Gotta keep movin' on

Dear Mago,
I have to admit, I wasn't really watching my feet when I got out of the water. Luckily I didn't come too close to this viper before Björn's Dachsund had bitten into it, or was it Baci who first showed her teeth?

Now. back on dock, the distance between us seems so great, that to continue here in the shade of your name seems profane. As real (and vulnerable) as my position as a granddaughter may be, I realize that I must take another perspective, especially now that I have become the oldest woman in our family. And so I'm climbing back up to the crow's nest...you know, where we've been together before: http://lookout1941-42.blogspot.com

Your loving granddaughter

"The daily bark"

I love the reports that the Bay Area premium pet pampering company "Hot Diggity Dog" send home to their clients. Imagine what the world would be like if kids at all the Day Care Centers of the world received the same quality feedback on their personalities and personal development as some dogs do. A note which I discovered today while cleaning, from Hot Diggity's Carlo :

"Baci [a Bernese mountain dog, ed. note] helped convince someone today to get a Bernese - she was walking a Dachsund around, to 'get him used to bigger dogs', and they came up to Baci, who was lying down and enjoying the shade - the little Dachsund ran up, introduced himself, bounced around, sniffing and nosing, and pestering, while Baci placidly (and I think with some amount of amusement) tolerated his antics. The Dachsund owner told me later that she was considering either a Newfoundland or a Bernese, but Baci was 'so sweet.'" The note also indicated that Baci had both "poopooed and peepeed" [preprinted alternatives,ed. note] between 12 noon and 3 p.m. that day.

Thought of Baci when I happened by Karlaplan in Stockholm at around 8 p.m. last night, where several dogs were lined up outside the ICA grocery store, some of which were particularly conspicuous in their battery driven collars - like neon signs on the blink. Like a mistake in a text, after publication? No, this wasn't time for a lesson in English grammar, or for a dog reflector, but "matte timmen", when lots of hungry Swedish dogowners are out on their evening prowl, simply killing two birds with one stone.

Sink or swim

Come hell or high water.
Like it or lump it.
Keepin my head up.
where still waters run deep
surfacing, like a fish out of water
making up for lost time.

Pitchforking

Pure pleasure? The sermon at mother Anne's funeral mass was about the woman who asked to be buried with a fork. "Why with a fork?", the priest had asked. "Well, you see, when I was a child and my dinner plate was removed, I was sometimes asked to keep my fork. When I did, I knew I could expect something even better yet to come," the woman had answered.
Eternal harvest? Mother Anne continues to lift a fork from the other side. In the meantime, thanks for all the pleasurable days of celebration back in Sweden, in dear company from near and afar, with great weather day in and day out, delicious food, envigorating swims, boat and bike rides, moving music and musicians, lighthearted fun, words of wisdom, and the big pink princess tårta. All served to make the recent harvest of sixty years of my own life - the end of a life cycle in the East Asian tradition of my birthplace. Forever grateful to and for all.

Shadow woman, woe man

" To connect myself by things I had cared for to people I had loved would be a great danger. Love and beauty: caring for those accidents as if they somehow mattered more than anything had brought me to this grief..."
excerpt from Final payments by Mary Gordon

Someone's birthday

Several people whom I know were born on August 12. I believe most are still alive, mother Anne has passed.

Ingen planlös löpning

Spring inte utan engagemang, utan mål. This is how my American guests - despite environmental awareness and automobile savvy - interpret a Stockholm street sign. At this high point, it's perhaps not so far-fetched to imagine an aimless jogger being swept off her feet by the wonderful view from this spot: of the sea-approach to Stockholm.