This Tuesday we plan to consult a medicine woman to let Cornelia’s eye check. She is available within the next hour so we decide to have a Starbucks coffee nearby. When we have our coffees, I see a nice spot near the window with comfortable seats and a lot of light. A man I do not pay a lot of attention to is already in that corner. We sit there for a while, but Cornelia wants to move further inside the establishment. She has a bad feeling about the man in the corner. She is already at the other table, waving me to come over and take our stuff there. I do that. However, her premonition is all to right. Because I am in such haste, we both forget that Cornelia’s purse is still hanging on the corner seat. When we discover that, it is too late. The purse is gone, and so is the eery man. There is a cheque in there that we were to cash for a friend, some cards (including Cornelia’s Medicare card), and some personal stuff. Most things get resolved. We are lucky that Cornelia still has her creditcards and green card. That would have been disaster. We then set out or go to Tysons corner, a huge mall nearby. It is a jungle of concrete and marble and we spend a lot of time finding our way to the shops. We do not find what we need and advertisements scream at us to buy what we do not need. In the lower parts of the mall it is dark and many workers in the shops seem bored, looking at their phones, lacking customers. This is urban capitalism at its worst. At Walmart a bit further away we do find what we need: a charger for the laptop I write this blog on, and an ironing board for Greg and Dana’s household. We walk 12.000 steps and feel exhausted.

Wednesday is suburban day. I go for a walk around Lake Audubon, close to Dana’s and Greg’s house. The lake breathes pleasure: beautiful houses with docks where they have floating platforms one can have parties on. There is a path around the lake, but at a certain point i get lost in Suburbia. Some houses are at the lake, and their path is theirs. An important principle inside the American tribe is property. One should own as much as one can and one should protect it against others who try to steal one’s belongings. Belongings make one belong to this tribe. The weather is mild, and I take my time to take pictures. I see a nest with two elder birds and I see and hear a fishcrow. These creatures are so lucky to live near a lake named after the great ornithologist and bird painter John James Audubon. I take many pictures of some extraordinary members of the Suburban Plant Tribe.

On Thursday I take a walk in the woods, which I consider as Nature (although I can sometimes see the houses throught the trees). I follow the meandering paths of the Twin Branches trail leading to the Washington and Old Dominion trail. Here, nature seems abundant and alive. Fallen trees are left to their own devices, providing homes to the Insect tribe and food to the other members of the Tree tribe. The light green of spring jumps to the eyes and reaches to the skies. I see deer and am able to take a picture of them (see left).