As I’m writing this I’m watching the demise of the old willow tree that has proudly resided in the backyard for decades. The tree guys came this morning & will be here for the next few hours (they are funny guys and one of them asked if he can use our microwave at lunchtime to warm up his chili – that’s a man after my own heart).

This is a melancholy moment- I loved that tree just like I love ALL the mature trees in my yard. This despite the undeniable truth that it has become a potential hazard to the neighborhood’s power lines. I am sad to see it go, but relieved in a way, too, and I am not looking forward to the gaping bare spot it will leave.

This week, I’ve been reading a couple of good books and I received a happy mail order. As I make my way through “Pioneer Girl”, the annotated autobiography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the manuscript that she and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane adapted into the juvenile series “Little House on the Prairie”, I noticed a photograph of Lane’s journal. It was a five year diary with each day on the same page, so at the end of the five years you can look at any date and see five years of entries.

I loved this idea and immediately ordered one for myself.

I can’t believe that Miss L will be 17 when this journal is completed.

It was a full moon yesterday which means I slept poorly and have a full docket of meetings and tasks to take me through until almost quitting time. I can’t wait to shut down my computer and brain at 5:00. Brandon and I have had to dial way back on intense movies and shows lately, finding them just too much on top of everything else. So I subscribed to PBS Documentary via Amazon Prime. We are happily working our way through the Ken Burns oeuvre starting with “Country Music” and that’s no doubt where we will spend a few happy hours this weekend.

I also hope to spend some time with the other book I’m reading- completely dissimilar to “Pioneer Girl” but also utterly absorbing. More about both of these in the next Show Us Your Books (always the second Tuesday of the month).

I hope you enjoy your weekend and get a lot of rest and good things to eat.

“Walking on willow tree roads by a river dappled with peach blossoms, I look for spring light, but am everywhere lost. Birds fly up and scatter floating catkins. A ponderous wave of flowers sags the branches.” – Wang Wei

xoxo