BrambledBriar of Shadow

Not much to report. Another autumnal day, rather dark and damp. After a good deal of scholarly googling, I learned that one should not plant paw paw trees until spring, so I'll have to try to somehow keep my little seedlings alive in their pots until then. I finally got an hour or so to work in my yard. I did a lot of weeding by the side of the house, including ripping up a lot of ivy. It's been getting completely out of hand, sending forth tendrils closer and closer to the house, and we can't have that. I was working on pulling it off the pine trees when a bit of bark flew into my eye. I had just growled "oh lordy" or words to that effect--hopefully not something a whole lot spicier than that--when the mailman appeared around the corner of the house. "Oh hello," I said, feigning good cheer for social purposes. He has seen me before hacking away with my implements of destruction, so I do not think his answering smile was a nervous one. Even I cannot do weed control with only one eye, although I confess I gave it a shot just to make sure it was impossible. I had to go inside and rinse my eye.

My stomach has been killing me, so I decided I'd better go back to chicken and rice for awhile. The Sparrowhawk bought me a cooked chicken at the store, and made a pot of rice. I made some stir fried vegetables--carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, and onion--to go with it. I used the last of the blackberry juice to make it sweet and sour. Quite tasty I must say. So far so good. I went for a welk while the Sparrowhawk was at the gym, although I didn't want to. I got home just before sunset. Waah. I'm sad that the sun won't stay up until 7 again before next spring.