They · Say · I'm · A · Swan

This week is made of FAIL, to employ an Internetism, and I'm not going to talk about it.

The pond where we saw the heron on Sunday is seasonal. By this time of year, it is normally just an arid, crackly pit. It had, in fact, nearly dried up when this latest bout of rain started. It is now nearly full again. The mudskippers are certainly enjoying it, and that's why the heron is hanging out there. I love herons. We walked that far this morning, but didn't see him/her.

I watched the latest Doctor Who episode last night (latest for Sci Fi, that is). The thought of that great library abandoned and useless makes me very unhappy. Also...do you ever wonder if people like The Master and Borusa (who taught the Doctor) know his Real Name? (Might your name be Rumpelstiltskin?)

I have Friday off and thought I might like to see the fireworks this year. When I was a kid, we always went down to my grandparents' house because they live sort of behind the stadium, so we had a great view of everything except the ground displays. However, to get to my grandparents' house from my house, you have to go past the stadium unless you really go over the river and through the woods. Which I could do, but wouldn't be happy about. Getting home will be a nightmare (especially as they took the street light out and I'd have to make a left turn against stadium traffic to get out of their neighborhood), but I think if I wait half an hour, then make a right turn and go through several different sections of town, I should be able to get home without climbing up into the hills and driving along the river.

In other news...there is no other news.

Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth wood in the lake
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats
There we've hid our fairy vats
Full of berries
And of Reddest Stolen Cherries.

Come away oh human child
To the waters and the wild
With a fairy hand in hand
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you can understand

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim grey sands with light
By far off the furthest roses
We foot it all the night
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles
Whilst the world is full of troubles
And is anxious in it's sleep

Come away oh human child
To the waters and the wild
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you can understand

Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above glen car
In pools amung the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams

Come away oh human child
To the waters and the wild
For the World's more full of weeping
Than you can understand

Away with us he's going
The solemned eyed
He'll bear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest

Come away oh human child
To the waters and the wild
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you can understand

For he comes, the human child
To the waters and the wild
With a faery hand in hand
For the world is more full of weeping
Than you can understand

Note: This is probably punctuated incorrectly. I don't care.

RULES:

1. You must take between 6 and 8 new photographs per day.
2. Your WITL must be consecutive. No skipping days.
3. You must post your photographs at the end of that day, sometime after the last picture is taken.
4. Each photograph must have the time taken beneath and a title, with no other explanation. (But feel free to ask me any questions about them you want in the comments!)
5. You must post these rules at your first entry, then link back to it for the other six days so that people will know wtf you're doing.
6. Your post must say "A Week in the Life of [your name/username], Volume [whatever day you're on]."
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(Warning: 14 pics, because there was a picture-taking expedition this morning.)

When last we left our heroine, she was getting ready to go for a Girls Night Out. We had a great time, though I realized during the course of the evening that my friend D's house is scary. Her husband is a hunter (deer and turkey, principally), so there are trophies in the house, including a Deer Head that was originally situated over a couch so that one person on the couch was always directly under the Dead Deer. They've since remodeled, turning a useless porch into a living room and it's very nice. And you can see D's touch in the decorating, which is all very tasteful. The theme, however, is the scary part. It's all deer and turkeys. There are deer and turkey paintings, ornaments, prints, and so forth. She has decorated the public parts of the house completely to her husband's hunting (and Dead Deer is still hanging where he was, but now no one is in danger of getting gored). It's a little weird. Before they were married, D had a normal house. Now it's surreal -- normal on the surface, but when you start to pay attention to the theme of the decor, it gets scary. (The toilet paper holder is shaped like a pair of antlers, forcryinoutloud!)

But, as I said, we had a great time. Many laughs were laughed, much gossip was exchanged and pizza and chocolate were scarfed with great chompy scarfing noises. (Though I will confess that the pizza -- picked up on the way because they live beyond Domino's Field of Delivery -- was not particularly nice.)

Yesterday I went garage sale-ing with Mom and got the usual assortment of books and CDs and a couple of cute blouses. Nothing much, though; I only spent about $15. It rained off and on, so we got wet, even though Mom was carrying an umbrella. I got a lot wetter than she did, though, 'cause even though the umbrella was large, it's not necessarily easy for two people to share, especially when one is four or five inches taller than the other.

There weren't very many sales, though, so she dropped me off before 11:00. I had time to run out and return those clothes to KMart, drop off rented movies and rent another, and stop by WickedMart to get some beads I'd spotted Friday afternoon and decided that I wanted before traffic got too bad. Of course, all that meant that by the time I returned to the neighbors' garage sale, they'd sold the fax. Ah, well. There'll be another.

The rain eventually cleared up, but the forecast and weather map were threatening more, so I didn't bother with laundry. I should have. The afternoon turned absolutely gorgeous and the rain held off until nearly dark. I could've done all my laundry with no difficulty. Oh, well. I'm doing it now.

This morning, we decided to see if we could get pics of the wee bitty skunkling by the trail (a guy in a truck stopped while we were taking photos of a wee bitty bunny to warn us that there was a skunk! on the trail!). I got one really good shot of it, which I will no doubt post later. We then walked on up to the puddle pond (it'll dry up in another few weeks, unless the rain keeps on as it has), which is apparently full of mudskippers this year, because a great blue heron has been hanging around. I spotted it in the middle of the pond the other day and wanted to see if it was there this morning. It was, but beyond a good range for pictures. Still, we tried. I wish I could've been fast enough to get it in flight when it decided that we were obnoxious (damned papparazzi!) and flew off.

I've also decided to do the Week in the Life photo meme and this is your fair warning. First pics will go up this evening. And with luck, I'll remember that I'm doing it and not forget to carry my camera, won't accidentally delete pics when I'm transferring them to the computer (that seems to be my thing lately), and will remember to post. We'll see, won't we?

I have too many things to do to waste time working today. So I'm taking the afternoon off. The morning is when most of the important stuff happens anyway.

I noticed yesterday at lunchtime that it looked as though the house nearest the trail was going to have a garage sale, but then after work, there was a huge Dumpster plunked in the middle of the driveway. Guess not, then. Apparently, the elderly lady who lived there has either died or gone into a nursing home and her family is cleaning out her house. This morning, however, I was disgusted to find what I assume to be an antique dealer wandering through the stuff they'd left outside the garage doors. It was no later than 6:10 a.m. Vultures!

I know, I know. Antique dealers really need to get the best bargains they can in order to make a living, but I just find that reprehensible. Surprisingly, so does my mother (who has returned to antiquing since she retired from the ministry).

There was a wee bitty skunk on the trail this morning, possibly one of this year's vintage. It didn't seem too terribly worried about me or any of the other people passing it; though it did trundle away from folks, it didn't seem spooked. Amusingly, too Big Tough Men warned me about it: the first was one of the morning regulars on his bike, the other was a guy on a motorcycle who saw me, slowed down so I could hear him over his engine and yelled a warning. I was amused. A couple of hours later, there was a wee bitty woodchuck in pretty much the same spot.

I tried to watch National Treasure last night, but didn't get very far. It's an okay movie (I've seen it before), but I just wasn't in the mood, I guess, though I was enjoying Sean Bean). Perhaps I'll give it another go this weekend.

Using instincts bred into them since time immemorial, when it was their duty to face out away from the firelight and warn against the depredations of wild animals and other tribes, this morning, the dogs warned me just in time that Thag and all his minions were coming over the hill...to seal the neighbors' driveway. Alas, their assiduous protection of hearth and home earned them only a scolding, as it was too early for that shit.

I finished New Amsterdam last night -- good book, you read! -- and started a book that is claimed to be the first ever sequel to Jane Austen's work, Old Friends and New Fancies, published in 1913. So far, it's entertaining and the author seems to have captured some of Austen's voice, though I'm not crazy about the way she transitions between viewpoint characters. That's third person omniscient, I suppose.

It's official: the book club will be continuing to read The Chronicles of Narnia for next month. I really thought that everyone could manage to read the whole thing in three weeks, but I guess I'm just a freak. We're still getting together this week, but I rather suspect that it's going to be an evening of pizza, chocolate and gossip. Not that there isn't value in that, especially as we haven't gotten together for that sort of thing for just about a year.

I am freezing. As usual.

thumb-licking: An ancient mode of confirming a bargain. In a bargain between two Highlanders, each of them wets the ball of his thumb with his mouth and join[s] them together, esteemed a very binding act. It was customary with these kings, in concluding a peace or striking an alliance, to join their right hands and being their thumbs together. Immediately, when the blood had diffused itself to the extremities, it was let out by a prick and licked by the contracting parties. Their covenant was henceforth deemed sacred. [John Jamieson's Etymological Scottish Dictionary, 1808]