Here you have it, ladies and gentleman. Photographic proof that God, after wandering the streets of Boston and Cambridge with chalk in hand, has finally come home to roost here in Keene, NH. I’m glad to see that God has moved out of his monochromatic phase in order to embrace all colors of the chalky spectrum. I’m also heartened to see that God likes to play hopscotch along the bikepath that skirts alongside Keene’s own Beaver Mills: it’s better than having the Divinity playing in traffic.

And in case you’ve wondered if east coast gulls are any different from west coast ones, they’re not. Yesterday my friend A (not her real initial) and I had a marvelous day at Crane’s Beach in Ipswich, MA: the clouds and then thunderstorms waited until afternoon to descend, so we had several hours of sunning, reading, napping, and a bone-chillingly brief swim before we headed off to get ice cream on our rain-washed way home. Although the greenheads were not (fortunately!) active, the seagulls were: I snapped this photo of one daring individual who showed no interest in our tuna sandwiches but who materialized out of the suddenly overcast blue when we opened a bag of potato chips. (Alas, no photos of me, A, or anyone else in swimsuits, thank you.) On the beach, no one needs chalked reminders from God to stop worrying and be happy: the sound of surf and the sensation of wet sand on bare toes is reminder enough.