Rivers and random updates
There's a poster for ARCE fellowships in Egypt in the kitchen at work, and I keep looking at it and going WAAAANT. Though of course I have no purpose or direction (or scholarly background!) for such a thing, aside from the impulse of "oooh, shiny."

For the Taking to the River Festival yesterday, I made a very small paper prayerboat, filled it with tiny wildflowers--sprays of aster, a sprig of goldenrod, some ground ivy, and a bitty red autumn leaf--and took it down to the river to set it afloat. (Okay, so it's really a lake--Lake Carnegie--but it's long and it curves so that the ends are out of sight, so it looks an awful lot like a river. I keep forgetting that it isn't one.) I'm actually kind of impressed that I was able to fold the boat in one attempt, from memory, without resorting to the instructions.

Saturday I went for a walk along an actual river--walking and rock-hopping, which was very nice, although my recovering sprained ankle wasn't too pleased. On Sunday mimian and I went to the chrysanthemum show at a local arboretum (here's another shot from the show--there were some amazing blooms!), and afterward we walked around the grounds, enjoying the Japanese maple lawn, the rose garden, and the rest of the late-blooming flowers. Ka fed! (And I only just noticed--the ka-feeding thread got removed from the boards? Heh, probably just as well.)

I'm in this place right now where I've got the complete tune and a handful of scattered lines for a song...and the rest just won't come. So I keep humming and singing the same thing over and over. I know it'll sort itself out eventually; it's just going to take time, and I probably need to do some reading/research to inspire me. I do have another song done--I finished the last few lines on the long drive to Retreat this year--though I haven't had a chance to record it yet. Maybe I'll give it a shot this weekend.

And that's about it for the current update. ^_^