Yesterday, a box appeared in our mail.

It was from Kelowna, British Columbia (Canada).

It was very lightweight.

It said, “Open Me!”

When a package squeaks, I find it best to oblige.

So we slit the seems on the top, laid it on the grass and watched.

A small, red and gold dragon emerged slowly.

At first he seemed confused and a little disoriented. After all, he comes from a place where the ocean is on the other side of the land; our ocean is east, but his was west.

A stroll around the garden seemed to restore his spirits, though.

He has a particular fondness for scented flowers…

I offered to take him to the beach to see the capelin, but he was pretty tired after such a long journey. Instead, he found a little girl and wheedled him way into her arms for the night.

“Nimbus,” she tells me his name is.

And he is most welcome here!

*Nimbus came from the address of Crystal Mandryk, although there was nothing in the box to tell me who made him and there are a few knitters in that family. My bets are on Crystal, but I could be off. He has a particularly long neck and looks like he’d be a good swimmer. He is fitting in beautifully here and apparently does not breathe fire. Of course, I have yet to find out if he’s a particularly truthful dragon or if he is at all prone to fibs. In any event, I have the fire extinguisher handy.