Saturday.

When I sat down at the computer this morning there was a reminder waiting for me.

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood, I had no commitments for the day, and after catching up on my email and blogs and coffee, away I went.

This is what greeted me as I drove into the parking lot.

Is that a timeless picture of childhood or what?

Is this the right place?

Indeed it is.

I got there near the end of the day and heard only the last speaker, who spoke about the prayer shawl ministry. She made several good points:

• It doesn't have to be a shawl. The item could be a hat or a pair of socks or a scarf. Not everyone, i.e., the male half of the population, will wear or appreciate a shawl.
• It doesn't have to represent a prayer; it can say, I am thinking of you or Here's a hug or whatever. No need for a Come-to-Jesus conversion.

She teaches in an alternative learning center. For those of you not familiar with that term, an ALC is a school, often a high school, for students who are not suited to the regular classroom. Generally not for developmentally disabled students, the ALC is geared toward those who might well otherwise drop out of school -- teen parents (day care is provided for their babies and toddlers), kids with severe ADHD, kids with anger management problems, kids with issues.

She told a story about knitting caps for the kids in her first class there, which made me think about the kids that Smokey works with at the hospital.

I may knit some caps myself if he can distribute them.

Knitters, when present in an audience, always look alike.

Here's what I mean: see those busy hands?

One of my table mates was interested everything.

I did bring  home a little something.

A closer look (aren't those colors fun?):

* * * * *

On the drive home I saw somethi--, er, somebody in the road.

It was crossing the road after leaving this, a little stream that runs through a wetland -- nearly dry because we are in a three-year drought -- then flows through a culvert under the road.

I knew it had come from there because I could see the trail it had left in the mud.

Ugly suckers, mud turtles (I think; I didn't put my fingers close enough to find out it was really a snapper)... (ETA: I have since been corrected by, not one, but TWO, biologists. This is a indeed a snapping turtle. Mud turtles only grow to about 5 inches in length. This guy's shell was a good foot long. Thanks, lisa and sparrowgrass!)

I hope it made it where it wanted to go.