The Air is Fresh and Clean

It’s a lovely day here in Seattle. The sun was shining first thing this morning while I scurried around to get the irrigation system up and running. Now it’s pouring rain and my dry yard is thankful. I stepped outside, heard the birds singing and enjoyed the cool, fresh, clean air and smell of salt water.

These last 2 weeks here have been sunny and warm. Wow! No, I did not bring the sunshine from Milano. They had forecast a week of rain the day I left. There was no sunshine to bring!

Flowers are blooming, my yard is at its most beautiful and the days have been comfortable.

I leave this afternoon to return to Italy and my last 2 and a half months there. They predict temperatures in the mid-80s for the end of this week, so I’m dressed in layers, able to peel them one-by-one as I approach Europe.

The sense of things for me is SO different as I prepare for this flight than when I was preparing to fly to Italy last June. The unknown doesn’t loom so large. The timidity has been eased. I’m returning to Milano with familiarity and surety now and that changes the whole picture.

In this last dab of time, I will have visitors, I will travel, I will gobble up as much as I can before I pack my last bag and come home again to this fresh air.