By Kevin Prufer
You will use it for the flowers the others bring because he is dead.
Or you will use it for dark blue light, the arc of it when, the next evening, the sun cries over the house and sends all the windows to the floor.
A trill of orchids wilts over the rim. You will use them for perspective. The petals fall when you're asleep like petals in a dreams, dying to stop.
You will use them for silence, when the room is a rumble of passing trains and his picture rattles over the end tables.
"You'll use it for flowers," I said the other day, placing the blue pitcher on the windowsill, turning it so it balanced there. The windows were cold to the touch because it was almost winter and the wind blew from the lake.
When the relatives left, the house was a hush. The tracks bent into the woods along the lake, the pitcher looking out the window like a great blue eye.
I know you are reading this in the fragility of evening, when the rain comes in from the lake and simmers over the house.
I know you are reading in the half-light, your fingers covered with flour, the oven on and a silence from the kitchen where the bread is baking.
The house juts over the lake on spindles. The pitcher paints a blue arc on the floor. There is no one upstairs.
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We had a day of changed plans, though it still managed to be a fairly relaxed Sunday, though now I have a weather-related headache and am hoping this does not mean the thunderstorms are coming back. The original plan was for Dementordelta to come over and we were all going to see Harry Potter in the afternoon after the Montgomery County Farm Tour & Harvest Sale, but her car decided to misbehave on the way here, woe! So we put off the movie and went to the Blue Ribbon Alpaca Breeding Company and Star Gazing Farm, where we saw many alpacas, sheep, goats, chickens, geese, horses, dogs, donkeys and more, as well as spinning and weaving demonstrations:
Alpacas roam inside and out at the Blue Ribbon Alpaca Breeding Company.
They are guarded by this dog, who appeared to be having a bit of a lie-in...
...and their wool, plus products made from their wool from yarn to finished sweaters, can be purchased on the farm.
There are also sheep on the farm. This one was being washed and shorn while we were there and could be heard complaining very loudly.
Star Gazing Farm rescues animals destined for slaughter after careers as entertainers or because of unfortunate farming practices. Adam got to hold one of the chickens.
The donkey is either itchy or very silly. Maybe it thinks it's a cat.
Most of the sheep and goats were hiding from the sun, though one goat, Mr. Newman, followed around all the groups of visitors.
As is typical around farms, there were cats. This one was meowing in complaint as we pulled into the parking area, but then Adam bonded with him.
Our plan for the evening was to go see the Capitol Steps at Mason District Park, but there were two thunderstorm warnings for different parts of the area, and since half the neighborhood lost power in last night's storms, we decided not to go. So of course it didn't rain -- at least, not here (it may have rained in northern Virginia). We watched Merlin -- I love all the Morgana-centric episodes, especially the ones where she's arguing with Uther -- and then two episodes of Due South, again at older son's request -- neither anywhere near as good as "Gift of the Wheelman" but I was entertained to see Susan Gibney, who was almost Captain Janeway, as Ray's as-if love interest. I still need the perfect Fraser icon!
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