The picnic in the rainy woods sounds perfectly misty and silvery and dreamy. The tenderloin on the grape leaves was a masterful touch. Pearl, you always were so inventive with vegetation. Perhaps in another life you were a wood nymph. Perhaps it is the wood nymph memory somewhere in your being that calls out to you to walk with The Stick. And to keep the ancient dried poppies in that vase as the years roll by. And the milkweed. Isn’t there milkweed somewhere in the music room? And the pomegranates that no one else would think to dry as you do. And that little habit you have of forking the roots of plants? Yes, I think it is quite probable that you once lived as a wood nymph.  I feel strongly that we all had prior lives, Pearl. I expect I’ve been something other than a lady at some time or another. There’s my aversion to chintz and other clutter. And the way I like really strong cheese. These tend to point to a former existence as a French monk, I would say. Of course! That would explain why I’m always so overjoyed to hear of good hearted volunteers helping the poor and impecunious at tax time. Why, I’d do something for them myself if I had the time. And if they weren’t SO impecunious.

Oh Pearl, I almost forgot. The photo is of Toby and his cat Toffee. They dance together. His mother says that they must think the same to be able to dance the same. But Toby says he doesn’t know what Toffee thinks. He just knows “we laugh at the same things.”

Your Devoted Miss Blue