Fusillades of hail ricocheting like rifle shots on the concrete.

An odd sensation:  Sitting in a recliner, with a lap robe on, absorbed in blogging, and the black kitty noses under the end of the lap robe, crawls up between my legs and curls up between my knees.  He is sleek and warm, and his whiskers tickle my skin.  We are both content.

In the glow before sunrise, a small flock of mourning doves roosts on the wires, their silhouettes like antique quarter notes as they write the score for a strange dawn melody.

There is a satisfying symmetry to trees.  Roots branching and burrowing into the ground, limbs branching and burrowing up into the sky, with a trunk between the two, holding the world together. 

Is there a cat shaped hole in your life?  There are plenty of cats that are already in progress.  You can have the World assign one to you, and your designated cat will show up on your doorstep in its own good time.  Then again, if it's a very empty hole, you can have it filled on the spot by applying to a local shelter.  Or, you can engage a kitten and start one from scratch. 

First Small Stone of the New Year.

There's magic in rainbows.  It's like the sky has had a good cry, feels all better now, and is smiling again.  Seeing it makes you smile, too,  the colors falling on your eye like a child's delighted laugh.  Sympathetic magic of the very best kind.

The grey kitty snoozes curled up into a ball under my chin, warming my heart.

Under a dripping sky,  a fidget of sparrows forages through the grass beside the wet elephant sidewalk.

Nestled snuggly in the darkness, I am a winter-sleeping mountain with a grey fog kitty in my valley.

Midnight cool sieves slowly through the screen door and pools upon the kitchen floor.  A six-legged soul trills a single lovelorn note into the darkness as the wind-surf ebbs and flows across the treeshore.

Lying in the moonless darkness, I check my figures one more time.  The contents of the pantry, plus the contents of the freezer, plus the unopened bag of cat food in the coat closet.  More food than month.   I subtract one worry.  Sleep comes.

The Seal Woman

Drinking in the video of a speckled seal bobbing in the swell off the coast of Wales.  The sea is Bacardi bottle green and as lucid as the seal's eyes watching me back.