the big flat pan, which measured a good 24X36 inches!
            You can see what he was thinking.
            Rick drove home determining to contact Ralph somehow and propose a cookout at the Home Clearing. Most of the time when he and Ralph chatted, Ralph had just appeared. But he didn’t want to wait for that to happen. He also knew he couldn’t just walk out into the forest and find him. He was fully aware of the special nature of reality out there.
            He remembered that one time when he had been sure that Twigg was committing mischief in the area and he had honked his horn until Ralph came to talk with him about it. He decided to try that again.
            The next morning Rick parked out by the dumpster and started doing a friendly little beep sequence on his horn. He kept it up long enough that it couldn’t be an accident. Finally Maeve appeared, took a long beady eyed look at him and flew off into the forest.
            In about fifteen minutes Ralph strolled up the path and into the station parking lot to see what was up with Rick.
            Rick explained what he was thinking and Ralph thought it sounded like jolly fun. Between the two of them, they settled on midday the next day. Ralph would meet Rick at the station and bring him into the Home Clearing.
            In the morning Rick went to Safeway, scene of his terrible taste in coffee purchases, and bought supplies. He decided to use premade bread dough for simplicity’s sake. He bought four balls of that. And:
            A big can of Italian tomato sauce.
            A small bottle of virgin olive oil
            A bulb of garlic and a bottle of mediterranean herbs
            Five pounds of mozzarella
            Two pounds of Canadian bacon
            A big sweet onion, three green peppers, and a few tomatoes
            Two pounds of mushrooms
            Two bottles of pitted Greek olives
 
            He figured that ought to do it. It would make a monster pizza.
            Morning turned into midday. Rick was ready with all of that in a couple of grocery sacks.             Ralph appeared, bigger than life actually, and together they entered the forest, using the same path as Mitch and Robby had but arriving at a totally different destination, Ralph’s Home Clearing where the whole family waited to meet them.
            Rick had met Twigg when he was a little younger, but he had never seen Ramona, or Cherry or Bob or Berry or Blue.
            “Rick,” said Ramona, “I’ve heard so much about you! Isn’t that what they always say? Good to meet you at last! Come and meet everyone!”
            Rick was slightly agog upon meeting her, but he managed to be cool and greet Twigg and Cherry. He patted Blue on her head, and the cats allowed him to pat them also.
            Everyone was excited to see this new dish as it came into being!
            Therefore, Rick, assisting Ramona began to assemble the great pizza. First they oiled the big flat pan lightly. Then they spread the dough evenly over it, all joined so there were no leaky spots. Then Ramona set it aside to rise.
            They sliced the various vegetables and chopped the whole head of garlic.
            Then it was time to build the D.I.Y. Timber Topper!
            Going roughly by Ev’s written directions, Rick spread the tomato sauce over the surface. He had thought to bring a can opening. Ten points for Rick!
            Then the oil and a good sprinkle of the herbs went on. Then the Canadian bacon under everything else. A layer of cheese slices was next. Then the vegetables were arranged nicely. Next Rick scattered the olives over the vegetables. Last of all was another layer of cheese slices. They had salted and peppered the vegetable layer.
            It was a big job! And now it was time to cook it. Of course it wouldn’t be browned on top, but that wouldn’t be a problem.
            Ramona placed a judicious number of small sticks of firewood in the fire under the grid and when the flames had died down to coals, she and Rick carefully places the very large flat pan on the grid. Then they watched it as it cooked. They didn’t want it to cook too fast and not get done through the middle, so it took watching and care.
            The dough puffed up and began to be bread crust, the cheese melted, and the vegetables began to look cooked and the whole thing kind of settled and became cohesive in a nice way. It smelled wonderful Ramona said, and it did!
            Between the two of them, Rick and Ramona decided that it was done.
            The fire had died down, but the pan was still very hot. Ralph did the honors of using some old cloth as pot holders and moved the great heavy thing to Ramona’s little stump table.
            While they waited for it to cool for a bit, Cherry demonstrated her special ability, which had wowed Mitch and Robby so much. Rick was also impressed, to put it mildly.
            Twigg sang a song that the B’s had taught him about hanging in there and staying busy.
            Bob and Berry sat by with secret cat smiles and shining eyes.
            Blue had to be told a few times to cool it, she was still at an awful age in canids.
            Maeve hung around, keeping an eye on the proceedings and interjecting wise sayings in Raven. She spent most of the time on Ralph’s shoulder.
            At last it was time to serve it up, so Ramona sliced the Timber Topper into a variety of sizes of pieces. She got out those shallow wooden bowls and gave everyone a first slice.
            It went over grandly and was considered a great success and every bit of it was eaten, believe it or not!
            “Rick,” said Ramona, “what a lovely idea you had. It was so sweet of you to think of us and share this new dish with us! You must come again and eat with us. Thank you!”
            “It was a ton of fun, Ramona,” said Rick. “You’re absolutely welcome. Meeting you all was like a dream! A very good dream,” he added.
            “I’ll make some coffee, Rick. Don’t take off yet,” said Ramona.
            Rick stayed for coffee, then Ralph walked him to the parking lot by the ranger station.
            “Goodnight,” said Ralph.
            “Goodnight,” said Rick.
            They were both stuffed and felt very sleepy!

🌲🧄🌲