Ashes to Petals

Last week, I burned love letters from someone long gone. Not out of anger. Just because it was time to let them go. And fire seemed a good way to add energy to a relationship that had been more air than anything else. I burned the cards and letters one by one in a small charcoal grill. The neigbors later said they thought I was cooking dinner for my sister. Days later, when everything had cooled, I poured the considerable ash pile into a part of the garden I hadn't planted yet and mixed ash with rich dirt. Then I planted these cosmos plants. There are buds already. Soon there will be red and white and purple and pink flowers, a good way to let go and honor at the same time.

Consider me for this job!

 The Telephone

 "When I was just as far as I could walk
 From here today,
 There was an hour
 All still
 When leaning with my head against a flower
 I heard you talk.
 Don't say I didn't, for I heard you say--
 You spoke from that flower on the windowsill--
 Do you remember what it was you said?"

 "First tell me what it was you thought you heard."

 "Having found the flower and driven a bee away,
 I leaned my head,
 And holding by the stalk,
 I listened and I thought I caught the word--
 What was it?  Did you call me by my name?
 Or did you say--
 Someone said 'Come'--I heard it as I bowed."

 "I may have thought as much, but not aloud."

 "Well, so I came."

           -Robert Frost

Lose a squirrel, gain a dove

This dove, named Perma-dove, has or had been at the Center for Wildlife for at least 10 years. He or she was brought in by someone who'd raised
him? (I'll assume since he always seemed to romance what we assumed were girl birds.) from a baby. Too tame to be released. So for 10 years
Perma was company for many incoming and outgoing birds. Now he has arthritis and so when I turned in my squirrels, I came home with him!
He coos while I work at the computer. He coos when it's morning. He coos to birds outside the window. He coos when I coo. Already, we are soulmates.

Worked at the Center for Wildlife on Saturday. Haven't seen my squirrels in a couple of weeks. They were sent to squirrel school, really, to figure out how to be wild. They were in an outdoor cage with four other squirrels. The four who didn't know me hid in their nesting boxes. Did I mention we aren't supposed to name them? And that I'm not supposed to give them peanuts (not that nutritious.) Especially not supposed to call out their illegal names, now that they are grownups and wild. But I did all of the above and Brownie and Greylings popped out of their nesting boxes, ate the peanuts while eyeing me cautiously. Such handsome big boys! Soon to be released out into the green, green trees. . .

My sister Kathleen's been here visiting from Eugene, Oregon. She's a pediatric nurse but she's also a cat magnet. Well, dog magnet, too. Let's just put it this way. They all fought over who got her lap. Mainly Sammy the black cat won. So they are formally engaged. . .