At the keyboard by 6:30 this morning. We got up at 5. I make Maria breakfast – I’m perfecting the egg sandwich – and she goes off to work. I feed the dogs and cats, and bring them all in. Maria starts up the wood stove before she leaves. She’s good at fires, I’m not. I have a wicked cold this morning. Frieda is lying under the desk, Rose is to my right in the living room, Lenore is snoring by the kitchen, her favorite room, and Izzy is underneath some chair in a corner of the farmhouse. Cup of fresh coffee, a candle going, one of Keith Davitt’s table water gardens bubbling – very soothing.
  I am working on my short stories. “Gracie’s Last Walk,” which I hope to finish this morning. Then to bed with Alice Munro (figuratively speaking).

  Consider for Christmas, things that are worthy, inexpensive, creative, in keeping
with the times:

 – ASA’s Calendar for farmland conservation.
 – Maria’s potholders, to celebrate inexpensive art you can use.
 – Mary Kellogg’s new book “Whistling Woman,” in celebration of a burgeoning young poet.