Ah-ooooooh!

Sorry, howling at the Full Wolf Moon there.  I took its picture Thursday night but the ones I took yesterday morning as the moon sank through the trees in the west are the better ones.  So you get a morning moon this time.

I've neglected to share news on the avocado pits.  The second one hung to root but first into a pot is going great guns.  I'd banished them both to the bookcase in the bedroom for the holidays and Durwood was mightily surprised to see how tall and leafy it is.  It's about 20 inches tall and the leaves are as long as my hand from wrist to fingertips.  The first one suspended in a jar of water to root took ages longer (that's what happens when you don't follow the directions) finally grew a root and eventually a sprout so it got potted.  Nothing happened for quite a while but now we see that there are at least two and maybe three sprouts sprouting.  Go, pit, go!








Last night at knitting MW said he'd found some excellent (but expensive) yarn not in the regular yarn bins at Goodwill.  He showed me--and all but one skein came home with me.  This is why I have mad money in my wallet.  These are three commercially made yarns and two from a wool farm down in Valders, about 30 minutes from here.  I'm especially eager to knit with the gray skein because it's from a different variety of sheep, Blue-faced Leicester, than the Merino I'm used to.  I wonder if it'll feel different.  The natural brown skein is 100% alpaca that will be made into something for the hands because it is soooo soft.  Or maybe for the neck to be snuggled into.




I also found a pair of new Elmo slippers for LC to wear when she's visiting because everyone's tootsies get chilly in winter and a Hansel & Gretel book with flaps to lift on the pages.  We like flaps to lift and these feature a smart aleck crow that should dilute some of the drama of the wicked witch trying to cook up and eat a little boy.  Fairy tales are amazingly gruesome, aren't they? Must be why children love them.




Oh, speaking of my pal MW, after DD and her family went home I commented that I needed to find another pair of winter boots in size mens 11 or 12 for next winter since one of our pairs was fit only for the garbage.  Last night MW brought this pair of brand new boots that he gave to me.  He said he had an extra pair and I just assumed that they were used.  Silly me.  He wouldn't let me pay him for them either.  How can I cultivate cynicism when people are so nice?

January 14--Alexei von Jawlenski, Selbstbildnis.  Al looked at his face in the cracked and faded mirror over the sink.  His skin bore smudges of color, not bruises, but stripes and splotches of green, yellow, blue, red, and even pink as if an unruly band of kindergartners had attacked him with fingerpaints while he slept.  His hand shook as it lifted to touch his face.  He kept his eyes locked on his reflection, afraid that his hand would be colored too.  It was, and the colors changed as his hand moved.  Sounds filtered up from the street, revelers leftover from last night or ones getting an early start on tonight.  He turned and pulled up the shade.  Every color of flashing neon sign blasted through the dirty glass window.  He heaved a relieved breath.  He wasn't painted colors, it had been reflections.  God, he loved Mardi Gras.

Once I finish my cheese sandwich lunch I want to go out to see if I can chisel some of last week's ice off the driveway... to get ready for the icy mix they're predicting for Monday.  And I have to work on Monday.  Oh goodie.
--Barbara