Patty and Noel came across the river to our house yesterday to introduce us to Alice.  Well, not really…  They came with a great big picnic basket complete with checkered tablecloth, a bouquet of tulips and the most delicious curried-chicken-salad-and-pita-bread fixings! There were also rice chips, carrot sticks, sliced apples soaked in lemon juice, apple cider and chocolate macaroons!  And Alice.

It was an indoor picnic, though had Nyel been able we might have bundled up and taken  it outside – it was that nice out.  As it was, the sunshine streamed in through the dining room windows and we did what old friends do.  We “caught up” and laughed a lot and just plain enjoyed one another.  And we talked about Alice.

Meanwhile, Alice waited patiently in their spiffy new Prius station wagon parked out in front of our house.  She has a special raised car seat so she can look out the window at the passing parade.  She was on the passenger side of the car and I wondered if our chickens had wandered over toward the fence to introduce themselves.  Probably not.  I don’t think they are brave enough to meet Alice.

That is definitely wrong of them.  Alice came into the house with Noel after lunch and a sweeter, more friendly dog is hard to imagine.  Plus she is all curly and fluffy looking and her brown button eyes invite you to pick her up or pet her or at least give her your full attention.  And we did!

Their spiffy new (still without license plates) Prius, definitely took a back seat (how does that work??) to Alice.  And what that says, at least to me, is that Noel is totally in love.  That’s the only explanation possible.

For almost forty years we’ve watched Noel’s devoted attention (maybe a bit on the order of OCD?) to his various vehicles.  They are always buffed and waxed to a high sheen; always meticulously cared for and reverently spoken about.

But yesterday there was hardly a nod in the wagon’s direction.  It was all about Alice.  “As God intended,” our friend Seattle Te would say.  Yes, indeedy!