River Morning

Not getting to the river as much as I was -- although I'm still working part time, lately the days are often broken into parts -- with a scheduled morning meeting and then a mid-afternoon meeting, which means no river time! Sucks, actually.

But I did go down today for some much needed water sound therapy!



This is a video, but in my browser does not look like it -- click to open in a new window.


I had ice cream with my Brazilian friends this past weekend. I think it was the first time since BEFORE THE PANDEMIC - omg...COVID messed with things! But it was really good to see them. And I don't think I had at all met their youngest child, who is now 6 years old now!

Luckily, their English is so good now that we could have conversations in English -- because my Portuguese is just not up to it now, lol! The kids spoke both easily. It was nice time!

Mulberry

The Mulberry is an important part of this property. I even mention living with an old Mulberry in my tagline for this site.

Not only does it have a commanding presence, and a really interesting shape, but when I first moved here all those years ago, sometimes out of the corner of my eye, I used to see, um...little beings? Little dark beings with big yellow eyes looking around the trunk of the tree examining me. At the time not being able to process that, I just ignored what I saw from the corner of my eyes. But now I would call them the genius loci -- the spirit of the place. Perhaps, I should use the plural and say genii loci.

Let's just say that I would like the Mulberry to live as long as it can. It has been doing poorly the last few years during the summer droughts, but with our very wet and mild winter and some of the spring rains, it has really perked up! As is the the natural habit of a Mulberry, it is putting out lower branches that will reach towards the earth. I typically have trimmed those back, but this year, I'm leaving them -- yes, they stick out into the driveway, and yes, they block my view of the backyard, but oh well.