It’s always an emotional rush to post great news: All evacuations have been lifted in the Santa Barbara fire zones (see previous post pbwrites).

Best news, best news.

In my little bit of the valley it’s blowing like heck again. The hammock has flipped, again. I would call the hammock a turtle on its back, but we have a box turtle and one time she did flip, so forget that metaphor. This time? The hammock stays flipped on our vaguely green lawn–aggravating my inner Martha Stewart. Who cares? I don’t. Fire is 60% contained in SB. Let it blow!

In the photo above, a phoebe is perched on the red chair, searching for insects. I love that phoebes return to our yard. I don’t know if it’s their feather-crest, or seemingly good-natured diligence—but they always make me smile as they dart around our property, audibly snapping up prey—hopefully mosquitoes.

Mittens watching her brother’s tail and about to pounc

Yours in fire-free celebrations (especially if you’re planning on deep-frying a turkey for the first time), yours in phoebes and kittens and little boys who still believe in Santa despite friends telling them otherwise, yours in the lovely snowfall WordPress app, love it, despite so distracting, love it, and yours in Peace,
PB