Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 176

and at the high school

The latest intel from the high school main office, from Operative Asakiyume.

It's bustling at 7:15, everyone arriving.

A girl has a pink volleyball poster. Mrs. D, the receptionist, gives her some bright pink sharpies to use to finish the poster. "Don't let these go," she says. The girl says she won't, says she has some other markers to use, too, that she's meeting so-and-so at second lunch to finish the poster. [poster has since been finished: I saw it on the town common, advertising a volley...

two remarks about shoes

One little kid to another:

I have almost the same shoes as you!

Tiny kid in overalls, climbing a shrub, exclaims to his mom:

My shoe nearly goed off!

Over there

Mist in the east . . .




. . . and mist in the west



Easy to slip into the other world, the elsewhere world, or anyway, easy for elsewhere to slip into this one. As you can see, I had my camera, and I was taking pictures.







Unusual things attract curiosity and attention, and a camera is an unusual thing over there, and a fox kit, in boy form, couldn’t get enough of it.

“Can I see?” he asked, and then, like any kid, didn’t wait for a yes or no; his paws already on it, pulling at the red shoelace I use...

a sickle moon and gold coins, dogs and ghosts of dogs

The moon's a sickle tonight, thin and sharp, for harvesting . . . fairy gold. Gold leaves, gold coins, riches at your feet--we saw them glowing in the last light of day, and then we saw the sickle.

Evening mist and crescent moon by milkyscope on flickr



This morning I saw a loose dog. You don't see too many of those in the United States these days, or not in these parts, anyway. He was somebody's dog; he had a collar. He was in the middle of the street, eating something from a white paper bag th...

question

Do you think maybe cephalopods have less of an impression--illusion?--of a mind-body dichotomy because their consciousness is distributed throughout their body instead of being focused in a lump at one point?

music in the night

I left home at 9:30 pm and drove dark highways and across an under-repair bridge** to come to the scenic town of Turners Falls, to hear Who'da Funk It, a band that my friend's daughter was recently invited to join.

The last time I was in Turners Falls was to hear Anäis Mitchell perform Hadestown. I associate the town with the best music--and I was not disappointed!

Let me paint the scene. I got there around 10:30. The streetlamps were making all the brick buildings glow golden-red, and hanging...

fern flames, and the prettiest leaf

The ferns looked like little flames this morning:



And this morning I did a little raking, and this was the prettiest of the leaves I saw:



I liked the swoops of yellow on either side. Very elegant. gaudior , if it suits, feel free to use it!

Next Big Thing meme

I'm usually shy to talk about work in progress, but I've universally enjoyed reading others' answers to these questions--very much so. I was tagged by cafenowhere and implicitly tagged by ann_leckie and the other souls who invite anyone to join in, so here goes.

What is the title of your book?

I call it Pen Pal

Where did the idea for the book come from?

It came from combining two things: a dream about someone being trapped/held/serving in a temple above a live volcano, and an image of a group of...

Khar Bii

I'm going to post about my work in progress, having enjoyed so many other people's posts, but first this!

A popular reality TV show in Senegal is Khar Bii (it means "this sheep" in Wolof):

It's an American Idol-style nationwide search for Senegal's most perfect specimen [of sheep]. Now in its fourth season, the show airs several times a week in the months leading up to Eid al-Adha, or Tabaski, as it's known here.
--"Senegal reality TV show features prettiest sheep" (AP newswire, via CBS news)

...

a leaf and ghosts of leaves