I’m late posting this morning because the phone rang and this guy was on the other end:

Everything must stop when we have a chance to talk to our Little Z, who is little but not as little as he was. Isn’t he looking grown up? The freckles! The eyebrows! The eyelashes! He gets tired of chatting on the phone more quickly than he used to because, of course, he’s nine years old and has a lot of things to do. Don was out walking our trails when the phone rang but he got back in time to hear Z’s joke about a strawberry and all is well with our little world this morning.

And of course, I got to talk to my beloved sister. What I wouldn’t give to hug her right now! I know she feels the same.

I covered up my face because the screen capture was not at all flattering and this is about Z, not me.

Yesterday was a strange day and it remained so, but this morning I feel better.

Forgot to add that on Friday, we drove to our local lookout point – just about 10 minutes or less from our house – donned our masks and got a look at the bigger picture:

I can’t tell you what a difference that made in our day. A quick trip to a place in the mountains, and an expanded view of the area rather than the limits made by the confines of our property. We’ve decided we’re going to take a least one of these little trips each week. Of course, it can’t be for too great a distance because I’m not about to use any public restrooms, so it needs to be timed for well after morning coffee, if you know what I mean.

I have only read a few pages of Hamnet  and I can’t wait to get back to it, but considering it has to do with grief and we’ve just come through a tough week, I changed over to Michael Connelly’s newest, Fair Warning.  I needed something that I could lose myself in right away. I have to say that I have read every one of Connelly’s over 30 books and I have never been disappointed. Never. He is a master storyteller. Even the great Louise Penny sometimes disappoints ever so slightly. Never Connelly. I just read the author notes and he has a podcast called Murder Book. I am subscribing today.

It’s sunny today and a bit more humid. Don is fully immersed in Caste  by Isabel Wilkerson. I’m immersed in Fair Warning. We’re on our second cup of coffee. After I publish this post, I’m going to sip on my coffee and finish waking up – my silent wake up having been delayed by conversation with my nephew and sister. But well worth it.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

I spilled coffee this morning.

Don sort of ruined a headphone adaptor that I had given him.

I posted on Instagram about a Rose of Sharon plant that I have been nurturing for 3 years – it was given to me a very small cutting about 3 years ago. For the first time, I’ve seen actual buds and I was so excited.

This morning I went out to check on them and they were gone. A deer, probably the one that was peeking at us this morning through the downed tree, ate them all. Gone. I wanted to cry. That same deer chomped on the hosta by the shed the other day. I love my deer, but when I wait all summer in hopes that I might see flowers on my Rose of Sharon only to have them taken away in a second, I am not at all happy with them. Especially when there are so many other things to eat on this property.

The day has not started out well. Neither did the entire week.

I’m in a bad mood, I’ll admit it. I’ll do some weeding today and some weed whacking; just to get my mind off things, hoping I can turn this day around. (Meditation didn’t help, either.)

So, I ask you to distract me with our favorite question: What are you reading?

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

This has been quite the week. One more story to add: I had a nightmare last night that was so vivid and real, down to every detail, that I’m still having trouble shaking it off and it’s 9:30 am. I never went back to sleep except to doze for a few minutes. What was it about? Don asked me for a divorce. It came out of nowhere, no warning. He just said he wanted to move on. There were more details which, thankfully, are now hazy. When I woke up from the nightmare, I had no idea what was real and what wasn’t. I finally got up to go in the bathroom and then returned to bed, still shaken. I would never wake Don up as a rule, but he got up as well, so I told him about it when he came back to bed.

I am incapable of conveying to you how shaken I was, and am, from that dream. Eventually, it will fade. I know my husband is not about to ask me for a divorce – truly. But, sometimes, I am shaken to my core by how much I love and need him. It scares me at times. I’m sure some of this has to do with getting older, feeling more vulnerable, and this strange and unsettling – to put it mildly – time we’re living in.

We had a good talk this morning during our second cup of coffee. I have to take a break from the news. I have to stop raging about those things I can’t control – except at the ballot box. I have to revert back to what I was doing a few months back; no news, no Twitter, only music, books, gardening, cuddles with my husband, Frasier, old movies, miniatures, more books, and the occasional sugar-free chocolate.

We also had to deal with a hurricane and the loss of a beloved tree this week, so yours truly is well and truly over it. By the way, the arborist called yesterday and talked about what he would like to do. He charges a daily rate and, in addition to cleaning up the fallen tree, there are a couple of dead ash trees he’d like to take down and he’d also like to prune the big maple by the porch (it needs it) and the catalpa. I was dreading the price quote but it was actually less than we had anticipated. Still a lot of money, but we’re grateful it isn’t more. So that’s good news. They’ll probably come sometime next week. Pruning those trees should have been done a while ago, so now we’re being forced to do it and that’s a good thing. Also, I’ve been eyeing those ash trees and have been worried about them. All ash trees around here have fallen prey to the emerald ash borer and over the course of the almost-15 years we have lived here, they’ve all succumbed.

I finished Melmoth yesterday –  it’s simply stunning and powerful and, through its storytelling, a clarion call to arms concerning our morality and the need to take action, as well as redemption. Sarah Perry is brilliant. I’ve only just started Hamnet. Don ordered the new book by Isabel Wilkerson; Caste. And he ordered it through our favorite local bookstore, Oblong Books. That should be arriving today. He devoured her first book (and winner of the Pulitzer Prize,) The Warmth of Other Suns; The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration,  so when I saw that Caste  had just been published this past Tuesday, I told him about it.

The Michael Connelly that I ordered from The Mysterious Bookshop arrived in yesterday’s mail. I going to tackle Hamnet  first because it’s been here longer.

It’s going to rain today. I won’t have to water the gardens, just the porch plants. More good news!

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.