11/30: amazed
...by the shifting shadows cast on my home-office floor by a tree moving in high wind outside my window.
11/28: back out
...on the lake. I'm still taking it easy with kayaking because my wrist continues to be iffy, but I braced it today before I went. While I was out, I saw geese, cormorants, ducks, and a heron. And I enjoyed the afternoon's cloudy sky reflected on the water.
11/27: more walking
Today Chris drove us up to the Buffalo River near Yellville, and we followed a long-for-us trail (4 1/2 miles) that took us to a very large cave previously used by Native Americans for shelter.
After we finished that trail, we took a shorter one to an overlook with a view of the river. It had been busy in the early afternoon, but no one was on it by the time we were there. We stopped at the overlook to watch 50+ vultures gathering, swooping, swirling, and gliding as the sun set.
11/26: walking
....along a trail by the Little Red River in Shirley, Arkansas. It was a new-to-us path, and we were glad we chose it for today's holiday walk. A dog from a house near the trail kept us company pretty much the whole time.
I took this picture at the farthest point of the walk, at a small old cemetery. I was looking out at the bare trees with the light on the river below them, and this is how my camera caught the moment.
11/25: today it was Simon the Cat
...who was an amazing cuddler while I read. His company made me smile a lot, and it's a far cry from the days when he was a stray who wanted contact but was afraid to make it.
11/24: a trio
Avoiding the blues (which seemed like they were coming on strong this morning) by walking the Gold Creek trail twice with Chris. (It's basically a loop, but when we had covered the loop once we turned around and walked back in the other direction.)
Taking notes on some thought-provoking things in secondary scholarship related to the talk I need to start writing.
Enjoying a few slices of the Pennsylvania nut-roll that arrived in the mail today.
11/23: afternoon and evening
My morning trip to the grocery story had a good number of glitches, but then I was able to read and write myself back to some sort of smoothness in the afternoon. And this evening I made chocolate chip cookies with cinnamon and Old Bay seasoning, something I've been meaning to try for awhile; I may have overbaked them a bit, but the taste is good.
11/22: Phineas the Cat
...is an amazing cuddler. He and I were contiguous for much of the day as I read a book and watched TV with Chris.
11/21: visiting
...the Big Creek Natural Area for the first time this afternoon. We walked both trails and were glad to see the creek from high above and then spend some time right next to it.
11/20: finding a focus
...while doing my Friday afternoon writing by looking at how the D'Aulaires present the story of Pandora in both words and images in their Book of Greek Myths. They really put her in a number of patriarchal double-binds! < Not a happy thing, but interesting to trace out the how of it.
11/19: finding
...a voicemail message on my phone from last week that I didn't notice (and so didn't hear) at the time. It was from an old friend; he was calling out of the blue and telling me about some Greek he's been translating.
11/17: watching
...a dance concert online. The choreographers--all BFA seniors at Rutgers--did a great job of creating pieces to be streamed, building the aesthetics of filming into their works.
11/16: enjoying a return
...to The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. I read it in the 80s and again in the 90s, and I recently decided to download an audio version of it to listen to while walking. It's 24 hours long, so that's nearly a month of walks--hurray!
11/15: going to
...a new-to-us place: the Indian Rock Cave in Fairfield Bay. There were some petroglyphs!
The marks at the bottom of the photo are modern graffiti. The diamond designs are petroglyphs. Various tribes used the large cave as a meeting place over centuries.
11/13: watching
...a cloud as it moved across the space of a window-frame. I made myself slow down and breathe as it went.
11/12: finishing
...listening to Mark Twain's Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson. Chris teaches it in one of his classes and has long urged me to read it. Listening to it as I walked took longer than reading it would have, but I was glad to have my experience of the text slowed down and stretched out over more days. Today as we got dinner ready we especially talked about how the "Author's Note" at the end works in light of the whole piece.
11/11: reading and thinking
...about scholarly articles: one on reception theory, one on Greek and Roman monsters, and two on Classics in the Harry Potter series. It feels good to be in conversation with other people's thoughts and to have my own.
11/10: making
...a recipe (here) for peanut brittle with sesame, ginger, and sriracha. It turned out really well!
11/9: a good gathering
...of good things.
Photographing leaves on my morning walk.
Seeing and reading about some work by Matt Siber.
Finishing a full draft of a long-lingering piece of writing on the uses of Classics in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Learning that a friend got offered a job at her interview this morning and started training immediately.
Listening to a podcast about sparrows and snapping shrimp by a college friend whose voice I haven't heard in over 30 years.
11/8: going up
...Petit Jean Mountain today. It was overcast, and the filtered light plays interesting color tricks with the reflections on the water.
We also started listening to C. S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength. Its depiction of a faculty meeting in the 1940s made us laugh out loud with its relatability.
11/7: talking with Chris
...about Trollope and Twain as satirists whose ethical edges are often unappreciated or even ignored.
11/6: a phone conversation
...with a student who is finishing their Odyssey alteration project. I'm supervising eight students who signed up for this project, and a reflective conversation near the end is part of the process. This is the second one I've had, and I really enjoy hearing the students talk about their work.
11/5: listening
...to a podcast in which a friend of mine was interviewed. It was so great to hear her voice as she talked about her work!
11/4: good reading
I sat on the porch this afternoon and finished Bridges of Clay by Markus Zusak. I cried, and I can't remember the last time I cried reading a book.
After dinner I read Chris a chapter from Moominsummer Madness. We always enjoy Tove Jansson's novels, but this chapter--in which the Moomins et al. move into a floating theatre--struck both of us as perfect.
11/2: putting aside
...electronic devices and letting myself / making myself read without the urge to check anything, text anyone, or play a digital game.
11/1: words
This morning I finished Marjorie Perloff's Unoriginal Genius, which concluded with a discussion of Kenneth Goldsmith's Traffic. Right after I finished, Chris played me some of an ongoing AI conversation competition, and that seemed somehow perfect after reading about Goldsmith's transcription of traffic radio broadcasts. Throughout the day we popped in to hear more of the AI conversation, and this evening I Zoomed in to listen to an Ontario-based reading series with six writers. I especially enjoyed Angela Rawling's Anthropocento, composed from words and phrases (in multiple languages) she heard at an international environmental conference.
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