…after that last trip to Pueblo I suddenly realized that there were maybe as few as eight

studio days left before The End…and a slew of Last Things out there; a last visit to Desireé, just returned from her annual trip to the Utah canyons wherein we heard about how her dog told her to share her water with a beetle and other manifestations* one of which was an utterly

unexpected rain as Linda was massaged that continued throughout a dark and soporific afternoon which felt like Sunday…but wasn’t.

The next day I was up the creek a little further

into the woods, down past the Various Sheds of Libre**

and Orly’s apparently resuscitated backhoe

to home,

the growing moon and

up the creek again, the as yet unattained Lone Pine [far left, below] as seen from the canyon

on a more ambitious walk – to see the water – which left the remainder of Thursday

semi-comatose…but well-napped on the studio’s sun-washed couch anyway. The next day,

after running into Bill, Muriel, Kiku, the UPS guy and a random recreational cyclist all at once on the saddle, Bill and I walked over to inspect the library excavations before I continued on up to the steps [not shown; cast glass shown below] for probably the last time there, too.

Saturday, a colder day, we made our final run to the Walsenburg Transfer Station and Safeway,  bade the ‘bib goodbye, picked up our last forwarded mail in Gardner and were home in time

for lunch, after which things turned decidedly wint’ry

with a hint of hail

and then a fine cold continuing corn snow which by

evening was promising an even colder night…

*Similarly strange and wondrous things used to happen to me on those long ago annual trips to the ION country.

**1] The well house; 2] Dean’s painting storage; 3] abandoned staging shed originally for the Rock House on the ridge.