baby mine

at 9:02 am this morning, baby boy Wyatt was born. 6 pounds, 8 ounces. 19 3/4". all are doing beautifully.

'you're so precious to me, sweet as can be. baby of mine.'

time well spent

enjoying some time in the sunny state of California. planned in advance but moved up a week or so. anxious darling daughter = more than accommodating parents. happy duty indeed. waiting. visiting. playing. dreaming.

watch this space for breaking news.

'if I hear you call my name, I will break into a run without a pause.'

darling companion

with a very heavy heart we say good-bye to our sweet furry boy. so much love given and received. rest in peace.



'when you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.'

on call

well hello spring. after a few cold gloomy days the sun is out. the birds are chirping. and it feels like something is starting that will stay.

it's been a hectic few weeks. almost all recovered from my fall. hooray is an understatement. because the next big adventure is baby! darling daughter is due May 2. and even though it is a few weeks out each and every time the phone rights my heart beats a little faster. she tells me not to start each conversation with 'are you okay?'

I always wonder why April and May are so busy. spring fever perhaps. such a welcome affliction.

'the sun was warm but the wind was chill. you know how it is with an April day.'

whoopsie daisy

hobbling around a bit faster today. a cautious step without crutches now and then but still not much confident strength. but I will (I will. I will.) go back to work on Monday. determined.

my bike stands at the ready. it does not judge my clumsiness. even though I do. it just reminds me to take it easy. look both ways. and (way) ahead before I leap.

'when I go biking, I repeat a mantra of the day's sensations: bright sun, blue sky, warm breeze, blue jay's call, ice melting and so on. this helps me transcend the traffic, ignore the clamorings of work, leave all the mind theaters behind and focus on nature instead. I still must abide by the rules of the road, of biking, of gravity.'

spring break

so lovely. cool mornings. warm afternoons. gentle evenings. we've been taking advantage.

puttering in the garden. riding the new bikes. sitting on the screen porch. taking outings to a new found (small but filled with treasures) shopping mecca.

life is good.



'don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower?'

reservations please

one of the great perils of working at the library is there are temptations all around. and my 'on reserve' list is proof of that. interesting titles that pass by the check out desk. cover art that comes through the book drop. casual conversations at the Circulation Desk. all lead me to add more and more.

I am certainly not a book expert like most of my co-workers. but they are patient with me. and I am slowly learning. titles. authors. series. and my to-read list grows.

my most recent lists include a lot of young adult fiction. sorely mislabeled. or perhaps the youth of today is more learned that I was at 15. undoubtedly. and the other day, when prompted by a teen reader to add a few titles to her list, I did some googling of my own. npr has a very nice site that lists the top 100 teen-reads. some I've read. some not for a very long time (and so nice to see them keeping stride with animae and vampire laden text). some quirky. some serious.

so I thought I would make it a bit of a mission. to read these top 100 picks. not sure how long that will take. if I will like them all. but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. at any age.

'children don't read to find their identity, to free themselves from guilt, to quench the thirst for rebellion or to get rid of alienation. they have no use for psychology ... they still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other such obsolete stuff. when a book is boring, they yawn openly. they don't expect their writer to redeem humanity, but leave to adults such childish illusions.'