November Short

A few pictures of our November adventures:  I am not including shots of the Closing Up of the New Addition.  I will take pictures of the piano, in state in the still unfinished, but now useable studio space.

Instead, I offer you our Pie Maker, who took advantage of the two little single pie pans and one extra tiny pie pan and carried the tiniest of all off with her, dog sitting for her aunt and uncle in their very big, very comfortable, very abundant house.

The thanksgiving feast:

Cam and Lorri, who give us great joy: 

 The Cleanup crew (you can’t hear us singing):

The Chef: (who always thinks he knows more about gravy than I do)(that’s the one with the beard btw)

The beautiful and ambitious Emma, who—with a friend who soon high-tailed it—came to our front door one morning, announcing she was bored and looking for something to do, and was enlisted by Guy, who’s central passion in life is Getting The Leaves UP Before It Snows, (which finds little play for that among the rest of us merry-makers).  He put her to work, thinking she’d do a little, a sort of entre-act to the huge job he and Murphy would do that afternoon.  Abandoned by her friend, Emma worked, smiling like a seraph, all morning into the afternoon, and got up most of the leaves you see in this picture.

She did it for nothing, but found herself paid handsomely in the end.  I love our neighborhood.  And I love her family.  And her next door neighbors.  And—well, the list does go on.

A Utah sunset, as seen from our front porch. Char and I finished the first draft of our book – really, just last week.  Then we had to reconstruct the house, which had pretty much fallen down around our ears as we worked.  But we have almost righted the ship, and though half the rituals of Thanks—Xmas week were pass-incomplete, we forge ahead.  It snowed two days after Emma’s mighty labor.Come Winter!  Come wind!  Come ice on the water trough, fire in the grate, chocolate hot from the stove top, books in the evening, and bright, sharp white mornings—