Instead of Leaf Blowing...

... this morning I sat myself down at the desk and worked rewriting the dive scene that I wrote up at The Clearing.  I asked ACJ to read it when we met to write together on Monday and she had lots of questions about the dive and the shipwreck and the underwater scenery.  I realized that since it's something I'm so familiar with I leave out a lot of info.  I don't want to sound like I'm lecturing on underwater flora or teaching a dive class but ACJ's questions helped me strike a balance between "showing" and "telling."  ("Showing" being the good way to write, "telling" isn't so good, it's more lecture-y.)

Once I got the scene rewritten and emailed off to ACJ for a reread (much better, she said) I made myself a late-ish lunch, then gathered up the bag of chicken peels (no, not peels of chicken, veggie and fruit peels to feed the grand-chickens) and the repaired grandkid hats to deliver.  I was surprised and pleased to see DS was there so I got to visit with him while he fed the chickens and looked for eggs. He very politely gave me the one egg laid by Quesadilla, the dark brown chicken.  (I nestled it inside this glove to get it home unbroken)  He knows that because she's the only one laying right now.  He threatened them that unless they get busy and start laying eggs there'll be barbecued chicken on the menu real soon.  Eek.  I can't blame him, it's expensive to keep feeding them and still have to buy eggs but I'd miss being able to go over and feed them my scraps and get a fresh egg or two every once in a while.  Come on, ladies, get laying.



I worked on the first Appleseed Mitt tonight at Friday Night Knitting.  I've got a few more rounds of palm and then an inch of ribbing at the top before picking up the thumb stitches (held on red yarn until needed) and a couple more on the hand side, and then knitting the thumb.  Then I'll knit another one.  I'm hoping that the cable cuff part of the second mitt goes faster.  This first one was kind of laborious, mostly because the yarn is sooooo soft and can be splitty.  But oh, I'll have 100% alpaca mitts to keep my little hands warm this winter.  No, you can't have them.

Last night at sunset the light outside was orange and when I went out on the porch the sky was aflame.  Just gorgeous.  I didn't want you to miss it.


2 November--Sanford Robinson Gifford, Kaaterskill Falls.  Val and Gabe stepped off the trail into the stream.  The cold water felt good on their tired feet.  They hadn't meant to step into the water but the brush grew right to the water's edge so they were in the stream before they knew it.  Val looked up toward the roar and saw the waterfalls high above pouring over the lip of the bluff.  The falls were framed by the golden yellow of the autumn leaves, making her feel like she had stepped into King Midas' vault filled with gold.

And that, my children, is that for today.  Here it is 11 o'clock and here I am typing in my blog post.  My excuse tonight is that I don't get home from knitting until 9 o'clock and it takes me a couple hours to unwind enough to sleep.  Now I'm unwound.
--Barbara