A week of rising early. Sunny yard. Noisy, happy, busy birds in all the trees. Nests being assembled. So much singing, these songbirds. I have a happy presence on my back. We are listening and looking at everything coming alive. My sneakers squish in the mud at the brook. We sing too. My favorite thing to see right now: the red maples covered in their colorful wings. We go to the river. I cross, but the dogs won’t. So after I stand under the trestle bridge looking at the river’s reflection I go back. And the dogs are happy for that. Then, quite a bit of raking. Frank is also working with me in the yard. Which he shouldn’t be doing because he has two finals tennis matches to play, one singles, one doubles, in the afternoon. And I watch both with some of our friends, and also our kids. He wins singles, not doubles. I am amazed at his stamina. A lovely evening after with friends. To bed with exhaustion, gratitude. One of the things Frank did today in the yard was collect up my skunk-sprayed clothes and put them in a bucket of water to which he added chlorine. I’m interested to see if this experiment heals or spoils them.