Charlie woke me around 4:30 am. Charlie! Oh well, I needed to work on a poem for a workshop I’m going to Saturday. Didn’t know which one. But I found one, a poem from Longboat Key, a morning walk, inspired by one of my photos. I worked on it and finally went back to sleep, woke for my walk into sun and wind. Today’s walk was like a game of “I Spy.” first, near brook, I spotted the jack-in-the-pulpit hood, all furled. I was very excited to see this in its familiar woodsy spot. Next, along the railroad tracks, on my way to cross the trestle bridge, I spotted the young milkweed plants just coming up our of the gravel where they always grow. And then, having walked the meadow, heading home on the tracks by the wetlands where the lily pads float and the beavers build their dam, I spotted walking nearly underfoot the painted turtle who seemed to be taking a break from home to see the morning train. I didn’t let Charlie see him, though. I met with my three wonderful colleagues, Susan, Maureen and Vanessa, to “debrief” our experience of running the annual Boston IWWG Writing Conference over the past month as a webinar. What joy I felt, seeing their faces on Zoom, feeling the satisfaction of our Women Writing to the World Webinar behind us, completed, having brought such rich topics into our engagement. Sigh. I felt sad, a little, not to have seen them in person, to gather here and have our extended, intimate experience of friendship that i host. And today, I realized that two of my Charles River ice images were published in 3 Elements Review, and I was so glad to see them there, to see my images having a life of their own: “Celestial Dancers,” and "Ice Abstract: Swan Lake.”