Soft Places

So I stumbled into a children's fantasy novel on Saturday, going by the unlikely name of North Fogarty Creek State Park. You drive down a tree lined path to a meadow with a gazebo, where you park. Then you wend your way through a tall pine forest filled with little picnic tables and wooden bridges, everything is green and gorgeous. The path takes you in a tunnel under the highway onto a sparkling bright beach with huge crashy waves and black cliffs. The beach is littered with driftwood and a hundred varieties of seaweed and interesting tidbits. Where the creek comes out it mixes with the ocean and the incoming waves send ripples back up the creekbed. Whoosh!

Man do I love crap you find on the beach. I brough home several pocketfuls of goodies from the fanatsy novel, and today I brought home an armload from Moolack beach as well. I'm going to make our parrot, Euclid, a stand out of driftwood to replace the dinky one we have in the living room. I love seaweed, I love smooth rocks with little round holes in them, I like string and shells and little bits of bright plastic that are worn and frosted just like sea-glass. I LOVE driftwood, it's like candy to me.

Things are well here - christmas shopping done, and under budget. House scrubbed, books read, stir-fry broccoli and beef eaten. Boone home soon! Oh...I think my laptop may have finally bitten the dust with a broken monitor, but since I can use Boone's extra laptop, I'm not going to worry about it just yet. I think I got it in 2005, but I was hoping to eke another year or so out of it, since I just got the stickers on the lid the way I wanted them. :(

It's gotten much colder here, down to 30-35 at night this week, and higher wind chill in the day. I love it. Wouldn't want to do it every year for the rest of my life, but I am reveling in it now. My often-unused scarves and hats and long socks are happy to be out of the drawer.

Reading Neil Gaiman's Sandman series and loving it, just finished book seven out of ten.

Anyways, love to you all!