laramie

I found five mutant clovers in the park yesterday! Four four-leafed and one five-leafed clover. With the five I found at the bus stop the other day, and the three I've found previously in the park, that makes a baker's dozen of mutants this summer.

My Bromeliad is blooming! It's been at least three years since I bought it; it was in bloom then. It has since put out two child plants, but never bloomed again. Now it is finally putting up a spiky pink flower. Yeah!

I did make it to Powderhorn yesterday. I brought corn and spent some time with the ducks and geese. The ducklings were swarming, in various stages of development: some still small, some nearly full grown. There were a couple of young males just starting to show patches of shining green feathers among the brown on their heads. It had been raining and the gray light of the day seemed to accentuate the richness of the colors in the birds' feathers. I stayed until they had eaten most of the corn and stopped to preen, striking poses as I admired the patterns and textures and subtle shades of their colors: various tones of gray and brown lapping like scales on the backs of the geese, speckled browns, golden to dark on the sides of the Mallard young and females. I watched them eat and swim, splash and dive, squabble among themselves. I was glad jonsinger wasn't in the vicinity to speak of slicing and marinating the lively, graceful creatures.

The birds all withdrew from the water's edge when a small black poodle came bounding up. (I usually like dogs, but I shooed this one). When it had gone the birds returned to the corn. They didn't stir when I rose from the park bench to continue my walk. I like having the trust of such wild things; I like knowing that we humans aren't entirely cut off, even here in the midst of the city, from the not-so-alien life forms that share our planet.

Along the path I saw a lot of the wild-flower we called 'Star-Eyes' when I was a child. The whole flower is small as a dime; there are two bright blue petals like eyes, with a cluster of golden stamens where a nose would be and a green chin (a pocket formed by sepals, I think.) The leaves are glossy, dark green spearheads, striated lengthwise, growing in uneven pairs along a tall stem. I don't know their proper name. The clover was in bloom, too; which may explain my lingering over it to find the mutants I did.

Sunday was catch-up day for being sick on Saturday. After the rain it was easy enough to pull a lot of weeds in the yard and after my walk in the park I did some of that. I left some wild thistles near the fence because I like their flowers, and something that might be Blue-bells. I got a lot of stinging weeds out by their roots, clearing the way for more ferns and lilies, and driving back everything that was encroaching on the roses.

I washed dishes.

I wrote – nearly 400 words. I may throw them all out later, but it's a start.

I got out my mandolin and played for an hour. I played 'Rhiannon' for half that time, over and over to memorize the chords and work out some phrasing - until my fingers could hardly hold an 'F' chord any more.

I looked at the graphics Mike had referred me to, from the Quake game, and played with some images and chose some colors as potential basics for the style-sheet.

Before sleep I started on 'The Dragon Queen' by Alice Borchardt. This is a Guinevere I never imagined.