above, the vaulted sky

it's time to get this show back on the road.

or, at least, it's time to try.

and maybe not.

i could hardly concentrate on the pictures wanting to be taken, there on the harbourfront at aberdeen, because an energetic, elderly-but-ageless little chinese entrepeneuse followed us everywhere we went.
"sampan? sampan?" she wheedled. "very cheap! very nice! see jumbo restaurant!". my husband, who has traveled extensively in china, answered - time after time - "maybe later!". and - time after time - she muttered "maybe later! ahh!" and paused in her pursuit, only to pop up moments later to try again: a relentless wrinkled shadow in a bamboo hat.

will you stay for tea?

i have been an inattentive hostess, but i am determined to lay my table with sweetness and delicacies again.
you are very patient, and oh-so-very welcome.

and the seasons

months, months have passed.
i am appalled at my own inexplicable neglectfulness.

that soothe, and heal, and bless

last year on his birthday, our friend sander was so weakened by his multiple myeloma, and the severity of the treatments he was undergoing, that he could manage no more than an hour of quiet participation in his own festivities.
this year on his birthday, following a successful bone marrow transplant and months of therapy, he was radiantly and joyously in the limelight, opening gifts, uncorking wine, conversing...
...and piling his own party pizzas enthusiastically with parmesan and prosciutto, a feat undreamable just 12 months ago.

i know not whither

on a fine fall morning last year, out with my friend sander in his boat, gliding
gloriously through this water-wealthy village we live in, there was hardly a cloud - literally and figuratively - in the sky.
the same heavens - literally and figuratively - are looking slightly more somber just now.
*
all i can really do is go with the flow, as they say, and blow, believing, in the wind.