Interlude: A Riley and Boscoe Easter

That strong, cold wind that has been plaguing us all week finally died down today and the four of us went for a long easter morning walk. signs of spring were everywhere: in the noisy robins, with their constant watery warble; in the fuzzy, light-gray buds on the magnolia tree at the end of our block; in the strong sunshine and the greening grass. despite a full week of freezing weather my scilla seem fine and more little blue flowers have popped up in the front lawn.

there were almost no people out; easter seems a quieter holiday even than christmas or thanksgiving, when you see people walking around the lake to work up an appetite for the big dinner. today i felt like we were the only ones in catholic st. paul who weren't at church.

we had a long quiet afternoon of figuring out which suitcases we're bringing and what clothes we're going to pack, and doing laundry, and checking for the 50th time to make sure that we have our passports, and xeroxing key pages from key travel books. (doug thinks he can get by with the tiny weekend rolling suitcase that trish gave us. i'll use one that's one size up.) we built a fire and i ate about six pounds of jellybeans and the dogs snored as they napped.

then riley and i took an afternoon stroll--down to the lake, past the house with the giant frog planters (which are no longer there--i miss the previous owners of that house, who used to dress up the frogs for holidays; at easter they wore rabbit ears), over to california street and holly c's house, and down to the lake again. on our way, we passed a man and his airedale walking down to the lake. the man carried a bright red canoe on his head. he and the dog were wearing matching yellow life jackets. (this picture is not the dog, but it is definitely the life jacket.)

there were more people out in the late afternoon--roller bladers, and dog-walkers, and joggers, and kids teetering by on bikes with training wheels.

as we rounded the lake and headed for home, i looked out at the water. there went the red canoe, cutting through the blue. the dog was in the front of the boat, and in the golden sunlight of late afternoon, the red canoe and the yellow life jackets positively glowed.