My days of post-book R&R are finished…time to get to work on Book 3. Fortunately, it’s already approaching the neighborhood of halfway done, and writing is less grueling for me than art–I can get in a groove and knock out a quarter of the book in an afternoon (these are SHORT books.) whereas even my best grooves on art can’t yield anything like that.

And I just saw a blue jay! Which doesn’t sound that exciting, but this is the first one I’ve seen in the yard, and I’m pleased. He’s a nicely vivid contrast to the flocks of goldfinches and the fat, ubiquitous doves. Perhaps St. Azul is blessing me with his presence (my offering of half-dead liatris bulbs has been accepted!)

On the down side, I just spilled tea all over my lap, when the much-repaired handle on my mug decided it was done for the day. The tea is called "Iron Goddess of Mercy" and I bought it entirely because of the name at the Asian grocery store yesterday. (Well, the name, and in the interests of science!) Unfortunately, it tastes like burnt hay, so my experiment is largely unsuccessful, and I am not that sad that most of it is on my bathrobe.

And a loud crashing noise just came from the other room, so I had better go investigate what the cats have wrought this time…