October!

And now it is October, and I head back to work.

I had a lovely, lovely week off last week. Did nothing of note--took long walks with Riley (and short tottering ones with Boscoe); rode my bike; took a walk with my mother; had some pants hemmed; read a couple of books; planted 75 tulip bulbs (and hope the squirrels leave them unmolested); sat out in the sunshine with a book, sat on the porch with a book, dozed on the porch with a book on my lap; went out to dinner with Doug to celebrate our 13th anniversary and had so much fun we went out to lunch the next day and celebrated it all over again.

Like I said, nothing at all of note, but oh how lovely and relaxing to wake up each morning to an open, empty, unstructured day. Some days went by in a flash. Some days were long and leisurely. I loved every minute of each one.

And now it is October, and I head back to work.  But only for two days! I have so much to do today and tomorrow, and then on Wednesday I climb into the car before the sun is up and head off to western Minnesota, to take part in a three-day writers conference at Concordia College. This should be fun--I'll be there with two other writers, a poet and a novelist, and we will speak to classes and have dinner with students and do a reading one evening and teach a master class.

I need to figure out what I'm talking about in the master class. I will do that tonight.  But now....as I said....off to work.

Oh, and the photo? The tree right outside our porch window. It will get brighter and brighter in the coming weeks, and then, suddenly, it will be bald. And then it will be, brrr, November.