Puzzling On

Morning star was bright above the barn Tuesday from the standpoint of Claudia’s drive, pre-dawn sky turning tropical blue above the clouds at the horizon. Sarah sniffed and snuffled eagerly at tracks in the snow—cat, rabbit, squirrel. When spring comes and snow is gone, Sarah will find smells in the grass even headier, while nose-poor I, without visible footprints for my eyes to follow, will be clueless.

After another hair-raising trip Monday over icy roads to Traverse City (David, my hero, at the wheel), a morning in a classroom full of students and our star of the day, Immanuel Kant, and a couple long, serious (but fun, I hope) training walks in Northport with Sarah while Bruce kept his vigil in the bookstore, it was a relief to turn to the problem of the jigsaw puzzle sky before shopping for groceries and fixing dinner. As the number of unplaced pieces decreases, I find the most successful strategy is to decide which empty spot to try to fill and then scan the possibilities with an eye out for those distinctive margins. Racing (tortoise-like) toward the finish I am! Today friend Chris G. was at the bookstore when David and I arrived back from Traverse City (Kant again to the second section), and he helped me get another row of sky pieces in, so the project is further along than what you see here (my picture-taking falling a little behind).

Tonight’s reading: PAGE ONE: VANISHED, by Nancy Barr. I started this second Robin Hamilton mystery back last summer, but my reading often gets derailed in the summer. Oh, well—good excuse to begin again at the beginning, settling in to a nice, long evening in the U.P. What could be better?