Every year when it starts to feel autumnal, I seem to have an archaic pioneering gene (or possibly a hibernation instinct) that kicks in and spurs me to be domestically industrious in a way that is usually completely foreign to my nature. This has been one of those weekends. The weather has been sharp � clear, cold and breezy. I spent most of yesterday in the garden, cutting down dead flowers, preparing compost and mulch for application after the first hard frost, emptying and cleaning the flowerpots and harvesting herbs and the last of the tomatoes.

Today I baked a batch of �monk bread,� so dubbed because the recipe was obtained by my mother from a friend in a New Mexico monastery. It�s a hearty whole wheat bread flavored with honey and molasses. It tastes like fall. I also washed, dried, chopped and froze all the garden herbs I could, potting a rosemary and chive plant for indoor use over the winter, providing I can managed not to kill them. I have a very green thumb in the garden, but with houseplants, I can destroy even those others assure are unkillable. And I finished up three large floor pillows I made for AJ�s room. They are now in a heap in the corner between his bookshelves, making a cozy spot for flopping down with a good book, provided you mind the cat, Mrs. Stein, who seems to be under the illusion that the cushions were made for her personal use alone.

I am attempting to turn my suddenly rekindled Protestant work ethic to more academic pursuits this afternoon, as I try to bang out a couple of travel grant proposals and get back in touch with my dissertation, which has been shoved aside for the last few weeks in my effort to finish up my conference paper. It was incredibly exhilarating to have something finished, even if it is just something small like the conference paper. It has given me a taste for finishing things, a feeling I hope to harness for the speedy completion of the dissertation that ate Manhattan. We shall see.

AJ has been channeling his own fall energy into football, the playing and watching thereof. Currently he is annoying his father by asking him a million and one questions about the Bears/Eagles game. I think I had better intervene, before my husband�s head explodes.

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