safe and sound

,ok,so......the plane trip from start.....as in leaving the house....to finish.....as in walking in nick's front door.....took 6 hours......as opposed to 10 but it felt so leisurely as to be less the time.....of course, we arrived at the louisville airport 2 hours early.....and our baggage pickup was complicated by a clog on the conveyor.....oy.....stephan was ith nick, having arrived by train earlier in the evening......roseanne was waiting up and was kind enough to let us all eat and unwind before suggesting we all turn in....i awoke this morning refreshed and eager to have my ritual tour of the garden with coffee in hand whle the dew is still on the boxwood.....nick's garden is a multi-acre showplace with 2 massive lilyponds, gazebos, gravel paths, and 'rooms' separated by 12foot box hedges or trellises.....his box have suffered from voles who burrow in their roots.....he has received a crate of ferral cats from a rescue group called friends of the felines to catch the voles.....they are currently confined to the stone springhouse.....they must be confined for two weeks to assure that they will stay......tommorrw is the day for the door to be left ajar...and we may be able to catch sight......seems cats , ferral or otherwise, are the thing with local gardeners....his friend karen has 14, which nick termed cat saturation.......he is hoping that the cats will catch the voles.....and may go so far as to acquire a terrier to catch groundhogs......we suggested a deerhound for the deer......but he won't commit to a full complement of varmint-chasing pets.....go figure......must motivate the vacationers to go downtown....the day is getting away from us