LoGoLy

So, yesterday I went to the Magnolia Bake Shop (the oldest business in town, dating back to the 1920s) and ordered a german chocolate cake. I've failed at this seemingly simple request the last three times I was in town. One time they told me 'the machine is broken' as the purported reason, which has passed into the category of catchphrase between Janice and myself, shorthand for somebody offering a reason that went beyond ridiculously implausible to verge on the surreal.

Then Janice came up with the great idea of ordering ahead. German chocolate cake? they said. No problem, they said. How about I swing by and pick it up around one o'clock? they said. I gave them till two just to be on the safe side, and not long later was digging in. A major infraction of the low-carb diet, but oh so worth it.

Then it was out to the cemetery to see how the flowers already out there were holding up so we'd know whether we shd add to or replace. Then we went by a florist and picked out what we wanted, to be picked up tomorrow.

Late in the afternoon we went out to Logoly (pronouncd LOW-Go-Lye), once a boy scout camping ground,* then an abandoned park, now a cleaned up state park, v. pleasant for those in need of a long walk. Among things we spotted were cypress knees (which I'd first seen in this park years ago), a little lizard that was not at all afraid of us, a meandering creek, a granddaddy longlegs (which used to be a spider but aren't anymore), deer tracks, and some oddly scorched trees. I looked but did not see any sassafras.

Perhaps the most interesting part was the most historical one. Upon a time, a century and more ago, there was a spa called Magnesium Springs on the site that is now Logoly. The hotel for those who came to take the waters is long gone, destroyed in a fire, and I haven't been able to locate a photograph or floorplan yet. But the old open-air soaking area from the onetime spa survives and has been refurbished, albeit without the water (the water level having since fallen).

Today we took flowers out to the cemetery, where we cleaned up family graves, and spent time at the yard, where I set out some winter pansies in the yard next to the little mimosa. The wildlife I spotted today was either very large or very small. At the large end of the scale were two buzzards or turkey vultures hovering over the neighborhood (common in the area, rare to see in town). The small were grasshoppers (which we also have out in Washington) and crickets (which so far as I know we don't) and a dirt-dobber (which I think was hunting ants). Have to say I'm enjoying the coffee shops that have opened up downtown in the last year or two.

Tomorrow comes the big family get-together, and a planned visit to what I suppose must count as one of my two favorite restaurants.

--John R.
---current reading: still Sayers.

*in my time it was Camp Desoto over near El Dorado we used for our week at summer camp.