NEWS FROM THE HERON

When I returned to Iwatsuki, I didn't go back to the park right away...gimme a break...IT WAS SNOWING! So I assumed God wanted me to stay home and draw all those pictures about my time down in Okinawa, until it got warm enough for me to go see my critter friends again.

Yesterday, warm or no, I HAD to go out. I needed to go to the doctor's. Last weekend, I'd asked Kinya to go pick up my medicine for me--the clinic said they'd give it to him--but he couldn't take the blood test in my place; I had to go now and take that myself. What a relief tho'; it got up to 22 degrees Celcius (72 Farenheit) by the afternoon! Thank You, Lord! It was so warm, in fact, on the way back, I asked Kinya to come with me, and we both went to the park.

What fun to see the carp, mallards, crows, turtles, herons...but as I was zooming in on Little Blue Boy (a Great Blue Heron), it seemed he craned his long neck to the south side of the park.

Yes, I'd seen that level piece of ground covered by loose soil, but what...I sucked in my breath...oh! The Old Storytelling Tree (July 6 post) was no longer there!

It had stood there and seen so many things, but it wasn't there anymore, was it? I was glad then, I'd drawn it last year when I felt the urge to do so.

No, he doesn't have two heads; I just didn't know how to draw him.