Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now

Other bloggers stopped for a visit here this past week, one from (I think) Helsinki and the other from Vancouver. Their blogs made me happy in two quite different ways. Helsinki (I think) has the best blog title ever: The Snow Melts Somewhere. Maybe it appeals to me, having grown up in Canada and then having lived a decade in Alaska. I visited around in her posts and liked both the pictures and the tone of the writing. I want to sit down with this blogger someday and have a glass of wine or a rich coffee and discuss our travels. One of her posts I particularly enjoyed included a description of a woman riding a bike in high heels, smoking a cigarette. It reminded me of a time in Italy, hot afternoon, I was having an iced drink on Piazza Maggiore in Bologna when a woman in a tight skirt and high heels rode past on a bicycle. Effortless, she seemed. I will never be that, I thought.

The Vancouver blogger, Damian Trasler’s Secret Blog, has this fine open whimsy. I mean, who doesn’t like a person who builds a respectable Dalek replica? And who takes it out for others to enjoy. Also, besides writing plays he delivers library books to people who can’t get to the library. My mom was one of those people, avidly reading until she died at 99. I imagine Damian Trasler has stories about people like my mother. I appreciated being introduced to a new-to-me book when he reviewed The Legendary Frybread Drive-In.

The world, so wide yet so connected with these lovely filaments of story from everywhere, gives me hope and belief in goodness. This weekend especially I have really needed that.