Kokopelli on the Water, Eagle in the Tree

This was the view from outside our cabin this morning...

And here's my newly much more ergonomic workstation from which to view it! More ergonomic--I didn't say "more tidy!"One of my journals doubles as mouse mat, and there are maybe three other notebooks in view, as well as at least four "in use" books and drinking vessels perilously close by.

It was a pretty big low tide, and that gravel spit on the beach below reminds me of Kokopelli when it gets exposed--land and water in a musical dance. So cool that the curlicue of ice drifting west almost mirrors the Kokopelli shape of the land! Yes, all kinds of elemental metaphors there.

It's the fourth day of thaw here, and there are supposed to be a couple more before it cools down again. Still a lot of snow everywhere, but it's packed down and pockmarked, and paths are icy. Phil hacked little heel-shaped divots here and there in the paths, without which it would be a near-straight luge run from the cul-de-sac all the way to bluff's edge!

Phil actually went a little ways up this tree today too, trying to get a good photo of the iceberg pictured above. He claimed the tree wasn't slick at all, being dried out from the cold, but I found that hard to believe with every other outdoor step being a slide.

I watched this eagle for quite a while, before our neighbors' big goofy dog came galumphing down and it decided it had better places to be.

Even if just for a few moments, and with camera in hand as an excuse, it was good to pause and be.

I still have a sore throat and runny nose, and am still not much for sleeping despite that. Maybe the cold comes from teaching, but also many people close to our recently bereaved friends, themselves included, have come down with some similar coldy-fluey symptoms. Today has been a day in which I've worked hard but illogically. I have two extra pieces of editing this week besides my normal jobs, and a packet due in just less than a week, and I kept finding myself compulsively translating Greek dictionary entries when that's the one job with no current time pressure. I begged off socializing tonight to stay home, nurse my throat, and finish writing a lecture, and now "the isle is full of noises," the weasels are having a party in the insulation, the rain pounding on the snow falling off the roof, and the only way I can escape full-on paranoia is either to lull myself with translating or to go work on a poem.

I think I'll go finish my last few slides for the lecture and then write. Be back Friday with a super-easy and good recipe.