2008-08-09

The cool, dry weather continued, blessing us with an Edenic day. As the Rose of Sharon hedge across the front of Camelot bloomed and the surprise lilies, or naked ladies, as they are called around here, suddenly popped up out of the ground, Mick devoted his time after Morning Offering to taking all three cats to the vet. Chloe was an angel, cooperative and quiet, but Dan D. Lion turned into a spitfire. They are thriving! Pickwick, poor fellow, has somehow gotten ringworm. We now have a month’s worth of medicine for him. They got all their shots, bless them, and snoozed for the rest of the day.

In the afternoon, Mick worked in the yard, cutting our grass and trimming around the many plantings. He is working towards having the lawn peak at Homecoming. He mulched the very last of the plantings and looks forward to adding some pretty perennials to a couple of existing beds, the Wuthering Heights planting in the front yard and the Tent Garden where we will be gathering at Homecoming. It’s so nice to have the flowers blooming there in the middle of our circle.

I knocked out a couple of the remaining items in my rapidly dwindling to-do office clean-up list, watching a video of a stretching exercise routine that Talitha L had given me, thinking it might work for me, and viewing the photos that Bob R sent me. The stretching routine that Mick and I do is close to what the video offered, and actually contains a more complete set of stretches for the whole body, but it was good to see that a doctor’s advice as to how I should try to exercise conforms closely to our actual practice.

And it was fun to see Bob’s home in Toledo, a rambling three-story house with outbuildings and wabi-sabi gardens. And cars! Bob loves his cars! It was funny to see his close-up photo of his spotless Subaru’s engine! Now that’s a car lover! And it is a grand sports car!

He had also taken some pretty photos of our yard at last year’s Homecoming, and I’ll have to elicit Gary’s intelligence as to how to preserve those.

I heard from Romi that he will return from Czeska on Thursday next! His Mom, whom he has been nursing after her hip replacement surgery and subsequent stomach flu, has recovered. That is great news! We have not been apart this long since he was in the Peace Corps a few years ago, and I’ve missed our sweet-natured, ever earnest Ro Man. He wrote to invite Mick and me out to dinner to celebrate his return! I can’t wait!

I went back to my to-do list in the afternoon and spent the rest of my day reading in Papa’s Journals and starting a letter to him. It is such a blessing to get to this item. I have woefully neglected my studies with Papa for months, focusing instead on getting the two big writing projects finished. It’s good to be reading through his brash, testy, curmudgeonly, humorous and wise comments again.

Before bath time I had a short meeting with Gary to discuss aspects of Homecoming – a place for Mel to sleep while she is here – she’ll have my bower office with a mattress on the floor while my office Mama chair is outside under the tent - and possible candidates for Aaron T, Mel and I to cook to add to the basic cooking that Gary will do.

Gary likes to prepare a meal for our first night together at Gatherings, so we can settle in together as a group without having to go out to eat. It works well. On subsequent evenings, we go to a restaurant for our supper, and eat breakfast and lunch here. My goal is to flesh out the Homecoming menu with some snacks and desserts, and perhaps a big fruit salad and a spinach salad. Gary agreed to meet with Mick and me early next week and settle on some choices.

While Mick cleaned the kitchen in the evening Gary and I read, he on the porch and I in the living room. We gathered at 9:00 p.m. for the Gaia Meditation, at which Gary offered the closing prayer.