The writing goes apace, the company is terrific, but what I might be proudest of is the development of my wilderness (albeit with Maintenance and Cooks on call 24/7) skills, with regard to field mice: I now have 4 killer traps, baited with peanut butter, strategically arranged around the baseboards and window ledges of my cottage in the woods, though I have yet to catch a mouse and test my resolve in the disposing of dead mice; I have learned from Anna to pump up my bike tire, but I now need to find the leak and patch it: perhaps this afternoon? I think I have almost qualified for a Badge. Maybe I'll learn to build a fire before I go

on Thursday evening, on the red-eye to Paris. Well, one shouldn't complain about going to Paris no matter in what seat, at what time of day.

I want to mention Melissa Meyer, whose studio is in part of a barn-red barn building uphill from me--across two pastures, one filled with golden rod, and probably ticks; the other with silky green grass. Deer graze there. A New Yorker, Melissa paints gorgeous, fluid, brightly colored, flat-surfaced water colors (and oils, but not here) with intertwining lines. I'll try to reproduce one here--yes I've managed to upload the image of a project in Japan. You can visit her website here.