Just one day out of life, Holiday!

Otto the groundhog (O’Fallon Otto!) is out grazing in the yard, popping clover blooms into his face like popcorn. Whenever anything out of the ordinary moves he runs back to cover, a fur coated slinky. Then he’ll be out again, gobbling. Two days ago, the neighbor’s cat was out chasing Otto, they are about the same size so I’m not sure what her master plan is; he ran from her but not in the save your life kind of way. They both share the same shade of brown, a rich chocolate, but the cat has a fine variations and wears stripes. When glanced from the edge of your vision you’re never sure if it is cat or groundhog. I’m sure somewhere the cat overlords are incensed that this would ever cause confusion. And somewhere the groundhog oversight committee will be sending hate mail as well, “We look nothing like cats, madame, thank you very much. Take it back or your tomatoes are in danger!”

Speaking of tomatoes, two of the cherry tomatoes of my heart came over for the weekend: the girl and her betrothed, drove their brand-new to them car from Ohio and we had a fabulous visit: walking in the parks, an hour at our local “farmer’s market”, grilling some flesh and plant-based sausage, eating out and outside at a fun restaurant in Saint Louis and (and!) a mini art crawl. Oh, and we also celebrated Ian’s birthday early...hugs galore and too much ice cream. The only one not thrilled with this event was Zora, but she’s already recovered from this perceived indignity.