slinky

i love toys too. heres my most recent aquisition. it took me about an hour to get it to hold in that position. and i havent been able to do it since. but as i continue to fidget, i'll keep trying.

i heart hotels

i love hotels. i dont often stay in them but when i do i love it. the puffy beds, the luxurious sheets. and five - count 'em - 5 pillows! and thats just on one of the beds... sitting at the desk at the end of a day, doing a little work, ordering a little room service. i wonder if this is at all like being a world traveler - which i am not. tonight is my last night here and ill be glad to be home. but ive had a really good time while i was here.

turnpike

i love to drive back country roads with ramshackled houses and rows of mailboxes and deer in the fields. and i do not like to drive highways. no opportunities to look around at scenery and too much watching-out-for-the-other-guy. such was the case this morning when i observed a late model jeep cut across two lanes of traffic to get to the passing lane - in about four seconds. idiot, i thought - as the jeep went screaming off ahead of me. then a few miles down the road, three cars in front of me, the aforementioned idiot screeched to a halt, smoking tires and all. the car behind the jeep swerved. the car in front of me braked. i slammed the brakes and prayed that ABS was real. and it was. when it was over i stopped at the rest area and got sick. give me back roads any day.

rosehips

someone emailed and wanted to know what rosehips were. here's a shot of some that i picked the other day. these seeds have certainly seen better days - probably in september or so.

stuck on you - and on me

another gloriously mild day today. a good day to begin the annual gathering o' the holiday greens. found some wild rosehips, the small wine colored ones, on the side of a hill and managed to cut some despite the steep incline. i thought id done a good job of negotiating the other plant life until i was ready to depart and glanced down at my vest. totally covered with "stick tights." i snapped the picture after i had already pulled off about a million of them. at least.

black (and red & green) friday

one year i shopped the day after thanksgiving. never again. instead i went downtown at dusk for the community tree lighting. one of those events with kids in mufflers, free hot chocolate, and santa claus on a town fire truck. quite small town. but in truth i felt a slight sense of wonderment as santa rounded the corner into the town square and came into view.

giving thanks

for family
for friends
for good health, my own and loved ones both
for prosperity
for luck
for meaningful work i love to do
for music
for play
for opportunities to learn
for quiet
for smiles
for serendipitous moments

dud dessert

see those tiny little pans? i drove twenty miles to buy them just for a new recipe for thanksgiving dessert. i followed the directions to a t. i used buttermilk. i timed the baking. and all the while a little voice kept saying, pumpkin and cocoa in the same recipe?? - are you crazy? i should have listened. the final product is wretched. awful. unpalatable. and certainly not fit for thanksgiving dinner.

ice in

very early this morning on my way to work, i rounded a bend to find this small marshy area, completely ringed with white ice. the first ive seen of the season. it wasnt til i stopped to look that i noticed the fine crackely film of ice sitting atop the water. all the way to the other side. winters coming.

maybe its cold outside

so its finally getting a little colder. cold enough to wear gloves this morning on my way out. late meeting this evening and when i came out, the roof of the car was all covered with sparkly frost. i could see my breath. and on my way home coming through the flat the stars were close and breathtakingly brilliant. nights like this smack of winter to come. hence the woodstove, warming my back as i write.

relish the relish

thanksgiving is coming and today was cranberry orange relish day. cranberries, an orange, and a bit of sugar, ground up and left to sit in the fridge for a few days so flavors will meld. i make this every year. my mother made it before me. its thanksgiving tradition. but there are only two of us who like it. and only in small bites and only on t-day itself. so even though i make a little less each year, the leftovers still sit in the refrigerator til new years and my annual resolution to keep the space cleaner and more organized. then it gets thrown out. this happens year after year. its tradition.

the rogue shrub

previous postings have alluded to the fact that the weathers been unusually warm for november. heres proof positive: a forscythia in bloom. normally this plant flowers in the springtime, in april. seeing it starting its growth five months early makes me wonder how animals must deal with all this odd weather. no wonder chipmunks havent hibernated yet.

bargain herb

this is a small thyme plant i bought in september. on sale at 75% off. i had hoped to save it for thanksgiving, for the carrots. but look how leggy its getting reaching for sunlight its not going to find around here. it may not make it one more week. perhaps its thyme for the compost pile.

nanodreams

new knowledge today and i am once again in awe of all things scientific. i heard a presentation on nanotechnology, science and technology on the scale of a nanometer - a unit so small that one million nanometers side by side would extend the diameter of a pinhole. its estimated that a human hair is 50,000 to 80,000 nanometers wide and grows at the approximate rate of 10 nanometers per second. the scale alone confounds me. couple that with the technology thats being developed on that scale: nanotubes lighter than a feather and a thousand times stronger than steel in sports equipment, silver nanoparticles thought to repel bacteria and viruses, nanovelcro that may some day replace welding and nails. odd that i have such big thoughts for so tiny an entity.

all for naught

my snow tires have been on my car for almost two weeks. tshirts are packed away and turtlenecks are stacked up neatly in the drawer. snow sticks line the driveway at work. mittens fill the box by the back door. but look - its still so warm, we have fog. somewhere up over those trees, there are mountains we havent seen in days and days.

wired

this is the back of the television at my brothers house. i have no idea what all these wires go to or why you need so many for one tv. of course, its one of those huge screen things, probably HD - the kind you dont have to wear your glasses to see. what i do know is my brothers the tech geek in the family. he knows everything. including, im sure, what all these wires are for.

last wash

the forecast says rain all week. but i cleaned my car anyway, probably for the last time til spring. traveling around so much for work, the car has turned into my office. the place can get pretty gross with books and files and papers and crumbs. but for now its shiny and clean. i even put potpourri in the ashtray. and i armoralled!

december in november

at last count, i had 32 cds of christmas music. thats not including pieces ive downloaded from the internet. with great anticipation, i wait for the appropriate seasonal time to play this music, usually beginning at daybreak of the morning after thanksgiving. but the holiday season is short and my list is extensive. so this year im starting early.

oxymoron

despite today's rain, it is indeed a beautiful day.

election day

for the first time ever, today i voted a straight ticket. i sure hope it works.

the promise of spring

this bulb is the very last one to be planted. it joins others that have been buried over the past few weeks. salome and mount hood narcissus and a variety of daffodils all bedded down in fertile soil at the edge of the woods. i hope they make it and dont become a december snack for some tunneling mole. sleep tight, little seeds. see you in the spring.

robot!

my mom's eyes are failing and she sometimes has a hard time with housework. i thought about paying extra hours to her cleaning lady. but i bought her a roomba instead. you should see that thing scoot around the place with a mind of its own, cleaning the floors, stopping at nothing. pretty amazing - and very efficient! but mom can't sit and chat with a robot like she can with her cleaning lady. the down side of technology...

weekend trip

on my way to visit my mom, i stopped to buy her some penuche, her favorite. here's the street sign for the appropriately named road the candy shop is on.

first frost

this morning we had our first real frost. the kind that drops dead oak leaves from their branches the minute the sun hits. the kind that paints the edges of fallen leaves and dead grasses. the still, quiet kind that heralds the impending cold season.

milkweed

a milkweed pod with seeds just about ready to sail, spotted from a window on this fine november morning. tomorrows forecast is for snow, sleet, and rain. today may have been as good as it gets.