I’d been near someone who tested positive for Covid so I was now banished to working from home for the next two weeks.

I was sitting at the dining room table when my son Alex came into the room. I quickly pulled my paper mask up over my nose and mouth before going back to work. While I was typing I noticed the mask kept creeping up near my eyes and I would pull it down, only for it to pop back up again.

“Oh my God, this is so annoying!” I tugged the mask back into place.

Alex looked over at me. “When do your test results come back?” he poured some coffee into a mug and went to the refrigerator to get the milk.

“Not soon enough!” I said as I pulled the mask back into place. I looked over at Alex. “Do you think my head is shrinking?”

Alex started to laugh.

“No, I’m serious!” I got up to go to the front hall mirror. Looking at my reflection I moved the mask back into place and pinched the nose guard in place. I looked at the bottom of my mask that now covered my entire neck instead of being tucked under my chin. “When we started this whole mess a year ago I wasn’t having this problem with the masks!”

I sadly looked over at Alex pointing at my face. “But look at me now!”

Alex shook his head. “I’m pretty sure you’re head isn’t shrinking.”

“Well, what about this!” I flipped the hood of my sweatshirt up over my head. The top of the hood flopped over my forehead and almost covered my eyes. “Who’s sweatshirt hood fits like this?”

Alex started to laugh. “I don’t think any of my hoods do that.”

“See! I’m turning into a peanut head!” I turned my head from side to side. “I can’t see a thing!” I folded back part of the hood so I could see. “Who do you know that has to fold a cuff in their hood?”

I turned back to my reflection. “I look ridiculous!” I pushed the hood off my head and went to the linen closet.

“What are you doing?” Alex asked as he followed me to the closet.

“I’m going to see if these masks come in sizes.” I pulled the box of blue surgical masks from the shelf and scanned the box. “Nope. One size seems to fit all.” I tossed the box back on the shelf and looked at Alex.

“Maybe you could try a cloth mask. They might fit better.” he suggested.

“I can’t.” I went across the room and took off my mask. “When this first started I told myself I wasn’t going to make this something fun like matching my masks to my outfits. When this all goes away I don’t want to have a drawer of cute masks that I’d invested in and wouldn’t want to throw away.”

I sat down in the chair and tossed the paper mask onto the coffee table. “So I’m not doing it!” I crossed my arms and leaned back in the chair.

Alex shook his head. “It’s up to you Peanut Head.”

I grabbed my bags for work and walked out the front door. The smell hit me like a ton of bricks. “Skunk!” My eyes began to water as I looked around to see if he was still nearby.

I quickly went back inside dropping my bags to the floor.

My son Alex was standing near the front door. “What’s wrong? Did you forget something?”

I lifted the sleeve of my coat up to my nose and took a sniff. “A skunk got scared in our front yard.” I wiped the tear that was falling down my cheek. “I swear the smell is on me!” I took the end of my hair and brought it up to my nose. “I can’t tell if it’s on me or I just have that smell stuck in my nose!” I lifted my arm toward him. “Do you smell it on me?”

Alex backed away. “I’m not sure I want to smell you.”

Just then my husband Steven came into the hallway carrying his file box. Alex pointed to me.

“Mom wants you to smell her.”

Steven looked confused. “What?”

“A skunk sprayed in the front yard and I think I got hit!” I held my coat sleeve up to him.

He leaned over and smelled. “Nope. You’re good.”

I sighed. “That’s a relief. I wouldn’t have been able to go to work.” I picked up my bags again. Steven put his file box down. “Okay, but before you go I have some bad news.”

I dropped my bags again. “Oh, no.” I sighed again. “What?”

“The skunk didn’t just pass by the front yard.” He began walking into kitchen while I followed him. “I’m pretty sure he’s living under our deck.” He opened up the back door and the skunk smell was overpowering.

I stepped outside and looked over the railing. Sure enough I could see the little footprints in the snow of our stinky friend coming from under the deck and walking to the woods. I came back inside and closed the door. “Didn’t we have this problem last year?”

Steven nodded. “Yup.”

“So what did we do?”

Steven shrugged his shoulder. “Nothing. After a few days it just moved on.”

“So we have to put up with this for the next few days?” I headed back to the front door.

“We could.” Steven was following back to the front hall. “But I’m pretty sure I smelled him in the back yard last week, so I’m not thinking he’s planning on moving soon.”

I picked up my bags. “Well, he can’t live here. I don’t want to be known as the stinky house on the block. I’ll pick up some ammonia on my way home from work. I heard they don’t like the smell.”

Alex was still in the hallway. “They don’t like the smell of ammonia but they don’t mind how bad they smell?”

“Go figure.” I shrugged my shoulders as I took a deep breath and held it while I opened the front door. Sprinting to the car I quickly got in and exhaled. I could still smell the skunk as I started the car. I once again smelled the sleeve of my coat making sure the smell wasn’t on me before I backed out of the driveway and headed to work. Halfway down my street I opened my window and inhaled before coughing. “Nope. I can still smell him.” I said as I closed my window.

Looking out my kitchen window I could see the yard was still covered in a blanket of snow. I looked over at my son Alex. “I better get out there and fill those bird feeders.” I went over to the boot tray to get my rain boots. “Those poor guys must be starving.”

I grabbed my coat and went out on the porch to get the container that held the bird seed.

“Be careful!” Alex called from the back door. “There’s a lot of ice.”

I gingerly made my way down the unshoveled steps with my container of bird seed swinging by my side. I was barely braking through the icy crust of snow as I made my way to the feeders. Taking one of the feeders down I noticed it was encrusted in ice. I began tapping it with the bird seed scooper but it didn’t even crack the ice. I reached over to the other feeder and saw that it was the same. I looked back at Alex. “We have a problem!” I called.

“What?”

“Frozen solid!” I held up the feeder to make my point then hung it back on the Shepard hook and moved to the next feeder. “Nope, this one’s frozen, too!” I looked around at the birds, sitting on branches in the woods, watching me. “Sorry guys. I can’t fill the feeders but…” I scooped some bird seed out of the container and began tossing it on top of the snow. “This will have to do.” I said as I tossed several more scoops.

Turning around and heading back to the house I could hear the chirps and calls from the birds as they flocked to the seed covered snow. “You’re welcome!” I called over my shoulder.

I carefully made my way back up the steps and put the container down. Ducking under the eve of the porch I reached up and snapped an icicle off the gutter. “I don’t think I’ve seen this many icicles in years.” I held it out for Alex to see. “When I was a kid we’d break them off the house and lick them like Popsicle.” I looked closer at the icicle and could see small flicks of dirt in it and tossed it into the snow. “Seems kind of disgusting now.” I stamped the snow off my boots as I came inside.

Alex laughed. “It’s kind of like licking the inside of the gutter.”

“Yuck.” I kicked my boots off and hung my coat up in the closet.

Going back into the kitchen I looked over at Alex. “Are you in the mood for some hot chocolate?”

“Sure. That sounds good.”

I went into the cabinet to get the hot chocolate mix when I notice a suet package sitting on the shelf. “Oh, I forgot to put this out!” I unwrapped it and went to the back door.

“Aren’t you going to put a coat on?”

“Nah.” I stood by the door and Frisbee threw it into the back yard watching it slide on top of the ice until it stopped right in front of the bird bath. “Perfect!” I closed the door and saw Alex staring at me. “What?”

Alex pointed out the window. “The suet feeder doesn’t have any ice on it.”

I looked out the window and saw he was right. I shrugged my shoulders. “Oh well. I didn’t feel like getting all bundled up again.” I pointed out the window again at the birds that were now on top of the suet. “See. They found it.”

I was just coming in the front door when I heard my husband Steven call out, “The toaster you ordered came today.”

I placed my things down on the chair and went into the kitchen. “I didn’t order a toaster.”

Our son Alex was pulling out a nicely toasted piece of bread from a stainless steel Cuisinart four slice toaster. “Uh-oh!” he held the toast in midair for a second before dropping it on the paper towel. “Who’s toaster did we get?” he asked.

I looked over at Steven who was looking confused. “Three packages came today. I just assumed…”

I looked around the counter. “Where’s our toaster?”

Steven shrugged his shoulders. “I threw it out when I saw the new one.”

“What?”

“I thought you bought a new one!” Steven went over to the toaster and began pointing to all the buttons. “Look! It not only toasts but it has a setting for a bagel. It also defrosts and reheats!”

“That’s great, but it’s not ours.”

Alex was spreading jelly on his toast. “I’ve already used it so I’m pretty sure we own it now.”

I looked back at Steven shaking my head. “Do you still have the box it came in?

He shrugged his shoulders. “I threw that out, too.” He went to the back door. “I’ll go pull it out of the garbage.”

When he came back in with the box he was pointing to the label. “Okay. It’s our neighbors.”

“Seriously?”

“Hey! It was an honest mistake. I told you three packages came today so I just grabbed them and opened them all.”

I held up my hand to stop him. “I get it. But now what do we do?” I sighed as I leaned against the counter. “I can’t walk next door while I’m shaking the crumbs out of it and saying what a silly mix up we had.”

“So let’s just order the exact same toaster and when it comes in we’ll give her that.”

“We needed a new toaster anyway.” Alex reminded me as he took another bite of his toast. “Our old toaster took forever to toast something.”

“I guess that’s true.” I looked over at our accidental new toaster. “I have to say she’s got better taste in toasters then I do.” I looked at the brushed stainless steel. “I was always fine with the cheap plastic toasters, that just toasted bread.”

“Now we have one that does so much more!” Steven flipped the box over until he could find the model number on the box.

I took my phone and opened up our Amazon account. Searched for toasters then typed in the make and model. “Okay, well the price isn’t too bad.” I double-checked the description to make sure it was the one she’d ordered. Then scanned for the delivery date. “Oh, good! It’s going to be delivered tomorrow!” I pressed ‘order’ then put my phone down. “Now I don’t feel so bad. At least she’ll get her toaster tomorrow.”

“Hey, I’m hoping she orders a bathroom scale next and they accidentally deliver that here, too.” Alex popped the last piece of toast in his mouth. “Ours hasn’t been right for the last month!”

Close to a foot of snow had fallen in our area over a two day period. Once it stopped and we dug ourselves out my son Alex and I decided to go for a walk in the neighborhood. The sun was bright, and there was absolutely no wind, so it was perfect walking weather for me.

We had already gone several blocks when I noticed something strange. I stopped and turned to Alex. “Do you hear that?”

Alex stopped and looked over at me. “What?”

I raised my finger to my ear. “Listen.”

Alex stood still for a moment then looked back at me. “I don’t hear anything.”

“Exactly!” I looked around. “We should be seeing and hearing kids playing in the snow! They should be having snowball fights, building snowmen, making snow forts!” I pointed to dozens of front yards that we were walking past that were blanketed in snow, not a footprint to be found breaking through. “I know kids live in these houses. Why aren’t they outside having fun?”

Alex laughed. “Because they’re inside having fun playing video games.”

I shook my head. “That just makes me so sad.” I slipped my hands in my pockets. “When you were little I couldn’t have kept you inside. You’d have a bunch of friends over and all of you would be out in the snow for hours!”

Alex laughed. “Yeah, I remember.”

I pointed to another house we were passing. “I know there are at least two kids that live there!”

Once again their front yard was a pristine layer of snow.

“Maybe it’s not good packing snow.” Alex leaned down and scooped up a handful, quickly shaping it into a ball. “Nope, perfect packing snow.” He tossed the snowball up in the air and we watched as it landed in the middle of the street with a splat.

“There should be snowmen on the front lawn of at least a dozen of these houses!”

Alex shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe they made them in their backyard.”

I laughed as I looked over at Alex. “Everyone knows the rule that snowmen go in the front yard so everyone driving by can enjoy it.”

Alex just nodded his head trying not to laugh. “Oh, so there’s a rule.”

By now we were back to our house.

“I can’t believe we didn’t see one snowman!” I was hanging my coat in the closet when Alex call to me from the living room.

“You’ll be happy to see this!”

As I walked in he was pointing out our front window. “See?”

I looked out and could see our across the street neighbor with his three little ones building a tiny snowman. It was only about a foot and a half feet high but it made me feel so much better. “Ah, see? That’s what a snowfall is all about!”

“The must know the rule about building it in the front yard, too.” Alex laughed.

We watched as Dad put the finishing touches on the snowman then stepped back to let his little ones enjoy.

“That brings back so many good memories.” I sighed as I then watched one of the little ones go over and knock the snowman over.

Alex started to laugh. “Well, that didn’t last long.”

I had to laugh too. “Well, at least they’re playing in the snow. That’s what counts.”

My son Alex and I made an agreement that this year we were not going to let the cold stop us from walking every day.

As we pulled into the park we like to visit and found a parking space, I couldn’t help looking over at him and asking, “Are we still doing this?” I looked out the windshield at the slate colored sky and saw that the wind was picking up.

“It won’t be bad.” He was looking at the trees blowing in the wind too. “We’re dressed warm enough.” He didn’t sound very convincing.

We hadn’t even gotten out of the car when I noticed a jogger coming towards us. He was wearing a pair of shorts and a lightweight sweatshirt. I looked over at Alex as I pulled my hood up over my head and wrapped a scarf around my neck, pulling part of it up to cover my face. “Okay. Well, if he can wear shorts and not be cold I’m pretty sure I can do this!”

I opened the door and the wind instantly caught it and pulled it from my hand. Lucky for me I wasn’t parked next to a car or I definitely would have caused a dent. “Ooh, that could have been a disaster!” Closing the door I chirped the car locked and we headed for the walking path we liked.

I looked up at the sky again and noticed it was getting even darker. “Was there snow in the forecast?” I asked.

Alex dug his hands deeper into his pockets, bending his head down to block the wind. “I checked. It didn’t say there was going to be any.”

I watched as some geese flew overhead honking to one another as they headed towards one of the open fields.

“Maybe we should go on one of the wooded paths and see if it blocks any of this wind.” Alex suggested as we turned off the paved walkway and turned towards the woods.

“Great idea!” I said as another gust of wind hit hard enough to stop me for a moment.

As we made our way deeper into the woods the wind did seem to die down. “This is so much better!” I began noticing how pretty the path was as it went along a small lake. We watched as squirrels darted in the underbrush and a hawk circled overhead. “I have to admit it really is peaceful out here.”

“See, it’s not so bad.” Alex looked over at me. “I don’t know why we always stopped going out for walks when the temperature dropped.”

“You’re right!” I pulled the scarf up over my face again. “We just need to be dressed for it!”

We were coming out of the woods and were crossing a small bridge that went over the narrow end of the lake. We stopped and leaned on the railing looking down at the water. I noticed a few small drops hitting on the surface below. “Is that rain?” I looked up but didn’t see anything.

“I’m not sure.” Alex was looking up too. We could see the sky was turning an even darker shade of gray.

I dug in the pockets of my coat pulling out my gloves. As I was putting them on I noticed small white flecks blowing by me. “Okay, so I guess the weather app we just looked at missed the snow we’re now walking in!” I had to laugh as I tugged the strings tighter on my hood and adjusted my scarf again. I looked over at Alex. “It’s actually really pretty.”

Just then the shorts wearing jogger came into sight. As he passed us I waited until he was out of earshot and looked at Alex. “There is no way he’s not cold!”

“What’s for dinner?” my husband Steven called from the other room.

I looked at my watch and realized it was already six pm. That may seem early to some but for Steven it was way past dinnertime.

Lucky for me tonight’s dinner was going to be fast and easy.

“Leftovers!” I called back.

I didn’t have to hear the groan to know what was happening in the other room.

“Leftover what?” Steven asked as he walked into the kitchen.

I opened the refrigerator and pulled out the plastic covered bowls and plates. “Let’s see, so far we have pot roast and pasta.”

I opened up another container but when I couldn’t decide what it had been I tossed it in the trash and looked over at Steven. “I guess that one’s off tonight’s menu.”

Opening up the crisper drawer, I pulled out a bag of ready-made salad and grabbed a bottle of dressing from the refrigerator door.

Steven leaned against the counter watching me fill his plate before putting it in the microwave.

“Dinner in five minutes!” I cried as I brushed my hands together and went to gather the salad fixings.

Steven didn’t look thrilled as I handed him his bowl of salad and sprinkled some pre-cut cheese on top.

“There you go!” I smiled as I closed the cheese container and popped it back in the refrigerator.

I loved leftover night. Steven, on the other hand, wasn’t a big fan.

“Didn’t we already have pot roast?” he asked holding his salad plate.

Thinking he didn’t understand the concept of leftovers I thought I’d explain. “You loved it the other night.”

“Sure. I even loved it when you served it for lunch the next day. But when does it stop?”

“When it’s finished.” I explained as the microwave beeped and I handed him his dinner plate in his empty hand. “It was a really big roast.”

“Don’t we have anything else we can eat?” Steven put his plates down on the counter and went to look in the cabinets. “Maybe something new?”

“We can’t just throw the rest away and start on something new!” He might as well have asked me to take dollar bills and make paper airplanes out of them and sail them out the window.

I came from a big family that didn’t waste food. So the thought of throwing good food away was unthinkable.

I began filled my own plate and popped it in the microwave.

“Don’t we have anything else you can make?” Steven repeated as he opened the refrigerator and freezer doors, hoping for a miracle dish to appear.

That’s when I spotted the fifteen pound turkey in the freezer. “Oh, wow! I forgot about that! Can you pull that out?” I took his plates from the counter and carried them into the dining room. “I’ll make that for next weeks dinners!” I called over my shoulder.

I walked into the house with two shopping bags filled with books. “That was an awesome book swap!” I called out to my son Alex as he came out of his room.

“That’s a lot of books.” he said as I put the bags down and took off my coat.

“I know. Don’t you just love it?” I kneeled down on the floor an began taking the books out of the bags and stacking them on the chair. I couldn’t help but giggle as I looked at all the fun adventures I was about to take while reading them.

“You’ve been gone for hours.” he picked up one of the books and began reading the back cover. “Did it take that long for you and Mrs. L. to swap books?”

“Oh, come on! You know Rosanne and I could talk forever!”

Alex laughed. “That’s true.” He placed the book back on the pile. “Who’s idea was the book swap?”

I got up and gathered the stack of books in my arms and began walking to my bedroom. “We’d been talking on the phone one day and realized we liked the same types of books. I thought about all the books I’d been saving and asked if she’d like to get together and swap.”

Alex had followed me to the bedroom and watched as I dropped the books on my bed. I went over to my bedside table and began rearranging my ‘to read’ pile to make room for the new books.

I looked over at Alex and sighed. “There was one sad moment for me while we were exchanging books though.”

“What?”

“Well, Rosanne would hold up one of her books and give me this wonderful detailed book review.” I sighed again. “I, on the other hand, was more like a dementia book reviewer. I’d hold up one of my books and say, ‘I liked this one.’”

Alex started to laugh. “Why would you do that?”

“Because I honestly couldn’t remember what the book was about!”

“Then how would you know you liked the book if you couldn’t remember the story?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Because I’d remember I liked it by the cover.”

Alex sat down on the edge of the bed and handed me the books as I placed them on the shelf of my bedside table.

“Well, didn’t she forget any of the books she’d read?” he asked.

I shook my head again. “Nope, not really. I mean she might look on the inside flap to jog her memory but she could still go into some great detail.” I sat back on my heels and looked at Alex. “You want to hear a really embarrassing moment?”

Alex shrugged his shoulders. “Sure.”

I placed one hand on my heart as I raised my other hand in the air. “I swear this actually happened. I picked up a book from her pile and said, I heard this one was good. Then looked over at my pile and saw that I had it.” I shook my head in disbelief. “I’d already read it!”

Alex laughed. “Oh, come on! That’s funny!”

I shook my head again. “Or a little bit scary.”

My son Alex and I were sitting outside trying to get some sun when the quiet we had been enjoying was interrupted by the screech of several blue jays. We looked over at the feeders where a dozen or so house finches and chickadees were eating. One of the blue jays landed on top of the feeder and began screeching until all the birds that had been eating scattered to the nearby trees.

“Look, at him.” I said as I pointed to the blue jay. “He doesn’t even want anything to eat he’s just going to sit on the top of the feeders making sure no one else can get anything.”

Alex looked over at him. “Do you think he knows he’s being a jerk?”

“I’m pretty sure he does.” I pointed to all the other jays screeching at him as if egging him on.

“They’re all kind of acting like jerks.”

It was at that moment a cooper hawk swooped down just missing the blue jay at the top of the feeder.

“Whoa!” I looked over at Alex. “Did you see that?”

Alex looked up in the tree that the cooper hawk landed in. The blue jays weren’t far behind as they followed the hawk up in the tree and surrounded him, screeching the whole time.

“Okay, maybe they weren’t acting like jerks. Maybe they were warning the other birds that there was trouble around.”

We listened as the jays kept it up until finally the hawk lifted off the branch and went further into the neighborhood. The blue jays keeping up their verbal assault as they followed him.

I looked over at the feeders as the smaller birds began slowly coming out of hiding and flocking back, chirping to one another as they began pecking at the bird seed again.

I laughed as I pointed to the feeder. “It’s like watching the scene in the Wizard of Oz where Glinda the good witch tells the Munchkins that it’s safe to come out of hiding.”

A few minutes later the blue jays were back and were quieter now.

“Well, I guess the danger is over.” I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes.

It was seconds before I heard a blue jay begin screeching again. I opened my eyes and saw the jay on top of the feeder again and all the smaller birds had scattered.

I looked over at the the other jays sitting on the branches close by but this time they were slient. The jay on top of the feeder was hopping back and forth his ear piercing screech beginning to get on my nerves. I looked over at Alex. “What do you think his problem is now?”

Alex shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe he’s looking for a thank you?”

I shook my head. “Okay, fine.” I got up and went to the container on the deck where I kept the bird seed and also a bag of peanuts. I grabbed a handful of peanuts and threw them out in the yard near the blue jays.

All the jays came out of the trees, landed in the grass, grabbing peanuts in their beaks before flying back into the trees.

I went back to my seat next to Alex and sat down and looking over at the feeders where the smaller birds were back and eating. “You’re welcome!” I called to them.

“What?” Alex looked confused.

“I just paid off their debt for the use of the blue jay muscle.” I looked over at the blue jays as they were busy eating their peanuts before I leaned back and closed my eyes again. “Finally, some peace and quiet.”

Even though it was a chilly winter afternoon my son Alex and I decided we still wanted to go for a walk.

Getting in the car we headed to one of our favorite parks. Parking by the rugby field, we thought the tree lined path that surrounded the field would be the perfect wind break. Once I was out of the car I pulled the zipper of my coat high enough so that the collar was now up around my ears and partially covering my mouth. “Okay, I’m ready!”

As we headed for the path I couldn’t help but notice that there was still some green peeking out at the edge of the path. As I bent down I cradled a beautifully scalloped leaf in the palm of my hand. “I didn’t realized there would still be some green now.” I looked up at Alex. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Alex looked down. “I guess so. It looks like a leaf.”

I smiled as I got back up. “You know that book your Dad gave me for Christmas?” I brushed some dirt off my pants. “The one about Emily Dickinson’s gardening life?”

Alex nodded as we started to walk again. “Are you liking it?”

I looked around, noticing things I hadn’t noticed before. “I have to say it’s making me see nature in a whole new way.”

“How?”

“Emily kept a herbarium.”

Alex looked over at me. “A what?”

I had to laugh. “I know, I never heard of it either. She collected local flowers and leaves, pressed them and dried them before mounting them in a book. Then she’d write where she collected it from, it’s scientific name, and some general observation she had. That kind of book is called a herbarium.”

I stopped again at the edge of the path and bent down. “Are those strawberries?” I looked at the tiny red fruit laying on a bed of green leaves. I looked back up at Alex. “I can’t believe they’re still here.” I got up and brushed my hands together. “I guess we haven’t had our first frost yet.”

Alex started to laugh. “Okay, Farmer Miele.”

Now I had to laugh. “I guess her book is inspiring me to see more details in nature.” We began walking again, quietly listening to the geese flying overhead when I got an idea. I turned to Alex. “I think I’m going to start a new hobby this year!”

Alex looked over at me. “Doing what?”

“I’m going to make my own herbarium!” I stopped again and reached down to pick a leaf. I held it up to him. “I’ll start today with this wild violet leaf.”

“Are you sure that’s a wild violet leaf?”

I looked again at it’s delicate scalloped leaf and shrugged my shoulders.. “I’m pretty sure it is.” I held it gently in the palm of my hand. “I’ll look it up later just to make sure, but that’s part of the fun! Investaging all my new finds!” I looked over at Alex and smiled. “I have a new hobby!”

“Congratulations!” Alex laughed as he patted me on the back and we began to walk again. “This hobby sounds like it will be a lot more fun than your last hobby.”

I was confused as I looked over at Alex. “Which hobby was that?”
“The one where you collected big rocks.”

I snorted laugh. “I’m still collecting those! I haven’t finished the path I’m making with them that go through our woods to the shed.”

“Oh.” Alex sounded disappointed.

Now it was my turn to pat him on the back. “I know it can get a little embarrassing when I find a good rock and want to bring it home.”

Alex laughed. “I have to admit it will feel less weird seeing you walk around holding a flower or a leaf then when you’re carrying a huge rock back to the car.”

“That’s the fun when you’re out in nature.” We were back to the car and as I was reaching in my pocket for the keys I looked at Alex across the roof of the car and held up my leaf. “You never know what you’re going to find!”