Couldn't Be Better

Jupiter must have been aligned with Mars yesterday; everything went just right.  Bessie's last pill went down and she'd stopped the head shaking.  Milking went smoothly.  I found a pair of matching socks (dressing up in jeans and tee-shirt instead of bibbies), and was out of the house in record time.  Driving the back roads through the hills to Fiddletown was an adventure.  Wildly winding, potholed and rutted, the one-lane road allowed time to enjoy the forests and pasture lands along the way (keeping one eye on the road).  There is a bridge so narrow that the guardrails are scraped by drivers who misjudged the width of their vehicle.  At the end of this journey, I arrived at Tinka and Bill's.  Tinka had said, "You'll recognize the big white house."  It wasn't the house that was my landmark, it was Tinka's beautiful gardens that flow around the property, under the trees, covering the slopes in every color of the rainbow.  Greeted by welcoming hugs by Kit, Tinka, and Earlene, and a kiss from Bill, we later lunched al fresco on egg-salad sandwiches.  Those who've never had anything but store-bought eggs would not believe the difference in flavor of eggs fresh from the hens.  Tinka enjoys her chickens as much as I do mine.  Watermelon and just-baked cookies; I was in heaven.  In this group of talkers, topics were batted back and forth like a tennis match, words tumbling forth like water from a spring.  Moving our chairs into the dappled shade, I was as green with envy as Tinka's grass.  She has a lawn.  Dozens of hummingbirds ruffled our hair as they swooped from feeder to feeder hung in the trees.  Fat black Angus cattle came to water in the nearby pasture.  I won't even apologize for staying longer than I'd intended.

The length of the state between us notwithstanding, Kit is a special friend.  Her visits are so welcome, and I always look forward to the next time.  It was a pleasure to meet Earlene, good company.  These women are on their way home today, stopping to see other friends closer to the coast.  I wish them bon voyage.

It was a perfect day; just couldn't have been better.