The beagle has landed

Sometimes blog stories fall out of the sky...

...and sometimes they just come running into the yard.

I was busy in the backyard, dealing with the last of the leaves, when I suddenly realised I had four-legged company.  A beagle!  A handsome, healthy-looking hound, but he had no collar - where had he come from?

And where was he headed?  After a good sniff around, he set off again at a pace.  I decided I'd better give chase.

Up the road he ran and through all the neighbours' yards, with me in hot pursuit.  I had him cornered once, but he gave me the slip (a collarless beagle is hard to handle).  Finally, about a quarter of a mile away and with the aid of the Girl and Boy who'd jumped on their scooters and come after us, I got the dog under control and borrowed a collar and lead from a nearby householder.  The kids let him drag them back to our yard, where they enjoyed feeling sorry for him while I tried to find his owner.

To cut a long story short, we worked out that the dog must belong to the new people who moved into the house opposite only yesterday.  Though they weren't at home, we managed (with help) to track them down.  A very nice guy came to collect the beagle, clearly relieved that his dog was ok and most apologetic for causing us trouble.  As a reward for our efforts he has granted us sledding rights in his yard, all winter long. Wahoo!

But trouble?  Not at all!  Without this adventure what else would I have found to write about?  Though I must admit after all that hounding around, on top of the yardwork and my usual skating lesson, I'm feeling dog tired tonight.

The price of freedom

This afternoon we visited Bethlehem Public Library to see an acquaintance of mine, storyteller Nancy Payne, give a presentation on the Underground Railroad.  I know Nancy as an extraordinarily talented wildlife instructor at Five Rivers, and this was an interesting opportunity to see her in the different role of historical interpreter. 

Through the true stories of escaped slaves and the concerned citizens who helped them on their journeys she brought to life a difficult chapter in this country's history.   In recounting their tales, Nancy impressed us with the bravery of those individuals who chose the path of personal sacrifice and risk for the sake of freedom and human rights.

Someone else who has chosen such a path for herself is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, released today from house arrest in Burma.  What next for her, I wonder?  I watch with a mixture of hope and trepidation.

Today's programme

I'm in trouble with the Man tonight for not having done anything interesting enough to blog about today.  That's the sort of husband others might envy, I think - one who positively wants you to spend the day having fun.  Or failing that, doing something mildy frustrating that can be recounted later in three paragraphs for other people's entertainment.

Well, it wasn't that I wasn't having fun, exactly, because I was working at my projects and really I enjoy doing that.  One's the big fair trade market I've mentioned before - not long to go now; one involves getting a FT fundraiser started at school; and the last concerns Five Rivers...but more about that next week.

And it wasn't that the work wasn't quite frustrating, but just not in the way that makes for an amusing anecdote.  Ah well.  There's alway's tomorrow.

Armistice Day

It's Veteran's Day here, Armistice Day back in the UK.

Twenty years ago I visited a war cemetery in Thailand, near the infamous Japanese death camp by the River Kwai.  The many British graves stood in precise, measured rows.  Some were engraved with sombre Bible verses, others with heartfelt but sentimental doggerel. 

And one stone had a young soldier's name and just the words, "He always made us laugh."

The memory of it still makes me cry.

Remains of the clay

After a busy day trying to keep on top of the three separate projects I'm working on at the moment (and feeling quite close to falling off one of them), I then spent the evening with the Boy at the 4H club. 

The project there was to make a centrepiece candle out of wool-felt.  Because he's only just joined up, the Boy had missed the meeting where the kids had wet-felted the candle shapes, but at least he got to decorate one using a felting needle, and then had fun dressing up its natural wood stand with other bits of nature, including some berries which he quickly discovered made an effective pink dye for the wood.  And the carpet, as it turned out. Also his face and my cream-coloured sweater.

An interesting choice of subject for the material: wool doesn't burn.  But no odder than maybe, say, a felt ice-lolly.

Meanwhile the Girl was out with her scout friends earning her Pottery badge at one of those pottery-painting places. As well as painting something which we'll get to see next week, the girls did actually have to learn something about pottery, and craft some pots.  Our Girl seems also to have made her own replica shards. 

No snow day

Another picture of yesterday's snow.  All gone again now.  Was it just a collective daydream?  So much for the kids' wistful hope that school might declare today a Snow Day.

Still, it was pretty while it lasted

Snow joke

So, yesterday we were raking leaves and today...

...shovelling snow?!

The forecast this morning had mentioned snow, but oh, you know somewhere to the north, or at very least east of the Hudson.  I was surprised to see large flakes falling mid-morning, but even then thought "No way will it settle."

But it did.  I was due to attend a meeting round the corner at school at 2 o'clock and by then everything had a fair covering of snow, and it was still falling.  I had to dig out my snowboots.  An inch or so had accumulated before it finally stopped.

It won't stay around for long, I know.  But it's been kind of magical today - and like a little warm-up (freeze-up?) act for the winter to come.