Happy Birthday Art Clokely! Gumby an Pokey are cool!

I am listening to rain fall off the eaves, occasional thunder followed by lightning (strange how I notice it backwards this morning), and a train moving off east. One thunder boom was so loud it woke me from a sound sleep and sent Mags scurrying under the bed. I love waking to the smell of petrichor in the morning.

I was planning on running in the park this morning, but I don't know that I will now. Too muddy at the one park and I am likely going to be a walking zombie soon. Ahh well, I may yet be able to get back to sleep for a bit.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

To everyone living in the frozen Northern wasteland, Happy Thanksgiving. I hope y'all have a great day!!

I woke to the sound of rain falling off the eaves this morning. The weather page says .75 inches already with another 1.5 still to come. I will not have to water most plants today, if any.

A red headed wood pecker visited our bird bath yesterday. So far, there have been more interesting birds in this yard than at the Brittany place. There is more bushes for them to disappear into here.

I did go for a run yesterday. I was not as efficient as I once was, but not as bad as I was when I began last December. It felt great to be running once more. My broken toe gave me no real pain though there was some discomfort.

We managed to get the boxes out of the living room and kitchen yesterday. Still a lot to do, but at least the house is not looking like a total mess.

Today, I will likely walk down to the library to get Taha's most recent poetry collection. I will also go down to the coffee house for a morning stroll/coffee. It is nice to be living somewhere that we can do that. I really loved living in Chapel Hill and being able to take an afternoon/morning stroll downtown and have a coffee or an ice dish.

If my garden is not too muddy, I will do some digging. I also need to wash clothes (an iron), do some research for a project that is work related, and organize my office a bit. I may also make a nice curried soup with yellow split peas. yum.

I had a bit of sad news last night. The poet Taha Muhammed Ali died Oct. 1. I first heard him at the 2002 Dodge Poetry Festival. This is a video of him reading at the 2006 festival.



When I saw him, he was excited to be in America reading his poetry at the Dodge Festival. Rather hard not to like him and his enthusiasm for life and poetry. He was 80 this year.

Going to try running this morning, hopefully my toe will allow it. I am getting rather tired of its constant whining. 

The weather dudes are calling for t-showers over the next few days. I hope we get a lot of rain as we really really need it.

ok, I am officially weird, or maybe just tired. I am sitting in my big ole easy chair waiting for the Nobelprize.org site to go live so I can hear the announcement for this years winner of the literature prize. At the moment, all one sees is a crowd milling about without any purpose. Schmoozing, I suppose.

Quiet week so far. Busy for a few days, but nothing major happening. Well, I keep waking up at 4:30. I am beginning to wonder if someone nearby leaves for work at that time and makes enough noise to wake me. I was blaming the cats, but they were not responsible this morning.

I haven't had time/energy to do any digging this week, though we did pick up some ornamental cabbage to plunk down in the central flower garden. Still to hot to think about planting pansies, heck, it will likely get to 90 today. There is no point putting pansies out until the temp falls below 80.

Still not fully unpacked either. I don't think I even looked at a box this week. I need to spend some time organizing my bookshelves, reordering the living room, putting away cooking spices, etc., etc.

Well, I am thrilled. The prize was awarded to Tomas Tranströmer,  a poet whom I have read and who is really quite extraordinary. Sides, I am always thrilled when the prize goes to a poet! And, as a Swedish poet, he includes bleak, cold, winter images. Images Canadians can relate to very well. 

I am tired of living surrounded by boxes full of stuff. I suppose i could attempt to empty them, but I find I can easily ignore them to do something else.

Such as beginning to double-dig a small garden patch for Carol's okra next year. Or even a wee bit of lettuce this fall. Have to get busy and plant stuff soon though, as the season gets short. I am working in a pre-worked plot, so the first 6 inches are easy to move. The next 6 are a lot harder. I have a spading fork that I push into the rock like clay with a lot of rocking. Fortunately, I am still quite heavy and can use my weight to help me achieve my goal. I was sitting in the house last night after another short session (1/2 hour or so a couple times since arriving here) and enjoying the way my hands felt. Bit sore from the shovel and spading fork.

Went for a walk in the park yesterday morning. Even the native trees out in the woods are looking sad and droopy from lack of water. We really do need some water.


Today I have to get ready for next week: iron some clothes (blech), cook some soups (yum), dig more dirt, maybe trim some bush in the front and back yard.

The rosemary plant that I moved from the old place to the new appears to be living. It is a gorgeously huge plant and looks great. Rosemary makes a great path side shrug as brushing it while walking past releases a great odor. It is also getting close to pansie purchasing time. Still a little warm for them, but not for long.

My toe is still too sore for running. I tried again yesterday and could not do it. One uses ones toes to push off while running, and the little toe seems quite important given the amount of whining it does right now. I am thinking I will try pedaling round a bit and see if that is easier on the toe.