This month was packed with travel, visitors, and family events, and by the end of it I felt 100% fried in a way I haven’t for quite a while. We used every minute of the month, but I’m really looking forward to a more relaxed November.
Writing – The Hasty Visitor’s Guide to American Fairy Hills is finally out! That means that I hit at least one of my goals for this year: getting two books out of my self-publish queue. What did I learn? Not to try to put out two books in one year, mostly, but they are there now, and I hope you will enjoy them. I am doing NaNoWriMo again this year.
Knitting – I finished a beret I made from some ludicrously expensive handspun yarn I picked up at Boston Farm & Fiber a few years back. Started yet another shawl as I continue using up stash yarn (that makes two shawls in progress, one of which will be a Long Term Project because very fine yarn). Once that’s done, it will be time for THE SWEATER.
Garden – The driveway peas are still producing, and it hasn’t gotten very cold here yet, so the herbs are hanging on over at the plot. The forecast suggests that we can expect mild weather to continue, but I’m ready for a change now.
Reading – All over the place in October. I haven’t made much headway with the Vikings, and I started to re-read Don Quixote, which will take a while. I did read (and finish) Murakami’s What I Talk About when I Talk About Running, an odd book about an odd person, but interesting. Forest Walking had a good heart but was just okay. Ancillary Sword was a great follow-up to the first book, very fun. What Ho, Jeeves was too mean-spirited for me to find it amusing.
I have completely fallen off Duolingo. Again. After I got over my cold I had a good workout week, and then managed to tweak something in my hip doing yoga, which meant another week off from running. That’s finally better now, so I hope to get back to it. I only got out for one hike in the whole month, but at least it was a ridiculously beautiful day.
R Jean Stevenson 