So, yesterday I petted an alligator named Lucy. We'd gone down to our favorite farmers' market, the one in Auburn.* When it's summer season Janice and I generally go about once a weekend to look around at fruit and vegetables but sometimes add a craft item. Two weeks ago it was a wooden pen. I like wooden pens for the aesthetics but they tend not to be v. durable. By far the most interesting non-food item this week was a booth which held a smallish alligator and a python with unusual color. Their keeper encouraged them to interact with people. Hence these photos. The alligator was active and confident; the boa lively. We got to stroke each while we got there handler to hold them A pleasant surprise. I'll have to see if the group of Seattle turtle fanciers whose exhibition we stumbled across quite a few years ago on the other side of Seattle are still active. --john R P.S. *This is the one with the crow statue, complete with little statues of French fries. Somebody out there knows his or her crow. Current (re-)reading: skimming bits of A. A. Milne' play adaptation of Grahame WIND IN THE WILLOWS