ever seen a purple rose?

 

I just spent the whole day . . . well, five hours, anyway . . . in a sea kayak plowing the waters between here and neighboring villages. It was my first time, and I'm now in great pain, (and expecting even more tomorrow), but elated by the experience. Never realized how much the sea changes at that surface level, and we had it all. It was almost lake-like when we started, but by the end of the day, we we fighting a wind from the east and a tide that was against us, and it was a real trip to try to find the right rhythm that would let you make any headway through the choppy waters. But we did, through rocks poking out of the water, past wind and wave-shaped islets, past schools of stand up paddlers. (The SUPs have become the hottest thing on the water this year.) Stupidly, I didn't take a camera, so all the great and unusual views of this area from the sea are all just in my head.

Oh yeah, the purple rose. It's officially a "blue" one, and was developed after many years of difficult research by a subsidiary of the sponsor of the radio show that I do. It was to commemorate the 1000th show--at one a week, that's 20 years--though I've only been doing it for about 8. It was a nice gesture, though I received it at 10:00am and had to carry it around all day before going home. So when I handed it to M, she noticed that it was a little frayed. What can I say? How often do you see a purple rose?