Dear love, up in the aerie in pink leotard tee and white cotton panties, sipping rosé, listening to rain steadily fall. I've just pulled a pan of roasted vegetables from the oven: a combination of an unusual variety of eggplant (skin white & pale lavender; shape long and thin, curved like a handheld bow), "Carmen" red peppers, white onion, and "Juliet" (tiny plum) tomatoes, halved. I seasoned the chopped vegetables with minced garlic, EVOO, a pinch of salt, and fresh pepper, and then experimentally wondered if I could make caponada all in the roasting step - so I added a spoonful of capers, olives that I pitted (wonderful ones from Sahadi on Atlantic Avenue), and a bit of sugar stirred with red wine vinegar, that I poured over the top and mushed all together with my hands. Haven't tasted it yet - but it smells really good, and we'll have it spooned over sauteed cod, packages of which I found on sale 40% off today, along with ears of what must be the last of the summer corn.

Dear love, I thought of you today, at one point effectively, extremely so, and hope you had a wonderful spell with me too. Nothing to report really this evening, dearest. I've been feeling a little spacey, I think it's the weather, another tropical storm system moving through. I went for a walk at the conservation area this morning. I was the only one there, a couple of cars were pulling out around 9:30 when I arrived. I had the place to myself, me and the view of rainfilled billowing clouds with complex fractal edges that roiled as they shifted eastward over the undulating gray backdrop of mountains. At the overlook the river eez so gray today, thus comparing unfavorably with the Rhine, as I recall a young student intern from France sniffing, her pronouncement when with great excitement I took her to Wave Hill for her first glimpse of my favorite local river. I took umbrage, I did! Ah, never mind. Today the water was indeed "so gray," silvery and still, and the scene wasn't misty so much as saturated, green marshland flooded in a series of carved rivulets, air opalescent, trees oppressively dark and unreflective, foliage beginning to turn color if you can believe it - bypassing flaming oranges & yellows for the can't-quite-get-the-fire-started half-heartedly hissing log with dark yellow incandescence that goes out without a massive infusion of perfectly dry kindling - I think from all these storms.

And that's about it darling - do you really think there'll be a New Castle for us in Victorville? One can hope. Is that what you mean by the plan for us to get together? Okay, that works for me. You're very sweet. Til then, dearest Captain, come visit me again tonight, as I know you tend to do...