Visitors! (f&f, us, household)

So we invited folks over: my niece, sister, and her husband came over Friday night for a little belated birthday celebration  and just visiting. The night was mild and we hung out and had pizza on the newly painted back deck.

Before they arrived Christine had done the usual house prep, and i scrubbed the front porch of pollen and trampled magnolia petals, mowed the circle and the little front patch, and significantly improved the cleanliness of the entrance hall. It was not a perfect job, but it was the job i could do with the time at hand. It's better. Yay!

Then we were expecting a friend from California to arrive for an overnight stay. I spent a good while arranging the masses of dried flowers, partly because a bunch were hanging over the guest bed by the fan. I now have three lovely bouquets -- just in time to be picking live flowers,  but whatever. They'll give me pleasure. We also did all sorts of other prep, so lots of tasks all caught up at once.

It was intense having company so much, yet a pleasure.

• Thinking about Mikołaj Grynberg's I'd like to say sorry, but there's no one to say sorry to (Poland and its Jewish citizens)
• Thinking about flash fiction in the form of questions
• Lots of feelings and judgements about housekeeping
• Lots of feelings and judgements about my staying in touch with people
• Noting Marlowe has brought in two voles today, an anole was in the house on Saturday, and Christine had to take a skink from Marlowe on Friday
• Wondering if the field cam will be more responsive after a day of sunshine.
• Wondering about the value of my wildlife cam observations, wanting to be scientific, but i am so behind. Yet another coyote, and gosh the deer just hang out in the meadow now that i did some mowing and new growth is coming in