Today is Lily's Birthday

She is five. I took Lily to swim and wanted to swim with her. The pond was cold but it was perfect for her. A swan approached our cove and started swimming menacingly towards Lily. Lily started swimming towards the swan rather than the floating stick. I tried to remember what I've heard about swans, were they vicious? I shouted Lily! and she turned away from the swan and swam to the stick, clamping it in her mouth at one end like it was a cigar, and swam to shore with it. Believe it or not we still have a favorite stick from last season. It is a particularly sturdy stick from a sycamore tree. I always place it in the special stick pile so we'll find it again. So far so good.

On the way home I told a woman who lives on the pond that today was Lily's birthday. She said she had bought filet mignon for her dog on his birthday and he loved it! Labradors are certainly not picky eaters. I could draw a picture of a steak and she'd eat it, I said. When I got home I made another dog toy by wrapping an old piece of black denim around a heavy plastic Gatorade bottle I found in the park, and I sewed it closed. Lily loved it.