Harvesting

I was lurching all about the state yesterday, and it was an immense pleasure to be driving round on another heavenly bright day and peek at peaking foliage (and the campaign signs that have mushroomed on our rural roadsides!) I've had meetings, medical appointments, or errands every day and most evenings since last I blogged--hence the lack of blogging.

Yesterday was by far the busiest day. In the morning in the Capitol city I had a meet-up with a vampire. Well, actually a phlebotomist, and she was very friendly. The was a result from my annual physical, where I stunned all and sundry with my weight loss. We're now curious to see if there's an improvement in my cholesterol levels, which are generally good-to-normal. From the lab I raced to my meeting with the Bishop and others to plan our 2009 Diocesan Spring Event, but I was half an hour early, meaning I could eat yogurt covered raisins to restore my blood sugar level. (It was a fasting blood test.) After that I wandered over to the State House to empty my member mailbox--a cubbyhole really.

On my way back to the Lodge, I saw that the "cow corn" in the field near our road was being cut. I pulled over and got this shot--right after the harvester passed out of view.



I waited for it to return but I think the men were unloading the corn into a truck and I had to be somewhere else so couldn't wait. I expect the field will be flattened by the next time I drive past.

After a little while at home, another chance to boost my blood sugar and re-caffeinate myself, I departed for the Seacoast. In an effort to prop our failing economy, and to prepare for upcoming journey, I made some clothing purchases at Macy's and in a Portsmouth boutique. In dressing rooms and at tills I overheard lots of out-of-staters--presumably leaf-peepers taking advantage of our lack of a sales tax.

In the late afternoon I joined my fried Terry, better known to the reading masses as the super-talented Tess Gerritsen, at the Thai restaurant Chiang Mai, one of our favourite Portsmouth meet-up spots. She's on book tour for her current novel The Keepsake. As usual we chatted about family and politics and travel, not so much about writing. I followed her to the Barnes & Noble for her author chat, because I knew that at some point in her presentation she would pull out a shrunken head. Which indeed she did! She was entertaining and informative (I now know how to mummify a dead body), it was a great crowd, and she was selling and signing lots of books when I left the store.

The details of mummification and head shrinking were gruesome, yes, but I slept like a baby last night. No creepy nightmares!

This month the exhibit space at our town library is filled with some amazing art quilts by a former resident. On Wed. evening I had a chance to photograph her extensive collection. Here are my favourites:








I'm no quilter but I do love to look at them. I was fortunate to inherit some rather nice family quilts. And for a few years I served on the board of a nonprofit that provided comfort quilts to at-risk infants and children.

A while ago, sipping my morning tea, I watched a grasshopper walk up a window. When he almost reached the top, I went outside with the camera.



It's a fantastic day...shaping up to be a superlative Columbus Day weekend (running out of adjectives here to describe this spell of wondrous weather!)