This is the post where I write whatever pops into my mind until my little coffee pot is empty.

I’m beginning late this morning because I decided last night that I would sleep as late as I felt like sleeping. I’ve had sinus problems all week and that drags me down considerably. Usually sleeping late for me means 9 a.m. I got up to feed the cats and laid down in the spare (cat-free) bedroom. The next thing I knew, it was 11:20, after some extremely bizarro dreams.

The original plan had been to go to the farmers’ market and do some yard work before it begins raining. Oh well. I’ll go by Deep Roots later - they carry a lot of local food nowadays.

I’m watching Miss Lucy watch the yellow maple leaves fall past the pink sassaqua blossoms outside the window. A very pretty sight. Miss Lucy has gotten closer to my heart. Guido is getting on my nerves because he has been howling all morning. I asked Sandy if he did this every morning after I leave and he said yes. Guido is a very loud cat. He gets upset over almost anything and he throws up a lot. I love him anyway.

Last night I laid awake for a while listening to Sandy sing. This is very unusual for Sandy to sing out loud - he had on headphones and I don’t think that he knew that I could hear him. I asked him about it a few minutes ago and he said that he was singing Meat Loaf songs to Jazz. Miss Jazz acts very weird when you sing to her. She begins meowing and circling and will eventually work her way up to your face where she will try to lick your nose and mouth.

I’m looking forward to doing some journaling and painting and I begin L.K.’s online class tomorrow. Yesterday when I went to class I was a little early so I went into the shop at Weatherspoon Art Museum (where my art history class is held) and talked to the person running it about carrying some of my handmade blank journals. They had one handmade book and some commercial blank journals. I was surprised when she reacted positively and she gave me her card. So that proves that it never hurts to try. I would consider it a real coup to get anything into the shop at Weatherspoon because it is such a respected museum - even if it didn’t sell it would be nice to be able to say that I had work in the shop.

When I was at Journalfest I didn’t pay any attention to the Loma cameras and photography because there are times when I need to focus to avoid being overwhelmed, and I accomplish this by shutting out a lot of new stuff. I put it in my brain for future reference and to my surprise the museum shop had some of these cameras for sale. I asked about them and she said that they are cheap film cameras that let in a lot of light so that you can get a lot of interesting effects with them. I’m looking at the Lomography website, and it does look like fun. They also look a lot like the little Russian camera that Sandy bought when he was in England, and was stolen from around my neck when we were in New York City in 1986. So it is possible that we owned one of these at one time. I might buy a fisheye or pinhole camera just to play with.

I finally wrapped up my tooth drama when I got my permanent crown this past week. There were a lot of minor complications in the whole two-month process. The receptionist called me “our professional dental patient.” I go back for cleaning next week. It’s a good thing that I love my dentist and hygenist. It really was worth it, though. I didn’t realize the constant low-grade pain that I stayed in until I got the root canal.

Okay, coffee pot is empty. Guess I need to join the real world now.

The last 24 hours of this blog proved the importance of two things. One, if you’re going to write your own html code, be sure to close those tags. Two, backing up your files at least every few months or so is a really good idea.

This is part of the reason I decided against being a web programmer. I hate troubleshooting code. Hate it. Also, I didn’t want to dedicate my life to constantly learning the latest greatest techno crap. Also, I started seeing web programmers apply for jobs as administrative assistants. So I figured that I might as well stay a secretary, and it’s worked out fine. I’ll let other people worry about the latest bells and whistles.

I’ll save the rest of my writing for my coffee pot post in the morning. It is time to read an actual book now.

I took two classes from L.K. Ludwig because I love her book Mixed Media Nature Journals so much and I couldn’t decide which class I wanted to take. She is teaching a monthly online photo journaling class - it’s not too late to sign up because it begins November 1! Take a look at her blog here for the description: The Poetic Eye

Here are a few photos of her and her work from Journalfest.

Dan Essig’s “The Exquisite Corpse Mica Book” class

L.K. Ludwig’s “Painted, Knotted, Sewn” class

L.K. Ludwig’s “Outside Inside” class

I’ve uploaded photos to Flickr but will be editing and writing descriptions over the next week. It will be difficult to choose the ones to show here on the blog. This is a teaser. I finally just picked one at random from the Sunday sunrise photos, the sunrise that put the sun in Sunday.

I’ve really got to study medieval art history too, way behind.

Uh, yeah. I’m back. I’m tired. I’m doing laundry. I worked hard today and 5:00 came before I knew it. The house is relatively clean and doesn’t stink, thank God. I did have to dispose of several rotten tomatoes on the counter, but other than that Sandy did a purty good job without me.

I typed a lot today so my hand is, as it has been at the end of day every day, very sore. Blogging the trip will have to wait.

I have many beautiful photos to upload and artwork to scan so please visit a little later this week.

In case you didn’t get the news, this is where I’m heading at 6:30 a.m. I should be there at 4 p.m. their time. I’ll be in the little green area just above the words Port Townsend. Seattle and Tacoma are just to the south of the map.

Now I’m going to turn off the computer and pack. Arrivederci!

I can’t get it through my head that it is October 19. I keep thinking that it is a week earlier or a week later. I think that I just can’t process the idea that my big wonderful trip is this week!

But for some reason, I can’t make myself begin packing? What’s up with that? Oh well, the kitchen needed a good cleaning. I’ll get it done tomorrow.

I’m pretty sure that I aced my exam today. Turns out that studying sometimes pays off. Who knew? I never studied in high school or for the first BA I earned (well, maybe a LITTLE for that one). I did okay without it, although with a degree that I couldn’t earn much more than minimum wage with for years. Now with middle age and a few thousand killed brain cells from my partying years, I have memory problems.

Wednesday morning will be a milestone for me - after years of a serious flying phobia, I will fly across the country all by myself. I’m not nervous about it at all, although I still don’t like to fly because of my motion sickness issues.

I think that my reluctance to begin packing is driven by the anxiety of decision-making. I will have to have one checked bag because of the art supplies I need to take, and I want to take only one carry-on bag and a large tote bag. Nothing that is too much for me to reasonably lug around on my own with a sprained hand. I am the type of person who will attempt to bring the whole house with her for a weekend away. It is part of the obsessive contingency planning personality thing. What if this happens? What if that gets ruined or lost or broken? This is the one time that I admire Sandy for his laissez-faire attitude about travel. Of course he doesn’t have to worry because I do more than enough for two.

I’m going to go to bed early and pack tomorrow night. And go to bed early tomorrow night too. It’s like Christmas - the earlier you fall asleep the quicker Santa Claus gets here.

It was SO NICE to work in the Back Forty yesterday. It was the first day that I have not been chased inside by mosquitoes in months. There is a frost advisory tonight.

I pulled up all the field peas, carefully picked every last pea off each plant, and piled the plants up next to the compost bin where I’m going to add them little by little. Then I cooked them for supper last night. I think that field pea snaps (the immature green pods) are much better tasting than green beans. I always find some dried pods which go into my seed stash for next year.

Today I will try to do the same with the butterbeans. I learned a lesson last year. These beans produce right up until frost, and I saw the little green pods as such a waste. Well, that’s silly, I should be happy that they produce that long! Last year I let the pods stay on the vine after frost hoping that they might, I don’t know, magically mature? Magic beans? This year I am picking every last one that has a hint of a little bean in it that is shellable. I will blanch them for about two minutes, cool them quickly in ice water, drain and freeze them.

Another important priority for today: freezing basil. It will not survive the frost. This is one of those things that if I miss it, I will regret it. I only have one basil plant this year, but it’s a big one.

I guess that I should pick the rest of the green tomatoes as well, but I’m not really excited about that. I don’t understand the appeal of green tomatoes, but they will eventually ripen in the house.

Yesterday I made a really good local meal. I marinated a small pork shoulder roast in cherry apple cider overnight. Then I sliced up a Stayman apple and minced a clove of garlic and put in the bottom of a slow cooker. I browned the shoulder in a cast iron skillet, then added it to the slow cooker and poured the rest of the cider marinade and a little more cider over it to come up to the bottom of the roast. I cooked it on low for about eight hours.

I served this with field peas and tendergreens/Tuscan kale sauted with garlic and a little bacon.

Pork Shoulder Roast: Bradd’s Family Farm (whey-fed pastured pork)
Apple and cider: Mountain Fresh Orchards, Hendersonville, NC
Field peas, kale, tendergreens, garlic: The Back Forty
Certified humanely raised bacon, salt, and pepper: Deep Roots Market

Oh, have I been looking forward to this morning. No real plans, other than to study for my exam on Monday and to get materials ready for this week’s trip to Journalfest in Port Townsend, Washington.

Guido is galloping around the house like a racehorse. He is 13 years old and still a kitten. Lucy has become much more of an attention-seeker and purrs very loudly often, which is nice. Miss Jazz is Miss Jazz, queen bee, petite and haughty to the other cats, insistent on constantly sitting on top of us. I saw a cat at Petsmart yesterday that was the exact image of Squirt, face, size, coloring, everything. It was hard to walk away. I still dream of Squirt nearly every night and think about him every day. I wish that I could let him go.

My hand is not broken, and my arm and fourth finger feel much better. It is the pinkie and the muscles on that side of my hand that are still painful, and pain relievers have not helped, even strong doses. I can type without too much pain but I’m not going to push it today. I wanted to make paper but I decided that I’d better wait until this gets better.

Sandy found his wedding ring. He had taken it off his ring finger and put it on his pinkie because it was getting too tight. When he was packing to come home it must have fallen into the suitcase.

It is supposed to get down in the high thirties here this weekend so I’ll make a serious push on the butterbeans and field peas to get the last of them. The field peas slowed down a week or so ago but the butterbeans keep going until the frost gets them. I had a delicious second wave of figs but not nearly as many. My carrots were very disappointing, and almost all that lettuce seed I planted was carried off by ants or the seedlings eaten. I dug up a handful of small Yukon Gold potatoes. I’ve harvested a few very small heads and side shoots of broccoli, enough to make a few dishes from. I have a little patch of tatsoi and other greens, Tuscan kale, lots of parsley, and one lonely golden chard in a pot. The tendergreens that I planted in the spring made a comeback. I’ll have to pick some for Lucy and Miss Jazz. They love them.

A lot of these failures could have been avoided if I had put a bit more effort into it, but this has been the year of the lazy gardener at my house.

I realized that if I wanted to get any classes that I wanted at Art & Soul in Hampton, Virginia in May, I’d better go ahead and sign up. So I contacted my roomie from last year, and signed up for two book classes under two teachers that I haven’t had before, as well as a fun printing technique class from Traci Bunkers called Roller Printing MacGyver Style. I’ve taken a couple of Traci’s classes before and I enjoy her funky free-wheeling style.

But this coming week IS THE WEEK! On Wednesday morning, I will be flying all by my little lonesome to Seattle, where I’ll get on a shuttle bus to Port Townsend, to take a class from Daniel Essig and two classes from LK Ludwig, two book artists that I greatly admire! Journalfest is all about art journaling and takes place at Fort Worden State Park, a former military installation on a spit of land sticking out into the Puget Sound. All I’ll have to think about is making art and I’ll meet a lot of like-minded artists at this one.