After lunch today I went out on the deck by the ravine and mused on my story. I sat under an umbrella and sipped tea. The sun was brilliant. Birds sang–baby birds. I couldn’t see them, but I distinctly heard the soft peeping of a handful of hungry little things. I don’t know where the nest is. It seemed, rude, somehow to go poking about looking for it. Harassed parents need their privacy.

Then I saw this corona around the sun. I don’t know if there were actually sundogs or not; the brolly was in the way (and even I’m not dim enough to gawp directly at the sun). For a moment the sky turned into a blue mirror. If you look carefully, you can see the shadow of the central contrail against the sky. An astonishing thing. I felt like a millionaire.