You'd Swear It Was Summer

 

            Going outside yesterday, I felt as if the last time I had looked it  had been spring, still chill and damp and gray.
            The sunlight was that blinding light we get in the northwest. I think it has something to do with humidity. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just in comparison to the former gray days. The sky was that profound arc of heavenly blue.
            So, April is just about over.
            This is the beginning of the summer of 2026. Everything was fully leafed out. The blossoms have fallen from my pear tree. I was looking to see if there was some Lamb’s Quarter growing out there along the driveway, but only found clover and dandelions and some other things that I don’t recognize by name.
            And it was warm! Warm enough to use a little AC in the car!
            I got caught in the Boeing traffic going home. But, it kept moving, so that’s the main thing. Most drivers were behaving themselves pretty well. I think people up here feel celebratory when the weather gets like it was today.
            I bet things are looking summery up in the Great Forest too. I wonder if Ramona does anything with dandelion flowers? I shall have to check in with them today!
            I know that the river is very full with spring runoff and that Maeve is above it all keeping a sharp lookout.

Good Morning! Don't Forget! Butter Your Cat Day is Here!

 Aw, they've grown so much since then.

They, and I, wish you the very best April 29th ever.

They have a rather diffident interest in butter, but will lap some.

Suzy abstains.

Mr. Baby has not indulged.

I know Toots doesn't approve, but Sammie digs it!

Meow!

🤍

Some Family Business

 

            It was the third full day after homecoming. Life was normalizing. Leely was figuring out how to keep house in the Alder Tree House, with a wood burning stove, and using river water in a bucket just like Ramona did. She didn’t miss the servants in Mak’s palace. The privacy and agency here were precious to her.
            She thought she was going to need a few more things, like a broom, and a second bucket for more water.
            Koba was a happy baby. He didn’t cry. Well, hardly at all. He was starting to hold his head up and look around himself, seeming to take joy in all he saw.
            Twigg and Ralph had gone out early to hunt. If they didn’t have any luck, they would go fishing. As usual, they would need to pick up firewood too. Ralph wore his big leather backpack for the wood.
            As they walked out into the morning, Ralph said, “Well, how did the visit with Enid and Arthur go?”
            “It was good, but confusing too,” said Twigg. A few B’s had found him and were tagging along before their day’s work began.
            “They didn’t know when we were coming, but they were very happy to see us. Enid handled it better than Arthur did. I’d never met him before, you see?” said Twigg. “He pretty much just stared and didn’t say much. He wasn’t there when we got married, remember?”
            “Nope, Arthur was asleep I think,” said Ralph. “Were they surprised at Koba?”
            “No… That was very strange. They weren’t shocked at all. It seemed to me that they weren’t seeing the same thing I see when I look at my son. To me, he is all Forest child. He’s hairy, like normal.
            “But Enid kept saying how beautiful he was, how he had such nice smooth skin. To her, he looked like a human child I guess, which he is, but she didn’t see that he was like me. She said Koba favored Leely, who favored her dad.  That’s interesting because Leely’s father is rumored to be a half breed. Enid just never would admit it, Leely said.
            “Arthur just sat there, looking from me to Koba and back. Maybe he saw the truth better than Leely’s mom did. He didn’t argue with her. When Enid brought Koba to Arthur to hold, he warmed up. He seemed to get it through his head that a grandson is a grandson. So be it!”
            “Good. Sensible man,” said Ralph. He was scanning the area, as hunters do, but he knew that if they kept up the chat they were going to end up fishing.
            “We had lunch with them. It was a cheesy sticky thing. Macaroni and cheese, it was good. Never had that before. And salad. It was very good and plain after all the stuff Mak’s cooks made up there. You can’t even imagine, Dad!
            “Koba started to get a little tired, so I said we better take him home and put him to bed in his basket. Enid gathered up a couple of bags of kitchen supplies. Canned stuff, butter, cheese, salt and pepper, and on and on.  She said to please come back if we need anything because her grandson will have everything he needs, if she can help it! She held him for a little while and kissed him, kissed Leely and then she hugged me! Arthur shook my hand; the first time I ever did that! Then we took the bags and the boy and walked home and put him to bed. Leely stashed all the things her mother gave her in that cupboard Ooog made.
            “So, it was a good visit, but a mystery too,” said Twigg.
            “Yes. I think Koba may be a mystery in himself,” said Ralph. They walked on silently for a bit.
            The B’s left them, now that the dew was off of everything and they could work the flowers. As the B’s buzzed off to go to work, Maeve found Ralph and Twigg and made herself at home on Ralph’s shoulder.
            “Guess what I saw from up in the sky, Boss?” said she.
            “I can’t guess, Birdy! You see much too far from up there,” laughed Ralph.
            “I saw a tender young buck deer just up the way ahead of you,” Maeve announced. “By the way, it’s good to see you again Twigg! I’m glad you’re home with Leely and Koba. This is a good thing!” And she made a few raven chuckles of approval.
            Twigg grinned at her and Ralph said, “We had best go meet this tender fellow, hadn’t we? Lead the way, Birdy.”
            Maeve flew off to the point the way, and Ralph and Twigg followed. Father and son wouldn’t need to go fishing after all, in spite of the conversation.

🍃🦌🌿

Writing About Writing

 

           

            That sounds pretty boring. Ew!
            But, a funny thing happened on the way to April of 2026. Somehow, I started acting as if I felt something that might described as feeling like I might be some kind of a writer.
            This was a gradual process, and I never set out to make this happen. Maybe my childish approach to story writing allowed it to progress without too much observation from me. IOW, being a centipede, I wasn’t watching all my feet, I was just stumping along unaware.
            What I have been doing these last few months is picking a type of story, say, a folktale, like the one yesterday. I tried to bring in several cultural known characters, such as the trickster and set him in opposition to a virtuous innocent. Just for fun, I made this trickster character our old friend Jumpstart. Spring Peeper is every little girl who triumphs because of her inherent nature in every story of the type. Doesn’t have to be a little girl, of course. Could be a boy or a talking cat or whatever.
            With the story about the guy camping on Hat Island I was trying to write a ripping yarn of the pot boiler type, like we had been listening to at night, but make it more believable.
            I don’t know what to say about Ralph and the Great Forest. That just kind of happened, and now it’s as real to me as some place I have actually been. Ralph is a love story, not in the usual sense, though he and Ramona certainly portray love. It must be about a great number of things I find lovely.
            I still want to visit Luminous, Texas, darnit! I want to sit in that café and interview the customers!
            What is important to me:

•   Word choice is like what color to use, which unconscious connections I wish to hint at.
•   Turn of phrase. Something fresh, but not too far of a stretch for the reader to endure.
•   Portrayal of the characters, without just blurting out how they are. Show, not tell.
•   A storyline which is psychologically feasible and satisfying.

            That’s probably about enough of that. I just felt like explaining myself a little bit.
            Your commentary and kind words have been my light along the way. Please, always say more, not less. Since this is a process of communication, I greatly wish to know how it’s going.
            Thank you, from my heart.

🌸🤍🌸

Dear Old One and Coyote

 

 
            Dear Old One was always talking. Sometimes she told the old stories everyone knew, but sometimes, she muttered things no one had ever heard before.
            To the children, she seemed as old as the world itself. She was short and bent. Her clothes were so old that she had shortened them to match her stature, dresses almost as old as she. Her hair was white, worn up in a twist, so that it looked like a shiny candy. Her eyes were sharp, blue, always looking. Her tongue was sharp too.
            If a village child didn’t know her they may have thought she looked frightening.  So old, bent, and slow, with a stick to help her walk.
            But Spring Peeper did know Dear Old One. She knew that the old lady was kind, harsh, but protective like a good medicine. Spring Peeper trusted her absolutely.
            Of course Spring Peeper was not her real name. Her true name was a secret kept from the Little People. Naturally, no one wanted them knowing their true name.
            One day Spring Peeper was following Dear Old One around her house and outside in the garden, making a pest of herself and getting underfoot of the old lady. So, the old lady sat on the bench outside, under the locust tree and the small girl sat beside her, swinging her feet and humming a tuneless little girl tune. Dear Old One turned her head and looked down on the child with her sharp blue eyes, and she began to speak.
            “You may be assured that Coyote, who is neither good nor evil in himself, comes to every man and asks him a question. The answer to the question will determine whether he is to be tied to the returning wheel, or shall be free,” she said. Then she closed her eyes and rested her hands on the head of her walking stick propped between her knees.
            This didn’t mean a lot to Spring Peeper, but she listened anyhow and tried to puzzle it out. She also thought that since she was not a man, and would never be a man, that the question really had nothing to do with herself. She figured that it was one of those rhetorical pronouncements her great grandmother was given to speaking from time to time.
            She did not expect to be put to the test by Coyote.
            Of course, no one ever does, do they?
            Another day, Spring Peeper was at home with She Is There and the other children. There were three of them, all younger, with one still at the breast. She Is There had been baking bread all morning. Her traditional breads were flat like pitas, and extremely good.
            Like in all such tales, the mother, She Is There, thought to send Spring Peeper with a basket of these good breads to her own grandmother, Dear Old One, at her small old house further down the river road by something like half a mile. Spring Peeper knew the way for she had walked that way many times on the same sort of errand.
            She Is There wrapped a good  half dozen flat breads in a nice clean cotton towel and put them in the usual withy basket, which moved between their houses on various missions. She told Spring Peeper to go straight to Dear Old One’s cottage and come right back home immediately.
            Spring Peeper agreed and set out in a businesslike manner down the path beside the river in the shade of the trees that always seem to grow beside rivers.
            As she walked along in the pleasant shade, looking at this and that, flowers and bees, and birds, and all, she thought she heard a voice coming up behind her on the path. She listened and was surprised to hear what the voice was saying: “Not a fox, not a wolf. Not a fox, not a wolf!” It was repeated over and over again as if this were a very fine thing.
            Spring Peeper forgot her mother’s directions. She turned in the path to see who was following her. To her surprise she saw a beautiful doglike creature who was not a dog, nevertheless. He shone yellowish where the dappled sunlight spotted his fur. He smiled a friendly smile, and said, “Not a fox, not a wolf!
            “Hello, Child! Fancy meeting you here today!” said the shining creature. “What, may I ask, is your name?”
            Completely blindsided and charmed, Spring Peeper said, “Rosina!”
            “Ah, Rosina! Tell me which is best, will you?” said Coyote, for such he was, as you know well.
            “I can’t tell you which is best until you put the question to me,” said poor little Rosina.
            “Very well,” said Coyote, sitting on his haunches there in the path and wrapping his tail around his feet.
            “Which do you desire? Shall you be the most beautiful girl in the village, and the country, and have great fame for your beautiful face?
            “Or will you serve long years, baking bread, and tending babies, and all of that?” said Coyote, with shining yellow eyes, and with his tongue lolling from his open jaws. He waited there to see what the child would tell him.
            “When I am old, I shall be wise, like my Dear Old One! And if I am to be beautiful, I shall be beautiful in the village, like She Is There!” said Spring Peeper.
            “And so you shall be both wise and beautiful!” said Coyote, secretly quite pleased with her answer.
            “Farewell, Rosina, wise child. I won’t tell your name to the Little People, no fear,”  and he passed her up on the path and walked out into the field until she saw him no more.
            She carried the withy basket of still quite fresh bread to Dear Old One. She kissed the old lady, then went right back home, as she had promised to do.

🐺💛🦊

Somewhere In Arizona, From BW.

 

Just a Catfurday Open Thread.

With all my best wishes!

An Open Thread can be anything you like!

🤍

Expurration™ PNW

 

On location. Never mind the girl.

            “Ding, ding! Suzy, wake up,” said Toots one night at about 2AM from her station by the window. “Are you receiving this? I can see you there!”
            “I don’t know how you’re doing that. I can’t see you!” said Suzy, who was in fact, sleeping on the back of the recliner.
            “I don’t understand it either,” said Toots. “Hey, have you ever heard of a planet with rings around it? I think it’s called Caturn? What say we take another trip to space, Suzy? Any planet called Caturn has got to be a good one. Maybe there are giant gaseous cats there who will welcome us with big cloudy paws!”
            “That’s a strange thing to contemplate when just waking up. And after that crab thing on Mrrrz, I’m not feeling very brave,” said Suzy. “In fact, you have just activated my Caution! That planet is huge! It would have terrible gravity. Think about what could live there! They might be big flat things that ooze around the surface down in the gassy atmosphere!”
            “Doesn’t matter! Remember, we won’t actually be there with our tails and whiskers, only our mind’s eyes will be there looking at stuff. I don’t think they could see us unless we had our fur and whiskers with us!” insisted Toots.
            “Oh, yeah, I remember,” said Suzy.
            “Well…Sister Dear, wanna go?” said Toots.
            “I think I’d rather go camping,” said Suzy, finally.
            “What? Where?” said Toots. “I’ve been Outside, but I never went camping!”
            “I was thinking I’d like to visit the Index River. Of course we wouldn’t really be camping for the same reasons that we’d be safe on Caturn. Mind’s eyes don’t need camping equipment. All that stuff is for fur and whiskers. Think about it, Toots! We could just go up into the forest by the river and Check It Out!” purred Suzy.
            “I suppose when is the next question,” said Toots.
            “How about right now!” said Suzy.
            “It’s dark! It might be scary!” said Toots with her eyes aflame and wide.
            “It’ll be OK, Toots. We’ll just cruise up the river, higher and higher into the mountains for a while, then come home. OK? The river will be easy to follow. I’ve seen video,” said Suzy.
            “Well, alright. Let’s do it,” said Toots, very bravely.
            So, the two brave little cats put their noses down by their front paws and concentrated. Suzy knew about the river, so she brought Toots along with her. Soon, they were above a busy shining smallish river rushing rapidly downhill. Dark forest loomed on both sides. The sky was cloudy but had that pearlescent glow that cloudy skies have at night, so it wasn’t really all that dark, especially not to cats, who see quite well in the dark.
            “What do you think,” said Suzy to her friend.
            “It’s not like the creek at home. It’s going a lot faster,” said Toots. “And I’m not used to all these big dark tall trees!”
            “Let’s go up river,” said Suzy, turning her gaze up hill.
            So the two little expurrers bravely cruised up the busy river in the dark. It was going fine and they were getting a good sense of Mt. Index too, a rather obscure mountain in the area.
            Around a slight bend in the river they came upon a wide pebbly beach. There seemed to be a group, or family of large persons wading into the water, going under the surface and catching fish. Then they would wade out of the river again and share the fish with smaller members of the group. This went on the whole time Toots and Suzy watched.
            “Those aren’t people are they, Suzy?” said Toots. “They look an awful lot like those big guys I see on the highway sometimes at home!”
            “Let’s sneak down and listen,” said Suzy. “I want to get a better look.”
            “Yeah, OK. They can’t see us anyhow,” said Toots.
            But when the little points of vision came to hover near a large motherly person with a toddler on her knee, they got a big surprise.
            “It’s too bad that you girls can’t share some fish with us,” the mother said. “I know you’re there. One of you is a long way from home.”     
            “How did you know?” Toots and Suzy said at the same time.
            “It has something to do with wavelengths. I don’t explain. I just do. I’m no physicist!” said the mother. “Why did you come out here?”
            “I wanted to show my friend the river and the forest,” said Suzy.
            “Well, I think that’s really nice, and it was good to meet you girls,” said the mother. But she was fading a little, and so were the others, and the river and the forest.
            “I think you’ll find yourselves safe at home very soon,” was the last thing she said to them. She smiled a big friendly smile. There were crinkles at the corners of her brown eyes, and the wind running with the river tossed her long brown hair a bit. She winked!
            Suzy sat up and looked all around herself. She was on the back of the recliner, just the same as usual.
            “Toots,” she sent, “Did that happen?”
            “I believe it did,” said Toots, once again gazing out of the window as the sky just started to lighten in the east.

😹🌞😸