Milkweed of Zenith

We're having lovely cool weather, with sunshine. We went to bed kind of late and slept late, so I didn't do much more in the morning than have tea with the Sparrowhawk and go for a walk while he was doing his exercises. Yesterday, we tried to fix the umbrella. We tried valiantly, with multiple screwdrivers, pliers, and two sets of hands. Maybe someone more technically adept could have done it, but we could not. I was sitting outside at the little table, staring into space and lamenting my fate, yes, with a few teardrops, and did not notice that the Sparrowhawk had gone to the store until he came back with another umbrella. I hope I will be extra careful with this one, but there are no guarantees that I won't have another attack of absent-mindedness just in time for the remnants of another tropical storm.

Yesterday we saw Dr. Nurse for a few precious minutes. Today she's on her way to spend three weeks doing medical care in the Navaho Nation. She came by to borrow a cup of red wine and some bay leaves so she could make a big batch of Bolognese sauce to leave with Mr. Dr. Nurse. We hugged each other with faces turned in opposite directions and masks on. She is a nurse, so I took her word for it that it was safe enough. I also put a couple of hunks of cake in the bag, along with two apples and two tangerines because that was all I could think of.

We disassembled the great puzzle mandala and started on a new puzzle with 1008 pieces. I picked three beautiful white roses off one of my bushes. My neighbor has dozens on his bush, but mine just won't do that--I don't know why! The Sparrowhawk seemed tired, so I made him some dinner: tuna fish salad and deviled eggs. I served it on a big bed of greens, half and half storebought lettuce and leaf lettuce from our garden.