Book completed

Matrix, by Lauren Groff. This is a highly recommended work of historical fiction about the poet Marie de France. But really, it's about a fictional medieval nun/abbess whom the author decides to identify with Marie de France. Marie's famous lais are already written by page 40, and the rest of the book is about an intelligent woman gradually assuming more power and transforming the abbey from something pitiful to something prosperous. The writing is beautiful, but I think the book would have been even better without the idea that the main character is this particular poet, which seems forced.

Day 751: Sunshine and turkeys

I woke super-allergic today, but as the forecast was for an amazing 75 degrees (followed by a week of rainy days), I decided to embrace the day and hope my end-of-day shower would be enough to clean off all the pollen before bedtime. I guess we'll see! It did reach 74 degrees and was quite lovely.

I drove J. his dermatology appointment (a strange, bruise-looking mark on his shoulder for months) and also went to buy some nice paper. The appointment was brief but I made it there in time for the end of it - he's probably fine but they did a couple of biopsies. When we got home, I went to look at the house for sale again (and realized that no, I couldn't actually throw a stone that far). It turns out they're doing a three-day estate sale so I can look inside tomorrow. J. and I played with the cats a bunch and read outside together (I finally got him to start Midnight Riot).

When we went on our walk yesterday, there were two wild turkeys on our street, one that was fancy and iridescent, and another that was more drab and surely much younger. Here's the fancy one:



Today I discovered Tertius and Blitzen sitting in the grass, transfixed as another turkey (perhaps the same younger one as yesterday) strolled past. Then Tertius tried to say hello. I caught it on video and it was so amusing that I put it onto YouTube:

https://youtu.be/sVdGvJ006yw