June flew right by in a haze of reality-grounded action. The garden finally got rain (oh SO MUCH RAIN) the house is dry, and both the kittens are doing well, despite sneezles, poopiness, vet visits, and so on. I'm volunteering at the Botanic Garden again this summer, and it feels weirdly normal and wonderful to be there for half a day each week. Words are getting written in my WIP Ghost Town on the regular, not fast, but steady, and that's great. In the not-so-great column, there's my wrists, knuckles, both feet and one hip, which are being exhaustingly grumpy about the up-and-down weather.

All the goings-on have left me consistently low on spoons & creative energy. I haven't posted here, and I have um, today to write a June subscriber newsletter.

SO. The blog is getting the "throw something on the page, already-past-deadline" treatment, and the newsletter's gonna be a June/July double feature.

BRIEF ADVERTISING PAUSE: You want all the best cat pictures? I saving those for the free email newsletter. Sign up here if you haven't already: https://mailchi.mp/afe76c32cbce/freestory2021 )

Since I should put SOMETHING here on the website, I'll drop a few words about Various Things I see on my regular neighborhood walks with Spouseman. Why? Because I feel the need to share something, and I've been wanting to mention these things for a while.

Thing the first: someone a few blocks over decorates their lawn with a line of rubber ducks, all different sizes, lined up in decreasing size order like a mama duck and a line of ever-younger ducklings. The family changes course whenever someone does the mowing. I think there are more ducks this year than last.

Thing the second: another house we pass on our walks has a different flag hanging outside every month. There's a QR code on a post at the edge of the property, and if you scan it, there's a little online page explaining why that flag was chosen. Sometimes it's pretty obvious, like this month, it's rainbow Pride Flag, March was Ireland, etc. But it's cool that they provide the information for anyone who wants to know.

Thing the third: the city has planted a lot of linden trees (aka American Basswoods) in our little block of blocks. They smell heavenly this time of year. I was ridiculously happy when I realized we have TWO basswoods on our block. We also have a larch, which is unreasonably amusing to anyone who's ever watch Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Thing the last: the names of several dogs Spouseman and I had already nicknamed as we passed their yards or briefly chatted with their owners.

Daisy The Long Dog (she's a Basset)
Wilson Leash-Biter
Fierce-Defender George
Malley Stay
Leo the Bear

Someday we'll learn the proper names of Big Bernese, Trailer Dog, Pretty Brindle Girl, and The Proudest Poodle, but so far, we have only seen them from afar. They are all very good dogs.

House and yard pics will happen here eventually, also writer-reading updates. But not this time. Here's a single teaser kitty pic, because they are too adorable to not share.

Until later!