We have had a couple of showers.  It hasn’t been anything like the soaker we desperately need but it cleared the air some and gave everybody a small drink.  After this wretched scorching dry summer, even a piddle of rain is welcome and celebrated.

We had company this week.  The novelist and poet Indira Ga for a Democratic Society in the sixties Eleanor and Jeff here for supper.  Eleanor is allergic to cats, so they didn’t get to meet superkitten Shaman.  We ate on the sunporch with the cats angry in the house and depending to join us – except for Willow, who loves only us and likes Melenie and tolerates my assistant Dale.

This evening I’ll be taking part in a reading focused on abortion rights.  There will be four of us reading relevant poems. I have four.  I timed it this morning as I have a fixed time for my portion of the event.

We finally are getting a few tomatoes.  We get plenty of sungold cherry tomatoes.  They’re climbing on the fence and chipmunks don’t touch them. Dale is getting them too in a potted plant.  We are now getting a few paste tomatoes. Last year, the year before, the diningroom table was covered with ripe tomatoes.  We have nine so far.  That’s better than none.  At least we can eat some.  I don’t know how we’ll can any this year. I can’t stand the tinny taste of canned tomatoes. We have some tomatoes we canned and some sauces from last year, but not enough to get us through.

This week I wrote a couple of poems and revised a number that I had thought were finished but upon rereading for the manyth time, put through the computer again, shortened and fixed up.

We can’t get over how affectionate Shaman is.  He loves to be with us, to be held, petted all to his purr that’s much larger than his little thin body.  He isn’t as thin as when we got him but is much longer already.  Of course his demands are, pet me, or feed me, or play with me or let me go to sleep on you or right next to you.

Not only we did get a couple of shower this week but the temperature was great for working and great for sleeping – till I got a patch of very irritating poison ivy on my weak ankles.  It’s beginning to clear up now, slowly. 

The cats are now family, not only with us but each other.  Our new kitten Shaman is the catalyst.  It’s everything we hoped for..