Goodness, I didn't post at all last week ...

Well, today I bring you three things. Let's lead with puppies...


Negra, one of Francy's parents' dogs, who leaps through the greenery of the forest like a dolphin in water, has had puppies!



She asked me for suggestions for English-language names, and I was pleased as anything when she referred to the white one with the dark splash on his eye as Pirata Johnny, because "Pirate Jenny" and "Pirate Johnny" had been one name (pair) that I'd suggested. And though it's not an English-language name idea, I suggested "Fariña" for the golden one, as it's (sort of) the color of fariña, and it looks like that one stuck too. She sent me a video of the puppies nursing, and I swear, Negra is grinning with blissed-out pride.


At a nearby ice cream place, I saw these motorcyclists all with matching vests, very cool looking. I asked them if I could take a picture, and they said yes! FLNY Ryderz--originally, the guy on the end told me, that was because the founders moved down to Florida from New York. But, he said, now it stands for "Family Loyalty Never Yields" (and you can see it says that on the jackets, up at the neckline).

And now the club is huge! I looked it up online... These guys are from the 413 chapter--which is to say, they're in the area of the 413 telephone area code, which means western Massachusetts. You can see how the logo on the back looks like the New York Yankees logo, but modified to get an F and an L in there.





Popcorn Jasmine

I have a jasmine plant which gets to live outside during warm months. It gives me great joy to go admire its flowers and breathe in their scent... and sometimes pick them for tea. I have the shape of their petals memorized.

This past Saturday, we stopped at a highway rest stop on our way home from visiting my dad, and in the parking lot by one car there were all these jasmine flowers scattered. I started imagining how it must be because the car was carrying a newly married couple and their families were scattering jasmine flowers at their feed ... at every rest stop ... (?)

There was a sparrow picking at the jasmine blossoms--a jasmine-eating sparrow!

I came closer and then realized the truth: what I'd taken for jasmine flowers was actually popcorn.