A Day in The Forest and Meadow

 

            Ralph woke first for once, while the dew was still on the leafy ground cover in the Home Clearing. He grinned because he was first to awaken. He didn’t bother Ramona, but just slipped carefully out from under the big quilt.
            Blue opened her eyes and looked at him. He just said “Shhh” and kind of glided out of the green door, closing it very quietly behind himself.
            Outside, he took a big breath of still cool morning air, stretched mightily, and grunted happily. He could see just a few glints of the sun through the trees in the east. He could smell a little smudge from the fire pit. There was just a little column of white smoke ascending from the coals of last night’s fire. It wouldn’t take much fuel to start burning properly again.
            Taking an armful of medium sized pieces from the stacked branches and so on, he began to build up the fire for morning. The pitch in the dry fir branch sections made little hot sparks as it caught and began burning brightly. So far, so good.
            Ralph had never made coffee before, but he was pretty sure he could do it. How hard could it be to boil some coffee in water? This meant a trip back into the cave, risking waking Ramona, and the whole crew still sleeping in there.
            So, he walked as quietly as he could back into the cave. He was looking for Ramona’s coffee supply when he heard some rustling behind him.
            “Why are you up, Baby,” said Ramona, still under the quilt.
            “I just woke up. You were still sleeping so I went out and got the fire going. I was thinking about making some coffee,” said Ralph.
            “I’ll do it,” she said. “Why don’t we go out and not wake everybody?”
            Ramona got her blue enameled coffee pot, and dumped a judicious amount of ground coffee from a jar she had on her shelf, thanks to Thaga, into the pot.
            Outside, she filled it with river water from her bucket, and put it on the fire to boil.
            “Thanks for starting the fire,” said Ramona.
            They sat together as the sun came up, watching the fire and smelling the coffee.
            “I’ve been thinking,” said Ralph.
            “That doesn’t surprise me,” said Ramona. “What’s cooking in there today?"
            “I think it’s time to go visit the Alder Tree House. It’s been a while, and I want to see Koba. You know, and how everything is going?” said Ralph.
            “I do too,” she said. “I’ll just slice up some of that roast haunch we had last night. That will do. Then we can walk over there and surprise them!” She smiled at the thought.
            “I didn’t want them to feel watched, you know?” said Ralph, looking at her with his kind brown eyes shining in the morning light.
            Ramona opened the cave door, fetched out the left over roast, and her big knife and some bowls. She called “Wake up everybody! We’re going to go see Twigg, Leely, and Koba today! Let’s eat and get ready!”
            They had the cold roast for breakfast, with coffee for Ralph and herself, and water for Cherry and Blue, and the Pumas. Then Ramona combed everyone’s hair, including Blue’s and Bob and Berry’s until they all looked their very best.
            About the time they were ready to go, Maeve flew down out of the sky. She decided to go with them. She was curious about Koba too.
            The sun was well up in the morning sky when they all set off in a sort of majestic procession. Bob and Berry walked first, tails swinging in unison. Next came Cherry with her hand on Blue’s head. Ralph and Ramona came last, holding hands. Maeve rode in her usual place.
            They passed up out of the Home Clearing and into the morning meadow, and all was heart-breakingly lovely. They could smell the earth and all the dwellers therein. As they walked crushing grass and scented herbs, the odors rose up around them. The flowers of midsummer were all in bloom, white, yellow, and lavender.
            They stopped at the old first-growth stump where Twigg and Leely had first become friends, and as they did a flight of B’s surrounded them. The B’s seemed to be examining them.   
            At last, a Betty spoke to Ralph, “Oh, Twigg’s Father and Mother! We will fly to him and announce your coming arrival!” And with that the golden humming cloud of tiny souls flew away as fast as they could fly.
            After a few more minutes of walking through the meadow the Alder Tree House came into view. It had leafed out beautifully. Birds called from within its canopy of branches, berry vines spiraled up the trunks of the circled alders. A bit of white smoke lifted skyward from the small chimney. Tall grass surrounded the house. A path led from the open doorway.
            Twigg was first to step outside. “The B’s said you would be here soon!” he called to his family.  "Please, come in!"
            Then, a stately dark haired young woman, who in some ways resembled little Marge, stood in the doorway wearing some of Marge’s Carhartt’s. In her arms was a child. The child, a shining golden haired small person, threw out his arms to Ramona when he saw her approaching. She ran to him and gathered him into her bosom, and it must be admitted that Ramona wept happy tears.
            “Come in,” said Leely, and everyone did go in, including Blue and Bob and Berry, and Maeve, naturally!
            Leely made a nice big lunch, Koba was finally passed from Ramona’s arms to Ralph’s and then to Cherry’s. Everyone admired him and said how big he was growing and how smart he was. He was even beginning to talk in short sentences.
            The family talked for many hours, and the day was perfect.

💚

Highway 21 Revisited

 

            It was July 1 of 2016. My daughter and I were out driving in eastern Washington. East and West don't really resemble each other in Washington. You could think you were in Montana, or any other wheat country. 

            Here is a Wiki on highway 21, just in case you'd like the details.

            I wouldn't mind being out there today, flying those big open spaces in some over-powered big rental car!

            I wish you a very good day!

            💮

Higher Level Cautiousness™

 

 

            “Psst, Toots,” said Suzie very early one morning, via KittyComm™.

            “Shhh!” Toots answered very quietly. “What’s up?”

            “I’m hiding from Them,” said Suzie. "They're acting weird again."

            “I’m hiding from Him! I’m not sure he’s Him. He looks changed!” said Toots, in a psychic whisper. “He might be able to hear me!”

            “She gave me a bowl of disgusting food. I think She might have been trying to transform me into a dog or something! And, that’s not all,” said Suzie. “Where are you hiding?”

            “I can’t say,” said Toots.

            “In the Bug engine compartment?” asked Suzie.

            “No! Too easy! He'd find me there,” said Toots.

            “But if he’s not Him, he wouldn’t know that,” said Suzie. “Unless, he’s an amalgam of some kind, and the new one knows what the old one knows!”

            “Ew! Stop talking like that, or I’ll never come out!” whispered Toots. “Say, where are you hiding? Behind the piano?”

            “Here she comes! She’ll never find me!” said Suzie. “I’m way back in a tiny cave behind stuff! She’s talking, but I’m not answering. She doesn’t even know I’m within three feet of her!”

            “That sounds like a closet! Is it the one in the bathroom?” guessed Toots.

            “Nope! They always look in closets when I’m in Higher Cautiousness™” said Suzie. “I’m in a place they never think of!”

            “Oh! I want to be in Higher Cautiousness™ too!” said Toots, eagerly.

            “Toots, honey, you are the queen of Higher Cautiousness™! You haven’t even told me where you’re hiding!” said Suzie. “I’m not likely to, pardon the expression, rat you out, am I?”

            “Not on purpose, but if your lady has been highjacked by 'aliens' she might be able to read your mind, then she might rat me out!” said Toots.

            “Nah, don’t worry about that. She’d probably highjack any ET silly enough to try her. Can you imagine? They’d be zapping around between dimensions, and she’d be going along for the ride. She put flea collars on us. That’s about it,” admitted Suzie.

            “Ew,” Toots shuddered delicately. “How can you bear it?”

            “Consider the alternative,” said Suzie. “That’s how I bear it. Besides, I’m getting very hungry. I think I’ll run out when she has her back turned. She’ll never know where I was!” said Suzie.

            “Oh, I don’t think any alien could get inside Him either,” said Toots. “Real ETs don’t do that, and fake ones would probably regret the attempt, and I’m hungry too!”

            “How do you know real ETs don’t do that?” said Suzie.

            “Come on, Suzie! We’ve been Out There! Did any ET grab us and bend our minds?” said Toots.

            “No. I didn’t even see any ET’s Out There,” said Suzie.

            “I bet they saw us! Maybe one day we’ll meet some of them! But right now, I want breakfast! Talk to you later, Suzie!” said Toots, ending the KittyComm™ conversation.

            Suzie was left with more questions than answers, but she decided to just go have some kitty soup, and then have a nice nap with P, and think about it all later!

 

Das Ende!

💙

Just Some Pink Roses for Suzday

 

            Suzday greetings! 
            Whether it's hot or not, wishing you a lovely summer day.

            Suzie is very proud of  her day, and she hopes it lives up to its reputation!

            Love, p

💮💚💮

In Celebration of Catfurday, Open Thread

 The sense memory never goes.

The love never dies away.

This is Henry having a nap in my arms.

Oh, he was a glamorous beast!

All of them were.

Bless  their fur and whiskers, and their tails too!

For they are love embodied.

💙

1954, The Backwoods of Washington

 

Grubby backwoods children.

 

            They were living in rentals in Seattle. I think he was still driving for the Metro. He was 26 years old. She was 23. There were four children ranging in age from 5 to 1 year. I don’t remember, of course, why they decided to move out of town. Maybe it was a sort of leftover farmer urge to own a little land.
            What they found and purchased was a ¾ acre plot of land, partially cleared of the second growth forest, with a shell of an unfinished two bedroom house, built by an actual Eskimo guy who was building these things and selling them unfinished. No power. No water. No plumbing.
            The price was $4000.00, $40.00 payments. I remember some tension surrounding getting those payments in. It sounds like a fairytale now.
            It sat in what would eventually become the suburbs north and east of Seattle, maybe 20 miles from where they had lived before.
            My clearest memory of those days involves the oddness of living among unfinished walls, merely framed in. It was like a forest of 2x4s! It was dark at night except for the kerosene lantern, and the bit of light from the also kerosene heater. It was almost like camping, but in a building. Mom hung up blankets to divide the space up a little. I remember bathing in a zinc watering tub!
            At that time, I kid you not, they were driving a Model T Ford. I don’t know the year.
            That first summer, before the waterline was put in out on the road, they fetched drinking water in milk cans from a free to anyone artesian well on 164^th, which means nothing to anyone but people who live here. There is now a major I-5 exit there. That was about a ten mile drive for two ten gallon milk cans of water.
            Of course, there was no bathroom. So, he had to dig a hole and build the dreaded outhouse. Thankfully, living with the “wee housie” didn’t last long.
            My father, at 26 years, wired the house. He plumbed it. He finished the inside too. It was never fancy. It was plain and adequate.
            Since he was incurably of that farmer mindset, the next thing was to clear the lot. I remember that we were sent inside when trees were falling, or he was blasting stumps. We burned all of those trees in the stove in the house. I remember a cheap sheet metal oval shaped thing in the living room. I still have the smell of alder smoke in my nose. It’s distinctive.
            He left a few trees, but cleared enough for a large garden. We children spent a fair amount of time "picking rocks." The ground was full of rather large round pebbles. Maybe a glacier left them there before wandering off.
            He cut that old Ford down and made a tractor of it. I learned to drive by helping him plow with it. I was about ten then.
            In a few years, he built three more bedrooms.
            They planted a row of fruit trees and two rows of raspberries.
            In those years, my mother had her hands full just wrangling the four of us. I remember having quite a bit of responsibility for the younger ones.
            Every bite of food we ate came from her hands. There were no trips to McDonald’s. No snacks. It was good. She did a good job.
            Our grocery shopping was done out on old 99, in Lynnwood and Alderwood Manor, some distance from home. There were long drives down gravel roads between stands of trees, just to get anything.
            I was sent to school that fall, by bus, to first grade in Bothell, WA. Strangely, I was taught to speed-read. I remember sentences projected on a screen. My next youngest sister would have been in Kindergarten.
            Ah, so it goes, or so it went.
            Now it seems that they were some kind of special beings, to do so much while so young. But, you know, I think that’s how it often was in the ‘50s, and before. Things are different now.
            It wasn’t all fun. There was a lot of real scraping by, and not much in the way of Christmas or birthdays. There is a reason I took up sewing my own clothing on my great grandmother’s treadle Singer! (I still have it and it works fine.)
            But, hey, the first time I heard the Beatles, I was sitting on the grass in that back yard listening to a cheesy little transistor radio. The tune was “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.”  It’s all one very long story, and here I am in 2026, trying to let you sense a little of it.

🌳🏠🌳

Oh My Goodness, It's Warm! June 25th, 2026

 

Cats don't take gravity too seriously.

This youngster is Sweetie, in a real pose in the old closet.

It seems to be his favorite place to sleep.

Anyhow,

A fine day to you!

Ralph sends his love. He is very sleepy too.

"Evermore!" says Maeve.

💗