For two days now a family of quail has been visiting my yard--an adult and a dozen chicks. The adult perches on top of a rock in the yard while the younglings hunt and peck around its base. When mom decides they've explored enough, she hops off the rock and scurries across the road. At first, the younglings don't seem to notice. Then she calls and, lemming-like, they dash after her--a wave of brown-gray bobbing and weaving toward their protector. Very amusing to watch.

I managed to finish a new nonfiction proposal yesterday, but haven't decided if I'll send it out yet or not. I've been so overwhelmed with the current project that the thought of diving straight into another deep subject gives me pause. Maybe what I need is something that's pure fancy, totally imaginative and playful. I think I'll just let things sit on my desk for a while and see what time tells me to do.

Sunday I'll be going to an open house at my friend Sloan's new casa. She has been busy working on it and pulling it together since January or February. With her great sense of design, color and style, it will be exciting to see what she has done with her mid-century residence. I saw it early-on, before she'd begun casting her magic on it, so it will be interesting to see the renewed space.