Thanksgiving at Home

Our grandson, Nolan with a BIG bird!

One of the best things about Thanksgiving at this stage of my life is - I can stay home. I don't have to cook like crazy, I don't have to host a bunch of people. We just have our little family - three grown kids, two daughters-in-law and one toddler grandson. I have enough chairs and dishes for everybody.

There are no judgements, no timetable, and no expectations. This year we continued something we did last year - Thanksgiving brunch. We ate about 10 o'clock and by noon all was cleaned up, the dishwasher was humming away and our two sons and their families were off to their in-laws, to eat a traditional turkey dinner cooked by mothers who like to do that kind of thing.

Tom and I and our daughter, Sloan, settled down to relax and nibble on left-overs the rest of the day. We had three kinds of pie - pumpkin, pecan and red raspberry.

I just love it when my little family gets together. I know they love me without dragging a bunch of baggage along - and I feel the same about them. That's what I was thankful for this year. May this last for many years to come.

Plein Aire Sketch Writing

On our trip to Zion National Park I got the chance to practice my "plein aire sketch writing", which is basically - plant yourself somewhere outside and try to describe what's going on all around you.

One day while Tom was wandering along the length of the Virgin River, I sat on this large tree, worn smooth by weather and water, and tried to do just that. Those notes will be part of an essay I'm planning on the rivers we've run upon during our travels.

On the last couple of days at Zion they were holding a plein aire painting event called "In the Footsteps of Thomas Moran". Painters would paint the scenes from the same place that the famous landscape painter from 100 years ago worked. We saw these artists scattered all around the park, but we didn't go up to any of them.

Mostly because, I don't know how artists feel, but when I'm out in the wild and trying to take notes, it really works best when I can get into a zone, and I wouldn't like it if someone came up to me and asked me what I was doing.

It's only fitting I extend the same courtesy to the fine artist.

Hiking in Zion

Now, almost a month after we've returned, I'm starting to think about our trip to Zion and Bryce National Parks and this weekend, in between cooking and eating for the holiday, I think I may get a chance to pull out those notes and begin making sense of them.

As I've said before, my knees keep me from doing too much walking, but here's a picture of me on a short walk, which was a bit uphill, but not too steep.



Tom does much better on these trips. He took a long hike to Angel's Landing and also hauls this tripod and camera nearly everywhere he goes. Here's a picture of him on that same hike:



I have lots of notes from our trips this fall, and to The Tetons and Yellowstone this past May and even from our trip to Santa Fe the summer of 2010. I'm getting a bit backed up with the things I want to write. But, winter is coming.

One of my favorite writers, Terry Tempest Williams, says she hibernates in the winter and that's when she writes - hopefully that will be the case for me this coming season too.

Pie & Pets at Quartet

This looks just like my cat, Pepper

We met at Ali's house for quartet this month. She made vegetable pot pie for dinner and pumpkin pie for dessert. It's always a good day when a person can have double pie!

We went upstairs to her cozy, wood-lined den under the rafters and shared our writing, then watched a film by a local film maker. Through it all we were joined by Ali's two cats, Keillor and Sweetie Pie, and her golden retriever, Wyeth Blue.

It got me thinking about pets and the way they fold themselves into our lives. Ali is the only one of us in the quartet who has a dog, but all of us have at least one cat, and Ali and I have two each. I don't think my cats inspire my writing so much, but they certainly like to keep me company in whatever room I happen to be in the house.
And Gracie likes to come up onto the desk whenever I'm working and wind her way through the obstacles. The problem with that is, with this new touch-screen computer we have, she can wave her bushy tail across the screen and make funny things happen!

Writing is, by necessity a solitary occupation, and it feels good to have a warm body around that doesn't talk, but definitely shows support and understanding, and is non judgemental - even when the writing isn't going all that well.

Turkey Haiku

Next week at the Box Factory for the Arts we are hanging a new exhibit called "Turkey Trot" which will consist of artwork of turkeys and autumn and harvest images.

We also invited our writers to submit turkey-themed haiku, which we will print out and hang on the gallery walls too.

Here's a 3-part haiku I wrote:

Turkey Pond
Around the small pond,
wild turkeys come socialize
in poultry clumps.

In this quiet space,
staccato gobbling
ripples morning air.

The thick brown bodies
flock close in harmony and
solidarity.

Halloween in Utah

I'm borrowing this image from Tom to show you how we spent Halloween - the morning in Zion National Park and the afternoon in Bryce Canyon National Park - and on the road between we found this old pick-up with pumpkins piled on.

It is perhaps the most Halloween thing we saw on this trip. When we got to Bryce lodge there were a few carved pumpkins sitting around - but they looked like they had seen better days for sure - curling up on themselves - so it was hard to see what was originally carved into them.

In this area Halloween seems to mark the end of a very busy season of tourism. Everyone seems more relieved and ready to batten down for winter, than to overly celebrate Halloween.

It has been a good trip with sunny and warm weather - although rumor has it that we may see a little snow today, our last full day in the canyons.