Asakiyume mita

You know how dreams can be hard to recall? You can think you have them--you can still be reverberating with them--but then when you try to go through, piece by piece, they melt away? Well, I had thoughts over the last few days of things I wanted to share, and they've gone the way of dreams.

Like, one was cars with names that are also . . . . What. Oh, I remember: math terms. Nissan Numerator (also Nissan Denominator). Toyota Sine, Cosine, and Tangent. Ford Asymptote.

There were other things to share, maybe about apple blossoms? Or books? Or fan art for Ancillary Mercy (like this or this of Sphene)? But they have vanished from my mind like morning mist on a sunny day.

So here's something I thought, though. When people tell me about their conflicts with others, or when I think over my own, I'm always imagining tweaks in the scripts of the players to arrive at happier conclusions. Sometimes even in an actual conversation, I'll find myself saying, "Say XX, and then I can say YY." But of course people prefer to come up with their own lines, thank you very much! With novels, yes: I get to decide all the lines. But real life is that extra bit muddy and unpredictable. And then I thought, well, and even novels benefit from unpredictability--not so much that the story seems random, but enough that it's breathtaking. At least in places.

Two gin and tonics, enriched and flavored by sweetfern (spicy, aromatic) and heal-all (can't discern its flavor,but it's in the mint family, and its name tells me it heals all!)

I practiced on a skateboard this morning. I still don't get it at all, but at least I see where and how I must get it. Lean to the left, lean to the right. Balance.

Goldfinches, hardly visible, but audible in the unrelenting blue sky. Sparrows. Mourning doves. Hawks. Also: things that rustle, invisibly, in the greenery. Snakes, chipmunks, squirrels, mice.

In bloom: yarrow, spotted knapweed, birdsfoot trefoil, black-eyed susans, meadowsweet, goatsbeard (mainly to seed), crown vetch, queen anne's lace, chicory, day lilies, purple clover, rabbit's foot clover, hop clover, butter-and-eggs (toadflax), purple toadflax, poke blossoms.

Could it be that the world is made of mathematics, and when we make music, we're reaching for those principles? Here is the number Tau (it's Pi x 2) played as music: