4/30: ending the month on a good note

...with a good day.  

I finished some Latin commentaries that were my work-goal for the week. 

I made a cup of lemon-lime black tea for my afternoon cup.  I had run out of it, but got a new shipment in the mail today and quickly made use of it.

I heard from a former student who had been on my mind.

Chris and I played pétanque in the park.

I took my kayak out for a little bit at sunset.  The air was wonderful, and I enjoyed watching the sky and water turn from blue to pink.

I saw some fireflies.

4/29: surprised

...by the Italian arum blooms on my walk this evening:  over 20 of them scattered on the west end of the ridge.  I see the leaves all the time, but this is the first time I can remember seeing blooms, and what a windfall of them!

4/28: the smell of flowers

...in the humid air as I walked in the morning.  And this afternoon I leaned in to sniff a rose.

4/27: a change of pace

Instead of reading and writing for my day's work, I focused on creating a commentary and supporting materials for the passage in Perpetua's diary where she recounts her first dream in prison.  My goal is to use it with students at the end of their first year of Latin.  I enjoyed the mechanical and technical nature of the task.

4/26: the metal balls

...of a pétanque set.  I've wanted to toss them ever since I saw the 1982 film version of Evil Under the Sun, in which one of the characters throws pétanque balls while being interviewed by Poirot.  Chris ordered us a set last week; I probably would have hemmed and hawed and kept dreaming about it in an unfulfilled way.  Today it arrived, and after dinner we did a little tossing.  It was satisfying.

4/25: planting

...herbs with Chris.

4/24: an assortment

I saw (online) an interesting painting of Circe by Charles Hermans, who placed her in a then-contemporary (1881) setting.

I dropped off old prescription medications at the police department for drug take-back day.

I received a postcard from a friend who wrote about a bird coming down her chimney and into her house.

We made rice pancakes for dinner.  I really like them, and we hadn't had them for a long time.

I caught some sunset color while standing on the deck.

And Chris heard a whippoorwill.  He tried to get me so I could hear it too, but I missed it.  I hope to hear it soon!  In the meanwhile, I'm glad he heard it--neither of us heard one last year at all.

4/23: smiling at

...this sentence from Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell:  "There is no word in the English language for a magician's garden two hundred years after the magician is dead."