The Neighborhood Meerkat

A few random photos from our early-morning dog walks...

First, someone set these four perfectly good chairs out on the street. I'm not sure whether they're meant to be trash or they're just being stored outside that garage. Olga seemed perplexed, too.

(That garage, by the way, is crammed with stuff. We've occasionally been walking past when the doors have been open, and holy cow, it's like a used-furniture dealership in there.)

The rare and exotic Orange Peel Butterfly!

This concerns me greatly, but I don't want to think about it too much.

And finally, one of our neighbors down the street keeps this bright yellow meerkat in the front window, guarding the household. (In parts of London, the meerkat is the symbol of the neighborhood watch program.) They've also done the reverse of what most homeowners on our street have done -- they removed the paved parking area in front of their house and installed grass! Most of our front gardens have been vanishing to make room for more cars. I'm glad they bucked the trend.

I barely left the house yesterday. Aside from Olga's early-morning walk, I stayed home and read most of an Ian Rankin novel and took care of some small tasks. I woke up in the morning thinking, "What day is my flight to Florida? It's not today, is it?" I keep having this strange feeling that I'm going to simply forget to go. But no, my flight is Monday.