After...

I'm not ready to present King of Sylvania as a finished piece yet, but these characters refuse to be quiet. Here's a scene that occurs many years after KoS. I don't say how long after, but you should know that Kierkegaard doesn't die in KoS. It could be anywhere from 35 years to hundreds of years after and the how and when of his death has yet to be written. Anyhow, here 'tis:

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The King approached the great oak that served as a marker for the grave of his dear friend. He took off his crown and hung it on a branch, here he was only Lucius, and he set down a bowl of nuts and berries at its base as he'd done every year, a gift for the birds and squirrels as much as an offering for the dead. "Hello, old friend." He placed one long hand on the trunk and looked upward through the branches at the blue sky and then downward again where the tree's roots breached the the rich brown soil. "Things are good at home and the children are growing so fast. Little Kierkegaard is hardly little anymore and the girls are just like their mother, sensible young ladies every one of them. Robinia is expecting again - our fifth baby. I never knew how much I could love a person until Little Kierkegaard was born. Goddess help me, he's just like I was at that age. He's only thirty-five years old and he thinks he can take on the world." He took out a handkerchief and wiped the tears away, laughing a little to think of himself as a boy, running from dragons and fighting giants and naga, kovalten and urkmen, taking on the world as he went from the linen merchant's son to King Lucius. "I miss you, Kierk. I miss you so much. I was angry for a long time because you left me before I was ready for you to go, but I'm not angry any more. I just want you to be proud of the man I've become." Lucius leaned his forehead against the tree and cried. When his catharsis was complete, he wiped his eyes again and took his crown from where it hung, "Goodbye, my friend."

"Da'!" Young Prince Kierkegaard bounded up to where King Lucius stood. He was almost as tall as his father, his long strawberry blonde hair braided neatly behind him, "You promised you'd take me hunting today."

"Did I?" Lucius embraced his eldest, patting him hard on the back as the elder Kierkegaard used to do, "Well, if I said it, it must be law and I can't go against the law, can I? Go get your bow, son, and we'll see if you can shoot as far as your Da'."

"You may be the Far Shot of Beldor, but I'm the Far Shot of Sylvania, old man!"

Lucius placed the crown on his head again and turned one last time to the tree before joining his son, "You see? Just like I was."

The holidays for me are complicated, to say the least. My brother's family and my in-laws are Jewish, I'm Wiccan, and everyone else is Christian. So, little bit celebrates Hannukah, Yule, and Christmas. I took a gamble. Iree is learning about different holidays in school, so I asked her teacher if they were going to teach about Yule as well. It turns out that she hadn't planned on it, but said that she'd try to fit it in this week. She didn't make a deal out of it at all and it was a non-issue. I am so pleased! I feel a little more mainstream. Yesterday, they read a story about Yule. I don't know what else they're going to do, what she's going to teach them, but it's something. When I was in school, I didn't know anyone who was Jewish or what Chanukah was. I knew there was a Jewish thing with candles in December, but that's about it. Now it's actively part of our lives.

I have a tree test today. 94 species of trees, including over a dozen species of pines and the hickories. I think I'll do alright. This tree is a Frasier Fir, Abies fraseri, and along with it's brother the Balsam Fir, is the best Yule tree. Spruces shed like crazy and I'm just not fond of pines. Both firs are native to Tennessee, but the Frasier is pretty much limited to East Tennessee. You can buy locally grown trees, and most of them sell firs and pines that are native to the area.

I don't post on this blog very often, but here's the low-down, quick and dirty:

I'm still in school, it eats my head. I had two non-flowering plants tests last week, lecture and lab. We are moving from algae and the algae that love them and on into amphibious plants like liverworts. If I'm lucky, we'll get to ferns before the end of the semester.
Only a couple more labs to teach and I don't have to do the GTA thing. Woot!

My mundane life has been pretty...mundane. I don't have time for drama, so there's no drama to be had. My car had issues this morning, but it may just be a loose or leaky hose. Our Cavalier is paid off - WOOT! That's a car payment's worth of money that we can use for other things!

My spiritual life is at a nice dynamic equilibrium. The Gods seem to be at the worst not hindering my efforts at going along in life and at the best, helping me along. I'm still doing research on the Nine Woods - very interesting stuff that I may get to later.

That's about all that's fit to print. My husband totally made lasagna today. He has been the domestic dynamo since I've been back to school. Competence is sexy.

No spark

An engine needs spark, fuel, and air to make all the little 'splodeys to make it be go. My brain isn't much different. I need spark, fuel, and air. Well, I'm doing alright in the air department, no worries there. I could use more fuel than I'm getting now. Try though I might, I just don't think I'm getting enough calories for how active I am right now. I'm below my acceptable range by about three pounds last time I checked.
And spark?
No spark.
I can get only so many neurons to fire over the course of the day and I think I've surpassed my daily limit. PPppppllllltttttttt...
Brain squishy now.

Good morning.

I am having a good morning so far. I slept well, got some spinning done at the bus stop, and when I got to school, I found a crow feather and the email address of an old friend (hi Alex!). I already have notes for teaching today and a good idea of what I need to do. Today is Dendrology, otherwise known as the "stomp around in the grass and look at trees" class. (sarcasm) Oh no. What ever shall I do. Not the stomp around and look at trees class, anything but that. (/sarcasm) You might as well throw me into a pile of hand-dyed merino.
I hope the rest of the day goes as well as my morning has. The good night's sleep really goes a long way toward improving my attitude about things.
Oh, today I'll be teaching about fermentation. Mmmmmm...fermentation. Bread, beer, mead, wine, more bread.

I'm tired. Really, really tired.

I just don't know it yet.

Four hours of sleep last night, one cup of coffee this morning and a second in progress. I ride to school, blood moving through my veins. "Just ride," I say, "When you are riding, just ride." Maybe my shoulders let loose for a moment or two, but then tense right back up again as though I've put a thick rubber band around them.

I'm cheerful and friendly and it's genuine. I really do want you to have a nice day and a good morning. Also, I'm at work. I'm working. When I'm working, everything else gets left at home. It's not a bad morning. I had cake for breakfast. I don't eat sweets much, but cake for breakfast is a nice treat. The bitter coffee offsets the sweet and it's better that way. Too much and I feel terrible, but a little is nice sometimes.

I like teaching when I'm in there and the kids (only a couple of whom are actually older than me) are responsive. I found a major flaw in my next lab I'm supposed to teach and I said something, so I get to do it my way. Uncharted territory for me, but not really. Yes, that's a sentence fragment.

Second cup is half done. I had better study.



Gleocapsa, means "gluey box." Microcystis, "small bladder."

Lovely little blue-green things, lit from beneath. Fischerella is my favorite, named for a man named Fischer.

Today, I came home from the grocery store with ZERO plastic bags. None, zippo, zero, zilch. HA-ha! And all the meat I bought was hormone free and, get this, I made a meal plan for dinners for the week and shopped accordingly. Woot!
A successful grocery trip is always a happy thing.
I've been fairly productive today. I got a few more rows done on my man-sweater (remind me to update A Lace Maze is in Jest), went to the store, filled out paperwork for little bit's after school program, prepared for class, and came up with some questions for the Butterfly Guy re: being his lab monkey and thesis research.
The little one made me smile the smile of a very proud mommy today. We're in the store and she asks for a treat if she's good. I say that it would be alright by me. She asks variously for chocolate milk or vitamin water and when I tell her she has to choose one or the other today, she chooses vitamin water. Then, at dinner, she asked for more broccoli as a treat for eating her rice.
I win at life.