Monkeys and Rumer Godden

Well, Lauren, you wanted to know more about the monkeys here in South Africa! You would love them.

You can really see the wheels of their minds working. They are an open book.

Not long ago a monkey came into the house, and he just happily went for a bowl of Macadamia nuts on the counter. Then he spotted me, and his face fell. You could see his thoughts: "Rats, she's here."

For one split second, he looked from me to the macadamia nuts, and he was thinking: "Can I chance it?" He so wanted those macadamia nuts.

Meanwhile, I had gotten excited and said: "Out! Out! You can't stay here, monkey."

In the next split second, his face said: "I've got to get those nuts.""

He grabbed a handful and ran out the door in a flash with a happy look on his face and, right in open sight on the porch, almost companionably, he cracked open his macadamia nuts, not concerned about me at all, and left the cracked shells where they fell.

I remember a book I read once by Rumer Godden. And this is what I remember about it.

A teen-age girl was sitting on her porch, probably in India. She was talking to a monkey who had a name, and they were feeding each other fruit. They were easy-going long-time friends who shared.

The name of the book, I"m pretty sure, was Peacock Spring. Rumer Godden was one of my favorite authors. I'm going to look for some of her books again.

 Indian Ocean Report

This morning I would describe the Indian Ocean as smooth. The current is moving along quite quickly. I mean smooth in the sense of "cool." Sophisticated, you know. I don't see white caps like little sailboats in the distance. There are waves, yet the ocean is like walking down the street paying no mind.

I love looking at the ocean.