capturing a snowflake

Someone sent this to a list I'm on today, and since we're going to have some snow Thursday, I thought I'd post it here:

Capturing a snowflake:

1. get a can of acrylic sealant and a box of microscope slides

2. keep both out in a cold garage

3. look for dry "perfect" snowfall with separate flakes

4. take a board and put the slides on top

5. spray the sealant evenly and lightly over all the slides

6. expose the board to the falling snow and make sure there aren't too many flakes hitting the slides

7. leave slides in cold garage for several hours until snow evaporates and sealant hardens

8. bring slides into house, look at through microscope or with a magnifying glass

displaced

Yesterday I gathered up my big bag of books and moleskines, my laptop case, and my camera, and marched it all up the stairs to my garret. I intended to set myself up in my regular writing space, perhaps dust and straighten a little, and find some music to lull me back to work.

Dickens E. Wickens, aka The Cowboy, had commandeered my garret and my chair. His usual lair is in the hay room out at the barn, where he climbs up high and watches as barn swallows swoop in and out. He naps but he also works hard: patrolling fence lines, lying out in the fields with our horses, keeping tabs on the flocks of raven and crow, catching barn mice, monitoring riding lessons from the center of the arena.

Dickens checks out all visiting vehicles, inside and out. He sits owl-like on fence posts, tests the water in the troughs, dodges naughty ponies, and watches everything, our own sentry.

I've assured the Cowboy that he can take vacation days, we don't expect him to work so hard. We want him inside with us. His theme song is the Eagles' tune, Desperado, and I sing it to him sometimes when I find him lying out by the back field, alone and guarding the farm.

While I was on writing retreat, he apparently took me up on my suggestion. Some office time, settling accounts, tabulating how many mice he's captured, how many times he's sent Pharaoh (the neighboring cat) packing, how many miles he's traveled keeping the farm safe.

Or maybe he was simply keeping the chair warm for my return.

changing writing space

At some point before going on writing retreat, I moved my laptop downstairs. Right before Christmas I wasn't doing much writing and it felt more cozy having the computer down here by the tree and the woodstove. Since getting home from writing retreat, I haven't taken the laptop, my camera, or the big bag of books and moleskines back up to my writing garret. The only thing I've done up there is put away bills and receipts.

We have a nice big desk right by the kitchen and this is where I've planted myself since Tuesday. I've taken this last few days off from novel writing, but it's time to get back in the swing and I'm trying to figure out WHERE. Right now I'm having a slight urge to move my writing chair and ottoman down to the bedroom and set up camp there.

I'm not sure why - I love my writing space upstairs. Maybe I just need a change. Or maybe it's time to re-do the garret. I wonder if I'm just tired of the way it's organized ... I might play around with that on Sunday.

Thought I'd seek some assistance from the Chinese Fortune Sticks that found their way into someone's Christmas stocking this year:

"A very jealous person will quarrel with you."

Oh lord.

hot stone massage

I had one today, and it was wonderful. I've had some lower back discomfort for the last three weeks or so that disappears completely when I ride but bothers me most of the time otherwise.

Harriet did some work on the lower back and found one side significantly tighter than the other. When she worked on the psoas muscle on the left, I felt it in back on the right. After the massage, the "hinge" of discomfort in my lower back had disappeared. Upon sitting, I felt a small "dot" of discomfort in the lower right back. On the drive home that expanded to a small "circle" of discomfort that has now disappeared.

I've scheduled a return visit for next week so I can get this resolved.

The stones were amazing - they warmed and grounded and absorbed.

Insurance companies should pay for bodywork - I totally believe we'd all be healthier and happier if we could get this kind of work done frequently. It shouldn't be a treat - it should be part of our overall health care.

home again, home again, jiggety jig

Quite wonderful to be here, I must say.