Shelter in Place, San Francisco, California

We seem to be in full summer mode now, when the mornings tend to be sunny, just warm enough, and still. That is the time that we turn on the fountain and settle into this corner of the garden with the butterflies and hummingbirds. Summer afternoons mean a wind shift that brings fog eastward off the ocean and slithering down the hill. Whether or not the fog makes it down this far, the cold wind certainly does. It bends the trees and bangs the doors. That is when we retreat inside.

John makes it his job to keep the fountain functioning and clean - not an easy task with the potato vine dropping petals from overhead and with the ongoing mystery of the hose... a nighttime visitor (a raccoon, perhaps) relentlessly unhooks and steals this six-inch piece of plastic, carrying it halfway across the garden but never eating it through. No amount of tightening will keep it safe. John has resorted to placing a heavy rock on top of a platter in the bowl to make it harder for the culprit, but some mornings we can still see that the whole contraption has been moved.

Today is First Day, again, and I’m not feeling very philosophical. Just tired and in need of the quiet rhythm of the fountain. May your holiday be peaceful and safe, and may you connect, somehow, with those you love and the ones that you remember.