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The weather is up and down. It is almost Thanksgiving here in the states. When reading about the state of our country, there is little to be thankful for. Each week is a new low. I told Patrick not to come down for the holiday because all of them will be here in just another month. I have been asked to come to dinner by kind women who knew I would be alone. Also one of the old guys I meet for coffee asked if I would like to join him and his wife. How nice is that!

My doctor friend who usually has dinner with us has opted for a nice dinner out for the two of us to catch up. This year she cannot spend Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner with us. So dinner out at a nice restaurant seems a good option.

I ordered new boxing gloves. They are too thin so am returning them for heavier ones. I am hitting harder and at 81, need more protection for my knuckles. It feels so good to swing and connect with a good one.

Earlier this week I cut back all the dying ferns in the pots and decided to replace with sticks and stones for the winter. I have stones but had to order sticks. I like the straight birch branches. Now I am waiting for more to arrive via Amazon. A neighbor who has a good decorating eye is consulting with me and is ready to go back to a local shop with me to find more of whatever the pots need to look right. Here is one of the three by the front walk to the door.

This week I went to the monthly ladies lunch from the neighborhood. I also went to a HOA meeting. Between them I have used up my socializing in groups skills, so will retreat for a few months. Always best to quit while ahead.

Still writing. Working on essays right now. This is an excerpt from 1955, the story of moving to Florida to meet my father’s mother.

“………totally speechless, as we watched her sharpened fingernails slowly peel a nectarine grown in the back yard. Once the skin was removed, I thought she’d eat broken off sections. But no, each membrane thread had to be slowly, ever so slowly, removed and dropped onto the peelings. Then she’d look up from her tangerine to make eye contact before slowly putting sections into her mouth to savor even more slowly, offering nothing.”

I never liked the old woman. And never remember calling her anything…just wait for her to look at me and then talk quickly before escaping the room. Anyway, it is making a good essay on life in the fifties and how children stayed quiet, hoping not to be noticed. One generation later and that thinking is all but gone.

This morning I thought I would get out my carving tools and attempt a Christmas card. I will spend a few days on it before deciding whether I should, after so, so many years give it up and just buy a few cards. We’ll see. There is always the back side of the block if I screw it up.

When a wood block has been editioned, it is supposed to be destroyed. For some sentimental reason I just kept all mine. Not to use again because that is wrong, just could not part with all that work and memory of the fun in doing them. Now I wish I had buried them all with the other things some years back. We are not allowed burn barrels here, or I would love tossing them in, one by one. I will have to think of how I might do that…not here, but somewhere where I could have a bit of a farewell ceremony and a glass of something nice.

Time to get a bit of lunch and back to my audio book and carving.

Til later…

 

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Bit of snow here the other morning. It was gone by noon. It spurred me on to baking and soup making.

I no sooner reconciled myself to colder weather and then it is sunny and high 60s.

I am trying to decide if I have enough poems for a new book. Today was spent going through them all to get them in the same font and size. Poetry needs to be in a Garamond font for it to look right anymore. I used to think Times New Roman was the best, but now it looks heavy handed. I shall lay the poems all out on pages to see how they should be placed. originally I thought of throwing the essays and short stories in there as well, but changed my mind. Poems are poems and need to keep their own company. And once I decide to get the poetry book finished, I will concentrate more on short stories.

For now, the essays are filling my time as well. Especially the one about museum shops. Seems I would often buy a sketch or notebook in the shop and write or draw what I saw at the museum. The book from the Vancouver museum was fun to peruse. It was an exhibition of Emily Carr, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Frida kahlo. I never could get excited about Kahlo’s work…way too much color…too many flowers! So it appears according to my notebook, that I did not even look at her work. Emily Carr and her passion for nature and especially trees, very much appealed to me. Georgia O’Keeffe’s work was all too familiar but what she had to say about her work was interesting. I knew she stole the stones her friends had collected but could not remember how I knew that until I found my museum notebook. And there it was! She simply helped herself believing she loved them more. I remembered knowing this when I visited her home in Abiquiu, NM. Lots of stones lined the window sills. I would have demanded mine be returned. We get very attached to our stones, don’t we?

I will cut this short because I am going to attend a Homeowners Association this afternoon, and need to tidy up a bit. Home alone does little to enhance appearances.

Til later….

last week I was thinking that I should just let my website drop. Keep the blog but drop the general website. BUT after talking to my web person, Robert, we decided to keep it. I had no idea that 7,000 people a year check in to see what I am about…even what I was about. And after looking it over myself, I found all that I used to do and am doing surprising. So with a few updates, we left it pretty much as is.

The big thing that I noticed was that none of my books were pictured or mentioned on the site. And since Lee died a few years ago, I no longer live with my husband. Small adjustments including a more up to date resume page. It no longer reads like I stopped doing anything in 2014. Now the gallery page is more complete and the blog easy to find on the home page menu.

Today under the watchful eye of Sadie….

I baked cinnamon rolls for the guys and MJ tomorrow morning.

I also have decided what my next exhibition for the garage will be. I will be using the bottles of BIC white out and buying myself a new bottle of champagne for my opening reception for one. Working title is REDACTION. I will let you know how it goes.

Next week I will start to lay out the pages and cover for a new poetry book. And will let you know when it is available to add to these below that are now on the gallery page and mentioned more in detail on the menu page titled “Books”.

 

 

I think that is all I have for now except another of Sadie saying it is time for a nap!

Til later….

 

I am getting that look from Dilly. I think she is saying, “Just stop everything and pet me.” I think it is a good idea.

A couple of weeks ago the HOA yard people came and out of the blue decided that this tree needed some control. The problem was I didn’t catch them in time to say my regular yardman and I were going for a larger, freeform look. Something so the bush/tree did not look so trapped in itself. Now even the rabbit is exposed.

I need to call and explain that no tree trimming is necessary here unless in violation of some ordinance. And I need to be nice about it. Actually I think I am getting better on that score. What has turned me is that I do not want to sound like some of my neighbors who turn everything into a complaint. I am giving myself a pep talk before walking around the neighborhood, plastering a smile on my face and putting one foot in front of the other. It actually gets easier.

When I feel that I need to take control of arranging things to my liking, I do not look at my over-trimmed, rabbit-exposing bush/tree and come inside to move something on a shelf by 3/4″ and all sense of order is restored. It’s the little things.

Today I baked these pumpkin oatmeal muffins. No flour and nothing but maple syrup to sweeten them. Now I will have to poke several holes in them and make a thin maple flavored frosting to drizzle inside. They also sit like lead pellets.

I am thinking that it might be a good idea to cut my website down to just the blog. I no longer make art, and when I do, it can be part of my blog. I will need to ask my web guy about it when I see him. Actually, we have lost touch with each other these past months.

I keep writing poetry more than short stories so am also thinking about another book of just poetry and putting stories and essays in a separate book.

There is a new coffee shop about to open in town. I plan on going when it does and ordering a flat white. It would be so nice to have one again. Not sure this small town can actually muster up a barista, but it would be so nice to have a good coffee with a heart or fern leaf etched into the finest of foams. This week I may be able to order one and take a picture.

Also a new Asian restaurant is due to open on the square. But nothing happens quickly here.

The rest of the afternoon might be spent indulging in a movie or series. Something English to be sure.

Off to frost those pitifully healthy-tasting muffins, then grab a cat to pet and settle in for the sound and views of somewhere else.

Til later…..