THE SONGS OF A NIGHTINGAIL

  Meet “Molly”, my dark striped kitty cat, who could never resist tissue paper.  She lived to the ripe old age of 20 and was the third dark tiger-striped cat we’ve had.  The first was “Tigger” who followed the kids and me one night as we walked home from a favorite café where we’d had dinner. The second was “Emily” whom daughter Suzanne brought to me at a fair we were attending saying a friend had given the kitty to her.  “What?!!  What friend?”  But the deed was done and Suz loved the cat, so we had Emily. Molly came to us similarly.  I had the girls with me while I was shopping.  At one of the stores a person had a box with a couple of kittens they were trying to give away.  The girls wanted to stay outside while I shopped to see the kittens.  I said “Okay” but added they could only look.  They were not to pick them up and we were not going to take one home. Meanwhile, another mother with a couple of little girls came to th...

  My daughters, Stephanie and Suzanne, played softball with the Girls Bobby Sox Softball League of Tuolumne County when they were younger.  We were living in Groveland at the time, so they were playing on the Groveland team. Here they are celebrating their second championship in as many years.  Funny story about that.  After this victory their coach moved down the hill to Sonora and volunteered to coach a team down there.  Mindful of how he had coached the Groveland team to back-to-back championships, the powers that be gave him a team composed of those girls who, shall we say, were not the best players.  I guess they feared if they gave him a talented team of any sort, he’d beat all the other coaches again?  We all thought that was a pretty crummy thing to do to him!  So what did he do with the not-so-talented team they gave him?  Why . . . he coached his new team of ‘misfits’ to that year’s league championship of course!  The perfect r...

  Oh look.  Here's a cute millinery shop.  I need a new hat.  Not that I really need one.  But I love hats and there’s nothing like a new hat to perk one up.  Besides, it's coming on Mother's Day and surely a mother needs a new hat for her special day!  So . . . what sort of new chapeau might I pick?  One with flowers or feathers or ribbons & bows?  And what color?  Red, pink, purple, blue, green, yellow, peach . . .  oh the choices! Red poppies Poppies and ribbon Poppies and straw loops Tall order poppies Estelle in my big red hat.  It's unadorned right now.  Perhaps I should add some poppies . . . or ribbon . . . or a bow or . . .  Smorgasbord Buffet Sweet pink Bold pink Big Bow pink Tall order purple Purple lavender Lavender Wow Lavender green Lavender blue . . . dilly, dilly Much ado about blue Flowery blue reminds me of my once-upon-a-time flowery blue hat Big Bow blue Blue & Green with garden salad Simp...