Daily Notes- October Six

Art Propelled- Kuplenkoz

Sunshine but a chill in the air.  We are now in a "no news" time.  No watching. No listening.  We will still read the newspaper. But it's a Maine newspaper and Mainers care only about local things that have to do with Maine. There is nothing we can do until November when we vote.

In the meantime, I am collecting leaves that have colored in the night chill and fallen to the ground (for eco printing). I am tending to my email replies.  I am cleaning the house in preparation for visits in the coming weeks; my brother and his wife and at the end of the month, my son.  We rarely have company so--this has me in quite a nervous state.

I have the last of the "soon to be compost" tomatoes to process into final pots of soup or packages for the freezer.  I need to do it today.

I am reading what I thought was just a book of stories and recipes.  It is not.  The Comfort Food Diaries by Emily Nunn is heart-wrenching. Heart breaking.  Yes, there are recipes but there are also stories of people lost and found.  People broken and mended. A biography. I stop every so often because the tears have blurred my vision.  It's not a big book but it is taking me nearly a week to read.  So much of it is a shadow or echo of my own past.  Emily is taking this journey of recovery through her past and perhaps I should have done the same. Instead of just turning my back on who I was then and who my friends and family were then.

But today---I have laundry to do and tomatoes to blanch and peel.  And I will not watch or listen to any news.