Yesterday, I dropped Don off in a neighboring town around dinner time, where he caught a ride to the music festival with a fellow musician friend. When Don called me around 10 pm, he described a place where people were camped everywhere, where music was playing on three different stages, and where he most likely won’t get much sleep. But he’s around music and musicians and is looking forward to listening and learning and meeting new friends. It’s rather a big folk festival and it culminates with a performance from Judy Collins tomorrow evening. Both Don and I are big fans of her music and both of us have met her at different points in her career; I met her in the early seventies, Don met her more recently. She has the voice of an angel.

As always seems to be the case on the first night Don is away, it took me a long time to get to sleep last night, but I woke up at the same time I do every morning – early. So I’m a little bit sleep deprived.

The butterfly bush is in bloom.

But I got up, made some coffee, let Dame Scout out, and saw the male cat race off into the woods. Ever hopeful is that boy.

And then, instead of immediately turning my laptop on, I sat here and read for a couple of hours. Ahhh. It was simply wonderful. Windows open, birds chirping, the dull sound of traffic on our road, Scoutie in the tunnel, and words making a whole new world come alive for me.

A good start to the day.

A tiny, tiny bee near the coneflowers.

A slow, laid-back day lies ahead, with reading, perhaps some work on the Top Secret Project (depends on my ‘tired’ level), and of course, taking care of Scout.

The other day, I stopped at the post office to check my mailbox there, something I hadn’t done in a while. There was a package waiting for me, and I thought to myself, “Ooooh! Someone sent me a present!”

And then I did a double-take. It was addressed to none other than Scout. Oh, it was sent in care of Don and me, but it was definitely for the Dame. When I told the guy behind the desk at the Post Office that is was for my dog, he laughed.

It was from a wonderful reader of this blog, Kathy.

So I brought the package home and helped Scout open it.

Oh boy! Well, Scout simply had to sample one right away. The verdict is in, Kathy. She loves them.

Scout took it upon herself to email Kathy and thank her. I don’t know how she manages to get on my computer, but that girl has some serious skills, so I put nothing past her.

I’ll say it officially here, as well. Thank you, Kathy! Scout loves her present and she was quite taken with the fact that the box had her name on it. xoxo.

I’m off to sip some more coffee.

Happy Saturday.