Winter has its compensations, among which are the scarlet berries of the pyracantha that grows along the wall. The birds won't clean the berries off until they're fully ripe, which doesn't happen until after a couple of freezes. Maybe I'll beat them to it this year, and make some pyracantha jelly. I've never made wine, but I understand it's very nice. I've cut some branches and brought them in--lovely on the dining room table, with branches of rosemary and three fat red candles. Very Christmassy.

Catch-up. I forgot to tell you that I didn't get picked for jury duty on Monday--not that I felt rejected, mind you. It was an interesting, if frustrating, morning. 25 of us showed up at 9 a.m. for the cattle call. I was #19, so I was feeling pretty confident I wouldn't get chosen. But then our numbers were "reshuffled" by the computer so that I was #8. For some reason, the judge decided to shuffle the numbers AGAIN, and we were dismissed while the computer went about its business.

How hard can it be to randomly generate numbers from 1-25?

Very, very hard, as things turned out. The process took some 90 minutes (the computer stalled, the clerks couldn't figure out how to fix it, the computer techs they phoned couldn't tell them what was wrong), while we stood around outside the courtroom, muttering that it would have been a helluva lot smarter to put 25 numbers into a hat and draw them out again. By the time the computer renumbered us, I was #11, and since this was a 6-person jury (for a DWI), I didn't figure I'd make the cut. I didn't. The low point of the morning: the judge telling jokes while we waited for the computer to count from 1 to 25. Out in the hall, one juror said it was a good thing the judge was a judge, because he'd never make it as a stand-up comic.

Writerly chores. Finished Hawthorn House (copyedited MSS) yesterday and sent it back to NY this morning. Started Spanish Dagger this morning, and expect to send it back on Monday. Then back to Nightshade, which is all but done.

Fiber stuff. I'm knitting like crazy for Christmas, a couple of hours a night. I've finished almost enough hats for all the grandkids, and scarves for Bill's nieces. A good way to use up some of my hand-dyed, homespun stash. There's never enough for a big project, as you probably know from your own experience, but there's enough to add some color to small things, like hats. Hoping to get finished in time for Santa to get them under the right trees.

Nothing settled yet, but we're thinking of spending Christmas in New Mexico, and I'm planning to stay on there alone for the month of January, to work on my memoir project for UT Press, Landscapes of Solitude. It's a different kind of writing. I'm looking forward to it, but with a little apprehension, and will be glad to have the time alone to wrestle with it.

Reading Note. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee has give us a couple of good reasons to knit hats: 1. A great hat can make up for bad hair. 2. Hats can be knit fairly quickly and, as a bonus, children's heads grow slowly compared to the rest of them.