last day...

and there is snow! real snow, not just flurries. actual, deep, sticking to the road snow! there's gotta be 4 inches out there! and it's still twirling down. gorgeous! me and my mom already went and stomped around in it twice. i love that crunch under my foot and i can't even tell you how many years it's been since i got to feel it and see it and hear it. and the cardinals look like they're glowing against all this white. absolutely beautiful! there's a slight chance my flight home might be cancelled but right now i'm okay with that. it's just so much magic and so much beauty and so much wonder.

rite

well... i found my lady bug. or his body rather. right here on the desk all dried up. :( i'm not going to throw his corpse away. i'm going to leave him right here on the desk and let him degrade at his own pace. poor little guy. and if i had put him outside he would've froze to death. we got flurries of snow yesterday.

mmmmmmm...

the hard rain comes down. the kind of rain that makes a person smile. the kind of rain that makes a person feel surprised. an exuberant rain, pounding pounding pounding and thunder and dogs barking. such a chorus, such a whirl, such a racket and i love it. especially here in the big silence of the country. especially here where wind and trees go suddenly, painfully, peculiarly still. the crash boom bang of a healthy storm. the heft of strong weather. unapologetic and dancing all crazy-like.

i am drawing star fields. black and scratchy. twinkling like little bats. and Alice is perched in the corner of the room.

safe

there is a lady bug on the wall. a big fat one. and i won't smash him or put him outside. it makes me happy he is here. my little pet for today.

tennessee is beautiful. most of the leaves are off the trees but it's still so green somehow. and quiet. silent, really, out here in the country. the houses that spring up are red brick with white trim. is that called 'colonial"?

and my grandma and grandpa came today with a big baked chicken and stuffing and pies and brownies and all sorts of stories that everyone's already heard a dozen times but me and so i laughed and laughed and laughed. stories about the 6 deer that come through their yard and stories about ravens playing with shiny things on the porch. wholesome and good stories like that.

i feel instantly at home even though i've never been here before. i've already learned the kitchen and what's in all the cupboards. i've got my own room to sleep in that (YAY!) has a computer in it! i've got my books from home stacked up against the wall. last night when i got to the house, my mom and i talked about fairy tales and about Alice in Wonderland and she gave me a large, old copy of the story from the 40s, fully-illustrated, and printed on soft paper from italy. a sewn binding and all. she found it in a thrift store out here for a dollar. treasure.

right now the house is quiet. nap time. and so i will write and maybe work up the nerve to go jog in these foreign woods, maybe paint a small watercolor, maybe just sit on the back porch and admire the things that grow here and the hundred birds that swirl here.