Outdoors. What a perfect place to be quiet and content this morning despite the goings on in our country. Snow, enough for a first x-country ski of the season, as I’d hoped. And Charlie with me. I cut the trail and he followed behind. The snow needed to be knocked of many branches. Lots fell on my head mostly pleasantly. Yes, this day was redeemed by all the good things. Poetry workshop in the morning. Taking Wave to another tennis lesson with Wave. Swimming with Wave. Making roasted vegetables and chicken. Even the oven the chicken was in breaking didn’t throw me off. I made omelettes. The vegetables cooked beautifully in the other oven. And tonight, poetry workshop with my friends. Talking something out, feeling more connected, clearing the air, going deeper. I have finished Return of the Native and now I am rereading (listening on Audible) to Far from the Madding Crowd. A Thomas Hardy deep dive. I particularly love how landscapes are like characters in Hardy’s novels. His exquisite level of making land come alive as a living, breathing entity. How weather and season and time of day are presences as much as the characters themselves. It was so nice to have Charlie with me today in the snow, trotting along, being the first to leave tracks after the deer.