The Wren Chronicles continued..

The Carolina wrens having given me my cue -- and they continue to build busily in the hanging pot, despite my watering the plant, since I'm reluctant to lose a nice begonia I've had for a long time, I think there are worse things than emulating a wren. I have taken the precaution of taking cuttings of the plant to start in water, just in case the big one doesn't make it through nesting season.

Meanwhile, our new normal continues, neighbors being very nice and solicitous. There's a lot of gardening consulting going on, which amuses and diverts me a lot, and I get to diagnose plants for the friend next door, who tends to put shade lovers in the sun and wonder why they go crisp, and overwater succulents and wonder why they rot. I've taken custody of a couple of plants and put them in the shade on my patio for intensive care.

But reading completely fun and forget-it-after-you-read-it books is great for times when I'm too mentally tired to bother with Great Thoughts, and just want to curl up with a cat while HP sleeps, and read quietly.

Here's the latest haul, spilling out of their snazzy bookbag, before they return to the libe to be replaced by a new crop.



I love Robert B. Parker, full of stuff I never hope to encounter in real life, such as technicalities about guns, fist fighting, and still very literate, full of quotations, just like Shakespeare...the down side is that his girlfriend Susan is totally a male fantasy woman.

Harvard graduate, psychologist, beautiful, constantly ready for sex of all kinds, very terse in her speech. Exactly the kind of woman a man would invent in his dreams! and she's constantly into shopping and trying on clothes, and failing to eat, and nibbling half a potato chip and calling it a heavy meal, etc. In other words, she's a pill! but fortunately only a fictional character, so still fun.

Like what I understand of combat, caring for an invalid in our situation is an ever unfolding scenario of terror interspersed with boredom, with overarching fatigue. The books, and the tiny purse making and the shopping bag making and the general purpose knitting, fend off the boredom. Lovely mail postcards and letters and nice emails fend off the fatigue pretty well, too.

Actual art also takes place, but at a slower pace than usual, but I remember that I've never been very productive in art in July, probably because the studio is scorching hot despite all my measures to exclude heat. But I do have great plans for my next tapestry. And one in progress, hanging fire a bit while I wait for better ideas for it.

So that's us, and I fervently hope the sainted Helen shows up this evening so I can get out, out, out I tell you! exciting trip to the library, and the supermarket, yay, the big time!