Change of season

Last week was spring. I was wearing shorts and a tee shirt in Sao Paulo on Saturday, where the temperatures were in the high 80s (fahrenheit). Now I'm home, with a fire in the woodstove. I'm having a hard time making these adjustments quickly. My daydreams are all in Brazil.

Doing some physical work can be grounding. Yesterday I mowed the lawn, put the front storm door up, moved the picnic table and benches to the garage, took the porch swing down for storage. Today I stacked this pile of wood, which should keep me warm for about a month if it doesn't get too cold outside:



This is what my friends Granny Sue and Batsy refer to as a "hedge fund." In this case, that's accurate: much of the wood in this pile is Osage Orange, also called hedge. Those tins are for the ashes from the stove.

I also cleaned the gutters this morning, pulled up the morning glories and the tomato plants, fixed a faucet, did dishes and swept the front walk.

That's enough grounding for now. Back to my daydreams. Oh, and maybe some office work.

Arte y Pico Award

First of all, I'd like to thank my mother, my siblings, Joe Fish, Granny Sue...Oh, wait. I guess I don't need to do an acceptance speech. My friend Granny Sue (of Granny Sue's News and Reviews) just gave me the Arte y Pico award. Thanks, Granny Sue!

This award was created by an Uruguayan doll maker who wanted to honor artistic blogs.

The rules of the award are that the winner pass the honor on to five more blogs I deem to be artistic. "Artistic" is a broad term; some are more so than others. I'm not going to admit to the number of blogs in my Google Reader, as you would then all understand why I'm not more productive. We'll just say I had no shortage of choices. Here are five blogs I read consistently:

Practice Notes I had a hard time deciding whether my sister Mary's yoga blog or her Wonky Wheel blog would be the winner. I decided on the yoga blog. Artistic? Yup, not just the art of movement but the art of expressing ways to think about that movement.

Taking Place Deborah and Toby are both licensed landscape architects. I always enjoy reading their well-written "observations on place, cause and effect."

Life, the Universe and Everything Mianne mixes posts of interviews with reproductions of paintings with ideas on life with...

With Vanilla and Honey I love seeing Erin's amazing photographs of food--much of which she has prepared herself. I try not to drool on my keyboard when reading her blog.

Le Pen Now and Then This used to be Le Pen Quotidien, and though the change means that I have to wait longer between Bambi's drawings, the pleasure in seeing them is just as great. I think my favorite series might have been the 12 days of Christmas. Brilliant!

Here are the rules for the prize:
1. Pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award through creativity, design, interesting material and that contribute to the blogger community.

2. Each award should have the name of the author with a link to their blog.

3. Award winners have to post the award with the name and link to the blog of the person who gave them the award.

4.Please include a link to the Arte y pico blog so that everyone will know where the award came from.

5. Show these rules.