Sitting on Our Bench

In the movie, Notting Hill, there is a bench in a garden with an inscription: “For June who loved this garden, from Joseph who always sat beside her.” We have a bench and we like to sit on it. I don’t think we are at always yet, as we have just arrived, but it is a lovely garden.

We have apples. They are not really ripe, but like most impatient folks, we have sampled a few. They are not quite ready. Deer are not quite as discriminating and they are ready for harvest . Well, they don’t do much harvesting but wait for an apple to fall. They like to stand and look at us while we sit on our bench and look at them. One has several points and we think he comes with his sister. This is because she runs him off if he doesn’t stay at least 50 feet away.

One evening, he stood and looked at us. We were not hiding and not really trying to be quiet. We had been talking and happened to look over. He stared at us for a long time with his big brown eyes. Perhaps he is myopic because once he finally focused on us he ran away. We had not moved.

We have catalpa trees and they are particularly pretty, against the sky. Sitting on the bench in the afternoon shade they are especially brilliant. Ruth said they have earrings.