This morning I saw rings of water in the lake in front of the house, and watched. Yes! Two otters were swimming and diving - it'd been far too long since I had caught sight of them, so I was very happy to see they are alive and well.

Marilee came down from Skokomish and brought me smoked salmon and soup. It'd been far too long since I'd seen HER, too. Here's a picture of Pete's dSonoqua* mask recently bought by the Tacoma Art Museum.

My internet connection has been cutting out every few minutes all day. I have no clue what's doing it. Sunday Slashfest was somewhat crazed as I kept popping out. I had two people learning the game and they wound up fighting and helping each other as I was not able to stay in long enough to be of use. It was Maxie, in Germany, and a very nice man in Sweden - Maxie is learning so she can translate the notecard text for me.

*dSonoqua is the "whistling grandmother," who lumbers through the woods bearing a basket into which she puts children she finds out after dark. A brave little boy was thusly captured and
was sitting with other children around a fire, their eyes stuck shut with pitch. He whispered to the others to lean forward and let the heat from the fire melt the pitch so they could see. dSonoqua approached the children as they sat, having melted the pitch but still feigning blindness. Quick as a flash they leapt up and pushed her into the fire and escaped. As dSonoqua burned sparks flew up and became blood-sucking mosquitos.