Warm Cockles

Yesterday was a "feel-good" day.  Marginally cooler (a couple of degrees), barn chores went a little easier.  I got that old standby, a three-bean salad, put together and in the fridge to chill as my contribution to the afternoon meal.  In the cab of my truck was a hodge-podge collection of stuff that needed to be removed so as to put the back seat down, so that was the next task.  Rather than caravan with separate vehicles, Arden and Camille would ride with me to meet Linda at her store.  Getting a phone call from my daughter is always such a pleasure.  They're in the throes of having a new roof put on so it wasn't exactly a day of rest for them.  I was ready and waiting when Arden arrived and we loaded up.  Proud of myself, I remembered to get the bean salad out of the refrigerator.  We met Cam down at the bottom of her long driveway and off we went.

Linda lives in Pollock Pines, northeast of here, and the route to her house is even more convoluted than to Farview.  She had offered to drive the three of us, and we accepted.  Home improvement seems to be the order of the day.  Linda has been clearing property as well as having her house painted, and an unexpected project cropped up yesterday.  The promised air conditioner had gone kerphlooey.  She placed several small fans in the kitchen where we congregated so the A/C was hardly missed.  Good conversation trumps A/C any day.  Later we enjoyed a meal of baked salmon and a spinach salad with fresh strawberries and slivered almonds.  It was then, and only then, that I realized I'd left the bean salad in my truck.  Sigh.  After gelato with elegant toppings out on the deck, Linda drove us back to my truck.  Another great meeting of the Ladies of Fair Play.

Later, sitting on my deck with Bessie Anne, I received a message from Dave telling me that "my boys" in the Freed Spirits are planning, on their own initiative and without a suggestion from him, to ride up again to "take care of Momma's to-do list."  Talk about making a gal feel good!

The layer of smoke still in the air at sundown was more widely dispersed than yesterday.  We could smell as well as see it.

All in all, it was a day to warm the cockles of my heart.  (I'll be eating three-bean salad for a week.)