short stories 2

You may have noticed that I haven’t been playing with fonts lately.  I’ve decided that I rather like Chalkboard so I am abandoning Comic Sans.

An artist friend of mine, a sculptor and teacher at a college in Chicago, has recently started a blog.  He’s got about 6 posts so far and 1 follower (me).  John is a very smart guy and has an interesting mind, a little edgy.  Not only that, we are doing a trade and I gotta say, I think I got the better end of it.  If you are surfing the web this holiday weekend, stop by Random Walks and check it out.

Son and DIL came out to the country house for Thanksgiving.  Since they are both vegetarians we didn’t do a turkey.  Instead, I made a nut loaf.  I needed two cups of ground nuts and I thought the different layers looked really cool in the measuring cup.  From bottom to top the layers are almonds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, almonds, pecans and walnuts.  We had a butternut cranberry casserole and a green salad among other dishes.  And my son made a brandied fig and pecan pie.  The pecans in the dishes are the ones I collected and shelled.  The butternut squash came from our garden this summer and the green peppers in the salad came from our winter garden.

brandied fig and pecan pie (and yes, that’s three leaves and a stegosaurus)

I took another load of pecans to the crackers today.  It took me about two weeks to shell the first 31 pounds.  This time it was only 19 pounds.  This time I separated the good nuts from the obviously bad ones first.  For some reason I thought this was a better strategy.  At least it doesn’t look like so many to wade through.

I found a new store in Wharton today.  Historical Hardware and Antiques.  I actually went in to inquire about the cabinet maker catty-cornered from them, if he kept regular hours or not.  One of the drawers in my buffet needs repair.  I wish I had had my camera with me.  I could lose time in that place.  In fact, when I walked in I told the lady I could easily spend all day here.  She told me that was fine, she would be here but it would take me longer than a day.  We started to chat a bit.  She’s about my age.  By the time I left, the cabinet maker was there so I got my other bit of business taken care of.  I chatted with him a little as well.  It’s nice to find some of the local artisans.

I can already see the glimmers of spring to come.  The rocket larkspur seeds I spread out a couple of weeks ago have already sprouted.  The baby-blue-eyes that volunteer every year have sprouted as well.  They might even start blooming in early February.  And the bluebonnets and evening primrose are filling in the bare spots in the lawn from the hot summer.  And though winter has not really settled on us yet, these little beauties are already giving me a promise.

I’ve been unpacking some of our things.  Now that we are comfortable with the way the furniture is arranged I’m willing to hang pictures and put out the ‘stuff’.  I packed most of this stuff over a year ago and so I am rediscovering some things.  For instance, I found a simple little sculpture I made years ago that I didn’t remember packing.  I’ve been looking all over for this little item, sorely distressed by it’s disappearance.  Things are slowly finding their places.