Spirits

Dinner out went fine and Granny was well, but two years up on my estimate, turning 77 on Monday. Distracted with no real physical work memory for the day.
Objects on the mantle behind the stove in the picture here. I am not quite sure how to interpret this two legged pot bellied bit of wood, so perhaps that is why it never made it into the hatch of no return. It reminds me of some primitive sculptures I have seen and maybe they are the way they are because they are based on pieces of wood, stone or bone like this one.
It is fascinating to look at some of the clay work that can be dug up here and there in Japan. Sometimes you find slightly blurred finger prints in the Jomon work from people moulding clay nearly ten thousand years ago, which gives a little tingle.
It is a while since I have been to the city and it holds certain novelty value to see so many people moving about together. On the street signs above the heads of the crowds there were occasionally jungle crows croaking out some kind of territorial claims that echoed back at a distance from other birds. As I passed under a particularly vocal individual I gave a gurgly croak like the sounds I have heard young birds make to get food and for an instant I was suddenly recognized within the crowd of ignored entities. It quickly returned to its bellowing, but I could see that glint in the eye piercing through the barrier of our marginalized relationship, I wasn't just another one in the herd, then I rejoined the blurry masses.
It is good to have things that make one see what is around one in a different way every now and then, I suppose if one crow in the flock said "Hi" to me I would do a bit of a double take.