A lovely Saturday goes on the keeping shelf for eternity. While I don’t have an actual keeping shelf at Angel’s Haven, I hold days like today in my heart.
I spent the day at two Farmer’s Markets and a vintage sale with a new friend from Oakley. Suanne came to the first “CampTiny” which I helped host here at Park Delta Bay. We’ve kept in touch. When she posted a link to a Junkyard antique event, I signaled my eagerness to attend.
We started the day at the Oakley Farmer’s Market, breakfasting on home-made tamales wrapped in banana leaves. I met the Oakley Mayor and bought humongous lush strawberries. We piled in her car and toured the town with its wide green spaces and a surprise Tiny Village, just 10 or 12 lots behind a gate with three park models and a couple of trailers. Later I got freshly made pupusas to take home for dinner. I came away with a light spirit, a charming pot of succulents for my tiny garden, and a new friend.
In the evening, I tried my new evaporative cooler. It brings the house temperature down but I’m going to have to experiment with the windows. My neighbor Paul Flaner says to open one only, and just two inches. That contradicts everything I’ve read, but he’s used one to cool a three-bedroom house so he has actual experience. Besides, in the six months that I’ve known Paul, he’s been right on every piece of advice that he’s given me. That’s a good kind of neighbor to have.
The sun has set. I hear a bird trilling in the tree above the house, reminding me that I want to get a book or an app and start learning about the songbirds of the California Delta. Tomorrow looms wide and open. Anything could happen. Anything whatsoever.
It’s the twenty-third day of the fifty-fourth month of My Year Without Complaining. Life continues.
Suanne’s gift sits to the left of my hen-and-chick, on our cat Tiger’s gravestone.
I liked this blog as well as your published article. Keep writing! Your stories are genuine and a slice of life. I certainly enjoy reading them, Corinne.