Honest Scrap

I've been tagged by ricki over at spring to twig with Honest Scrap.

I am supposed reveal some honest truths about myself and then tag some fellow bloggers so that they can be scrapily honest as well. Okay, here goes:

1. I am flattered when I receive tags and awards and I like to get them, but to be perfectly honest, I am also very shy. For that reason I rarely tag anyone else because I always hate to impose. So, with that in mind, I challenge all readers of this to be perfectly honest with themselves about themselves and maybe find something new and interesting about your very own person. See, in that way I've tagged everyone, and no one has to feel as though they must share anything.
2. I love gardening, but I hate to water things. I'm very lazy that way. So it's great when I find native plants that look great and don't have to be pampered. I hate pampering.
3. I absolutely hate cleaning house, so don't EVER come over unannounced. Give me some warning so that I can wipe a few surfaces down, hide the clutter, and sweep up the stray cat hair. If you pop in unexpected, I may not let you in the door : )
4. I absolutely love a dogwood tree in winter - the way the buds are held facing upward at the end of an artfully curved twig. In the winter I sometimes stand at the window by which my dogwood grows, and just look at the beauty and the grace of the thing. Sometimes for very long stretches at a time.
5. My dog loves going for walks in snowstorms. And secretly I do too.

So that's the honest scrap on me : )

Of herbs and things

Here are some of the things I've been able to put away over the past few months. They are herbs, medicinal and culinary, that I've either grown in my garden or wildharvested:

Also pictured are some infused oils I've made with some of the herbs and some tins of various salves I've made with the oils.

This past summer was my first attempt at a medicinal herb garden. Next year I will expand the varieties a bit, but this year I tended in my garden:

Calendula

Elecampane

Evening Primrose

Holy Basil

Sage (S. officinalis)

Hyssop

St. John's Wort

Lavender, Hidcote and Munstead varieties

Yarrow

The things I gathered from the wild include:

Yarrow

Goldenrod

Elecampane

Crampbark

Lemon Balm

Elderberry blossoms

Plantain

Violets (probably dogtooth) - Edit: that's dog violet not dogtooth violet : )

Blackberry leaves

Raspberry leaves

The culinary herbs included:

English Thyme

Sage

Pineapple Sage

Corinthian Mint

Pesto Basil

Genovese Basil

And now I will plan my garden for next year.

Gaaa! The new Megan Whalen Turner book will be out this spring! March 2010!

A Conspiracy of Kings is next in the Attolia series and will be out this spring! I can't wait. And even better news? Megan Whalen Turner says that there will be two more books after this one. See her recent interview over at HipWriterMama.

And for two different Conspiracy of Kings teasers from Greenwillow Books, go here and then here.

Apple trees and visitors

I've been busy cleaning up the aftermath of a drastic pruning of our apple tree in the backyard. What used to be almost as tall as our house is now as tall as maybe two of me stacked up.If we didn't kill it, it may come back and someday be a manageable fruit tree.

And then there's the house cleaning, too. We're having overnight company early next week. I love company, but I hate cleaning. I would much rather tidy up the apple tree mess than scrub tubs, toilets and floors. But the tree mess has now been taken care of and I have no more excuses to put off going inside and tidying up in there.

Sigh.

To those who wait...

... answers come.

Last summer I came across these wildflowers and didn't know what they were. I snapped their picture in hopes of identifying the plant. I searched on the Internet, but that's a difficult way to identify a plant when all you know about it is that it's a tall, yellow wildflower. I didn't have any luck finding my particular flower.

But I didn't forget about it.

Recently I checked out a Peterson Field Guide from the library for Eastern/Central [United States] Medicinal Plants and Herbs. And what did I come across while perusing its pages, but this exact flower. The field guide identified it as elecampane, or Inula helenium.

I use elecampane root in teas that I make to treat the symptoms of cold and flu. Until now I have mail-ordered it from an organic source. Late last winter I started some plants from seed and in the spring I planted them in my garden, but the root is supposed to be harvested from second-year plants. The first year plants look nothing like the picture. They stay low to the ground, and the leaves spring out sort-of like a rosette. That's why I had no idea that the tall beauty was the same plant, only in its more mature, flowering stage.

So today, while walking the dog, I went back to where I had spied these flowers in late summer. I didn't know if I'd find them because by now the plants have died back, leaving only the root alive to send another plant shooting skyward again next year.

But I did find them, the withered, dried remains of stalks, leaves and flowerheads, waiting to be flattened by winter winds and heavy snowfall so that they can reconnect with the soil and become a part of it again.

The only way to be sure these plants were indeed elecampane was to dig up a root and smell. Elecampane root has a very distinctive smell. I took the dog back home, put him in the back yard with his little cup of doggie ice cream, got my shovel, and returned to the withered plants.

I chose one, dug, pulled, and was rewarded with a nice, fat root. I brushed the earth off of it as best I could, scratched at a section with my fingernail, and smelled. Elecampane! Ha!

Boy did I feel just like a wise woman of old, able to identify and find the plants I need in the wild.

I've had a lot of fun over the past couple of years growing more serious about learning the wise woman's ways. Soon I hope put up a post showing the things I've been able to find, or grow, and put away for later use, and the things I've made.

I absolutely love knowing about the things that grow around me and how to use them, gratefully, for my own benefit, or the benefit of others.

Some good books I've read lately - both young adult fantasy

Fire, by Kristin Cashore. It's a companion book to Graceling, and well worth the read. If you like love stories, fantasy, young adult fantasy, strong women, and new and inspiring people and places, and wonderful writing, then Fire is for you.

Fire's father was a literal monster - but monsters in this world are beautiful almost beyond enduring, and can sway the minds of ordinary people. Unfortunately his actions were more like the monsters we are familiar with, and as advisor to the king, he held undue influence and almost ruined the kingdom.

Fire's monster beauty drives men wild, including the new king -son of the ruined king her father advised. He needs her help with traitorous nobles who are closing in on the throne. The king calls for her to help, despite his brother's objections - who bears a hate and a wariness for her because she is her father's daughter.

And Fire, the last human monster, must decide whether or not to help the kingdom that her father put at risk, when it might mean becoming what her father was.

There is so much depth and feeling to the story. If you read this book, I promise you won't be disappointed. Kristin Cashore has a wonderful gift for storytelling.

The Demon King, by Cinda Williams Chima. This book kicks off a new trilogy by this imaginative author. Her first three books, The Warrior Heir, The Wizard Heir, and The Dragon Heir, were contemporary fantasies, set in today's world - mostly in Ohio, as a matter of fact.

Her new book is set in a different world - one with seven realms that have a very interesting history, and a rocky present. With wars going on, a Queendom at stake, some upstart wizards, and a street rogue trying to turn his life around without much luck, Chima weaves a wonderful start to what promises to be an engaging trilogy. The characters draw you in with lots of twists and complexities, and you can't help but wonder what's going to happen next with each of them, and what it will mean in the larger scope of things. I can't wait for the next book to come out.

Fall Color

Here are a couple of images of the fall color that we've enjoyed in our area this year - these are courtesy of my husband:

These were taken about a week ago. Unfortunately time has caused the spectacular color to fade, and now the raking begins...

Some questions about Trufocals (now called Superfocus) answered from my own experience thus far

(Edit: TruFocals are now called Superfocus) In my last Trufocals post, an anonymous commenter asked some questions, which I will here answer in the context of my Trufocals experience thus far.

The questions were:

1. How heavy are they to wear?
2. How well do they fit?
3. How easy/difficult are they to clean & how would one clean the inner membrane should one get dust or other contaminants on it?
4. How is the overall quality of the materials?

I'll answer questions 1 & 2 together:
I was surprised when I first picked my Trifocals up out of the box, they seemed much lighter than I had anticipated. They come with a certificate so that you can take them to an optometrist to get them professionally fitted - which I did right away. There are sort of instructions on the certificate which explain to the optometrist what they can and can't adjust in order to achieve a good fit. Basically they can adjust the nosepads with their special little pliers, and that's about it. My optometrist also adjusted the ends of the arms so that they held to my ears better, otherwise they would have slid off of my face.
Honestly, I think I need to go back for an adjustment because after long wear, my ears are a little sore, and the sides of my nose where the nosepads sit are also sore. (See the Edit below)
They are a little heavier than my wire-framed bifocals and my faux tortoise shell prescription reading glasses and maybe that's why my nose is sore - or, like I said, maybe I need a readjustment with the fit. (Edit: I found out why my nose and ears were sore. It wasn't the glasses, it was the neck-chain with the little rubberized ends that I had put on my Trufocals so that they would hang around my neck when I took them off. It wasn't a good fit for my glasses and caused the problems. I finally took the chain off today and, voila! No more nose or ear pain.)
Question 3:
They are just a tad more involved to clean than my other glasses. Here are the instructions that came with my Trufocals:

Caring for your TruFocals is also easy. Like conventional glasses, TruFocals should be cleaned regularly. Always use a soft cloth and rinse first with tap water to flush away any dust or grit (which can, if rubbed into optical surfaces, cause scratches). Mild soap may be used when appropriate.
... When inner surfaces need cleaning, simply remove the front lenses by pulling them forward, and cleanse with mild soap, water and a soft cloth.

They note that this is the only approved way to clean your Trufocals - which, I suppose, may have implications for the warranty.
They also warn to keep sand out of the focusing mechanism when at the beach. If you should get sand in there, then a blast of compressed air (from the pressurized dust-off cans you can buy in office supply stores) will clear the mechanism.
I don't have any problems taking the front lenses off and cleaning them, but I'm always nervous about cleaning the inner membranes. I do everything very gently. So it's a bit more involved than with regular glasses.
Question 4:
The overall quality of the materials seems to be very good. They seem to be sturdy and well made. The only thing I might say against the materials, is that perhaps the arms seem a tad light compared to the rest of the frames. But I haven't had any problems with the arms, and I'm sure that they were designed to be light to help lessen the overall weight of the glasses since the front part of the frames with the lenses includes stainless steel.
And there is one comment which I read in another user's review that I agree with. The lenses themselves are a little on the small side. It'd be nice if they were maybe a bit bigger.
I also want to add that the Trufocals people have been very nice so far. They even called me to make sure my glasses had arrived safely, to answer any questions I might have had, and to let me know that they are just a phone call or an email away if I have any problems or questions. They even read one of my posts and emailed me with the answers to some hypothetical questions I had posed. You can find the questions with their answers here, the answers are in red.

Trufocals (now called Superfocus) update - OR - maybe I'm just a coward

(Edit: TruFocals are now called Superfocus) Okay, I haven't worn my Trufocals out of the house since the day I got them. I've worn them in the house plenty. I'm just sissy to wear them in public, I guess.

Did I mention that they look a tad different? As in, funny?

Before I got my Trufocals, I wore my progressive (no-line bifocal) lens glasses when shopping, visiting museums, etc. They were extremely useful when I was taking classes at a local university and I had to look at the board and then down at my notebook to take notes, but my distance vision isn't so bad that I need to wear them during all waking hours. At home I wore my reading glasses when reading, at the computer, knitting, etc.

So I have fallen into the same pattern with my Trufocals, except for the fact that I am a little embarrassed to wear them out and about.

I haven't taken any university classes lately (I had been working on a 2nd degree part time), but I'm not sure how the Trufocals would work in that situation. Having to adjust the focus between the board and your notebook might present a problem. The board is sometimes pretty far away in the big lecture halls, so it would be hard to find a focus that would work for the board and your notebook at the same time.

And, here's the thing - you can focus so well with the Trufocals that it really is bothersome when something isn't in super sharp focus, so finding a mid-focus for the board and the notebook for the duration of a lecture might actually make your eyes feel bad, or maybe give you one of those vision headaches.

But again, I haven't been in the classroom lately, so all of that is conjecture. My husband teaches at the local university, maybe he'd let me sit in on one of his classes so that I could try it out. I'll have to see about that.

One other thing that has cropped up in my "what if?" files - what if your hands were really goopy, or otherwise occupied and you found that you needed to adjust focus? This came up while carving my Halloween pumpkin. I was wearing my Trufocals and rejoicing in being able to see the tiny marks I had made on the pumpkin which formed the outline of the pattern I was attempting to cut out. But my hands were goopy with pumpkin goo and, although I didn't need to change focus while carving, I thought about what a pain it would be to have to clean my hands first and then focus, so as not to slime up my glasses and the focusing mechanism, if the need to change focus arose.

But here is another positive. One of my cats had an altercation with another cat and received an injury to her eye. I was able to focus in and really see what was going on with her eye. It's nice to be able to see little things up close and in focus (her eye will be fine, but her third eyelid will be forever ragged-looking, so says the vet).

I have to toughen up and wear the things out shopping again. Wow. I didn't know I was so vain. Gotta get over that.

Happy November!

A few snowflakes are falling from the sky this morning. I hope they don't start falling en masse anytime soon - I've still got the whole backyard to rake!

Halloween in our yard

I hope your Halloween was spooky and fun!

A crypt appeared in our yard for the evening:

My daughter and her boyfriend became vampires and handed out candy in the crypt:

Trick-or-treaters made their way to ours, the last house on a dead-end street, to receive their treats. I was a ghostly figure hovering here and there, replenishing the treat cauldron when supplies got low, adjusting the fogger, and generally haunting the accompanying graveyard:

My offspring were artsy with their Jack-O'lanterns:

As the night grew darker, the vampires became spookier:

We had a fun night - although all had been foretold that morning. I went to the library earlier in the day. There, at the checkout desk was a fortune teller with this sign, "Are you fortune's friend or foe? Ask me a question and I will know." And there, before me, was a magic eight ball.

I grasped the eight ball and asked, "Will our Halloween be a success?"

I shook, turned the ball over, and the ghostly answer floated to the the surface of the dark little window, "Without a doubt."

And it was right.

Reverse Trick-or-Treating

Last Monday I went to a program at my library. Cookbook author, Bev Shaffer, gave a delightful presentation on her experience with cookbook writing, and afterward there was a chocolate tasting -yum! It was all fair-trade, organic chocolate and it was absolutely delicious.

At the end of the evening, Ms. Shaffer told us about a reverse trick-or-treating volunteer program sponsored by Equal Exchange, a fair-trade chocolate co-op. The Reverse Trick-or-Treating works this way, volunteers get a set of cards (see below), each with a small bar of fair-trade chocolate attached. When a volunteer child receives candy at a home, he or she then gives the adult one of the cards and says something to the effect of, "Thank you, and here's a piece of fair-trade chocolate for you," or, "Thank you! Here's some information on how you can help end child slave labor on cocoa farms.":


The cards have information about fair-trade chocolate and how fair-trade co-operatives are working to end child slave labor on cocoa farms and make sure that cocoa farmers earn a decent wage:

And the chocolate is yummy!

All of us at the library program received a bag with 10 of these cards. My children are too old for trick-or-treating, but my daughter went out last night with some friends who were taking their baby out for her first trick-or-treat (their neighborhood had its trick-or-treating last night). She took the cards along and gave them away at the homes they visited.


And if you have never learned how to taste chocolate (think wine-tasting), I would urge you to learn (see this book: The Chocolate Connoisseur) and then try some of the fairly-traded chocolates which are becoming more prevalent nowadays in places like your local grocery store. Most of these are also organic and their flavors are complex and absolutely wonderful.

Happy Halloween and Happy Chocolate tasting!

My Trufocals (now called Superfocus) have arrived - OR - Just call me Dr. Van Helsing

My Trufocals (edit: TruFocals are now called Superfocus) arrived yesterday:

I ordered the regular, and the tinted lenses. They're interchangeable:

Here you can see the little slider on the bridge which is used to adjust focus (click on the picture to see it close-up):

And here I am, this morning (without make-up and barely a half-cup of coffee in me) wearing my Trufocals:

Remember Dr. Van Helsing from the Dracula movie with Bela Lugosi? I'm pretty sure those are Trufocals he's wearing : )

Pretty funky, huh?

Okay, so when I got my Trufocals yesterday, I took them right away to be fitted. They come with a certificate to give your to optician, whereby he or she may be compensated for their time by the Trufocals folks. In other words, you can get them fitted by a professional at no cost to you.

I then went shopping for Halloween decorations with my daughter. She offered to wear some fake Harry Potter glasses so that people would just think we were both wearing parts of our costumes already. I must say that the Harry Potter glasses looked a bit better on her than my Trufocals looked on me.

Did I mention that they were funky-looking?

Well, in all honesty, you don't notice their funky looks while wearing them, unless, perhaps you see it in the expressions on the faces of the salespeople you may be conversing with. Or in the double-takes you're given as you walk around - even in a Halloween store.

But the darn things work. I adjusted them to look at things close-up and to read labels, and then adjusted them again to see farther afield while walking around the various stores we visited.

And at home I could work on the computer, and later cuddle up with a book without having to hold it at the distance of a computer screen in order for it to be in focus.

In fact, this morning I enjoyed reading Dracula as I sipped my morning coffee and ate my Go Lean Kashi cereal - and I didn't have to prop it at a bit of a distance, the book lay right if front of me on the table.

I have 30 days in which to decide if Trufocals are the glasses for me. I think, in the end, it will all come down to vanity, but I shall continue to blog about my Trufocals experience and post my ultimate decision whether I keep them, or return them for a full refund.

I do have a few questions (edit ~ the Trufocals people read this and emailed the answers to me, which are in red after the questions):

1. What if your prescription wasn't quite correct and your Trufocals don't work for you because of it? I ask this because once I got a bad prescription and couldn't wear my glasses. I was given a re-examination for free, and the glasses were ground correctly, for free. What would happen if this were the case when you tried on your Trufocals? Trufocals answer: If your optometrist gave you an incorrect prescription we will machine new front lenses for you at no cost.
2. Does my 30 day trial start from the day I ordered my Trufocals, or on the day that I physically received them? I ask, because I ordered them on Oct. 9th, they were shipped on Oct. 22nd, and I received them on Oct. 28th. TruFocals answer: Your 30-day trial begins the day you receive them.
3. If I decide to keep my Trufocals and, in the future, need a new prescription, do I have to purchase a whole new pair, or can the outer lenses simply be replaced with the new prescription, which, I presume, would cost less? Trufocals answer: In the future when your prescription changes, you will only need to replace the front removable lenses. The clear lenses are $149.00 and the photochromic lenses are $245.00.

Before I got my Trufocals, I had one pair of progressive lenses (no-line bifocals) and a pair of reading glasses (ground for computer work - hence the need to hold knitting, books, newspapers, at a bit of a distance). I only wore the bifocals while shopping, or in places like museums, and I wore the reading glasses while working on the computer, reading, knitting, cooking, etc.
I must say that I really liked the look of my reading glasses. They were stylish with a tortoise shell finish. So the vanity in me will find it hard to come to terms with the Dr. Van Helsing look of the Trufocals - even in the privacy of my own home.
In any event, stay tuned for updates of my Trufocals experience.

In search of the Great Pumpkin

Even though my kids are in college, we still like to go out to a pumpkin patch to find our Halloween pumpkins:


We drove way out into the country and found a nice patch where pumpkins of all shapes,:


textures,:

ripeness,:

and configurations, could be found:

And there were plenty to choose from. If you couldn't find your pumpkin in one field, there were other fields off in the distance to scour:

We saw the Great Pumpkin rise out of the pumpkin patch!:

I found the perfect squash!:

I had a hand carrying it back:

When we had each found a perfect specimen, we hauled our pumpkin loot back to the barn:

Where there were pumpkin horses pulling carts loaded with you-know-what:

As we drove away, they seemed to say, "Bye! Come back next year!":

Now comes the hard part - deciding how to carve our Jack-O'Lanterns!

In which I prepare for the arrival of my techno-Harry-Potter-geek glasses, OR: My Trufocals eyewear arrives Wednesday

I have purchased a pair of Trufocals eyewear. They look like this:

image from trufocals.com

I will become a somewhat nerdy-looking wearer of this new eyeglass technology on Wednesday. I can't wait, and I hope they are everything they're supposed to be.

They utilize an new optical design which enables the wearer to adjust focus as needed, i.e. the wearer can switch between reading a book and looking across the room, or from driving, to reading labels in the grocery store.

How? With a fluid-filled lens, the focus of which can be adjusted by moving a little slider located on the bridge.

I won't have to deal with bifocals, or choosing the focal point for the reading portion to be ground for computer use, or for reading and close handiwork. Right now they are ground for computer use, which means that when I knit, or read the newspaper, or a book, I must keep these things at a distance from me as if they were my computer screen if I want them to be in focus.

Plus, right now I have two pair of glasses; my bifocals and a pair for reading/computer work, because you cannot use bifocals to work on the computer. Period. At least I can't. If you can, that's great, but I'm not purchasing eyewear for you. I'm purchasing it for me. I'm giving up fashionable eyewear in order to see properly in all situations, and I can't wait.

Trufocals are extremely pricey, so they represent my Christmas, Valentine's, Mother's Day, and Birthday all wrapped into one. But they do have a 30 day trial period. If I don't like them, I can send them back and the Trufocals folks will return my money. My family thinks I'll look funny, my husband thinks I'll be disappointed and will end up returning them, and I think that I will be wildly happy with them (aside from their looks).

I intend to blog about my Trufocals experience and what I truly think of them. So until Wednesday...

I can jelly...

But these guys can jam!

I saw this group last night. They're The Infamous Stringdusters, a bluegrass band that will knock your socks off.

If you ever have the opportunity to see them, don't pass it up!

One Fall Color

We've had dreadful weather so far this fall, except for this week. The sun came out, the temperatures were glorious, and I was able to get out and work in the yard.

Although the full palette of fall colors can be seen everywhere else, our yard sticks to a one-color theme:


But in the sunshine, that one color is quite enough:

And this week I stopped wishing for more variation. Who can go wrong with glowing yellow-gold over one's head?

It's been a beautiful week to be outside:

Out and About

I saw Celtic Woman last night:

It was tons of fun- lots better than watching them on PBS. Those ladies have pipes, let me tell you - and the one in the middle is a fiddling whirlwind.

My husband surprised me with tickets - wow!

Spooky

Okay, enough with digressions. Back to the spirit of this month which ends in All Hallows Eve.

Here is a link to the first chapter of a young adult novel I began to write last year:

Ghosts

I know, I know, it's ironic that I'm posting a link to my writing after the last post, but I put it up last year just for the month of October, too. Feel free to tell me not to quit my day job if you want : )

And just like last year, the chapter will disappear when October ends!

One more digression... Writing: are you a writer, or should you give it up and pursue something else?

This is an honest digression, a heartfelt insight into a little something called my brain : )

I've written a few things, but I hesitate to call myself a writer. How can you tell if you're a writer? This article in The Village Voice will tell you how to find that out (there is some strong language, actually one strong word used many times).

And Colleen Lindsay, a literary agent sums the article up very nicely, here.

Many people who teach writing or give seminars or lead critique circles will say over and over again that writing should never be discouraged. A critique should never be so blunt as to include the words, "You have no talent. Give it up."

But I secretly don't agree with that. The Village Voice article explains very nicely why. If people whose business it is to know such things are kind enough to tell you that you should probably pursue other talents, it's probably best to listen and free yourself to find whatever your real talent is.

I haven't exactly found mine yet. My writing isn't terrible, but in all honesty, I know that it lacks something. Just like I know that the batch of fudge I made last week lacked something. It was okay, but it didn't possess that oomph that leaves you still salivating after you've swallowed and makes you sneak back into the kitchen to cut just one more little nibble off of that velvety slab of lusciousness.

Okay, so maybe my talent is candymaking, because I can actually tell when it hasn't come out right. And I can tell when it has and it's oh-so-drool-inducing-good. And because, although I can't say that my writing is the best in the whole world (not even close), I can say, with almost utter certainty, that if you search the world over, you will never find a caramel that can top mine.

And maybe that's a good analogy to use. Suppose you knew someone whose cooking was hard to stomach. Now suppose they confided in you that they wanted to open a restaurant and they wanted your opinion of their cooking - was it good enough to become a successs in the restaurant business?

Would you suggest that they learn the basics? Attend a cooking school? Tell them not to quit their day job?

Or would you encourage them and then watch as they poured all of their time and perhaps their life savings into a restaurant? Which would fail. Because your friend can't cook. And you knew it.

It would be nice if someone would tell me outright not to quit my day job when it comes to my writing if it's really not all that great. It would actually be freeing. Of course it would hurt, but I learned way back in elementary school how to deal with disappointment. I'd get over it. And then move on to better things.