This coming Saturday we are holding a party in our building celebrating Hats. I have a large collection of hats and I’m bringing most of them to the party for the ladies to try on. We’re serving cucumber sandwiches, lemon bars, cookies, lemonade, hot and iced tea. I have an interesting recipe for the sandwiches: Buy a loaf of that hors d’oeuvres bread, the kind that is about two by two inches. Mix a packet of cream cheese with an envelope of Hidden Valley dry salad dressing mix (a little mayonnaise makes it creamier) and spread it thinly on a slice of bread. Top with a slice of fresh cucumber, and top that with a slice of pickled ginger. Delicious! I must remember to bring down mirrors.

I almost killed a sparrow Saturday morning. I was coming out the front door of our building and I pushed it open right into the path of a pair of squabbling sparrows. The male thumped hard into the glass and fell to the ground. He lay stunned for a few seconds, but as I reached to pick him up, he scrambled to safety under a bench. I have found that picking up a stunned bird and keeping him in a quiet dark place (a shoebox with holes punch in it is good) for a few hours frequently results in a restoration to health. This fellow was already aware enough to try to get out of my way, so I went on my errand and he was gone when I got back.

I have nothing to report on writing except that The Chronicles of Deer Abbey are available in both paperback and e-book from Amazon.