All Right!  The time has come to post what the very talented Abigail can do.  

She’s young, but smart.  She dances... and runs... and jumps... and rolls... and she attacks imaginary mice.  Did I say she dances.  Yes... to her own music; and there’s a good lesson in that.  She knows how to signal that she’s glad you’re in the world with her.  In the middle of last night, she patted my ear ever so lightly... just enough to say “I’m here and you’re here and that’s enough.”  I like Abigail... and I don’t mind admitting she likes Margaret even more than she likes me.

If you don’t live in a western part of North America, you may not know manzanita. It’s the common name for the genus Archtostaphylos, although the way I see it there’s nothing common about the name manzanita.  Of the forty species of Arctostaphylos in California, I particularly like the form that grows in Mendocino County.  The gnarly mahogany trunk becomes spectacular in the rain.