A shout out to SyrenMuse who sent me the link to the Little House on the Praire DVD! Who knew! ABC was such a punk when I asked them nicely if they'd be releasing it. I had no idea they listened to me! Maybe your library will have it...

This week we end with our American Regional writers, Sarah Orne Jewett, 1849-1909,
though we won't be listening to her best-known book, The Country of the Pointed Firs. Instead we'll hear her short story, "The White Heron" written in 1886-ish.

And thanks too, to WingLake who sent this explanatory article, and this amazingly cool site that I've signed up for! I think I'll be leaving some wrist warmers and water colors at undisclosed locations around the Old Pueblo. You?


Rhinebeck Plans...it's never too early to make a date with fiber. And it's never too late to save a little bit of your own personal environment (not to mention cash...which you can then spend on fiber...).

Next week we'll start our new novel
(drum roll...how appropriate!)
A Tale of Two Cities.

With apologies to Mr. Piccone (my freshman year English teacher).

A knitting font (and amazing celtic knot weaving pattern to boot!), another knitting font (can you ever really have too many?), a phenomenal You Tube addition, and a reminder to read Spindlicity (hey Janel!)

Regionalism!
America!

"oooooooh beautiful, for spacious skies..."

(I can't think of that without hearing Fozzy Bear say "patriotism swells in the heart of the American Bear!" as he does after singing that song on The Muppet Movie soundtrack.)

Twain --boy do I love him--who is an appropriate precursor to our next novellist (I think).

Teresa in Scotland (Go Clan MacPhearson!) wanted me to pass on these links to you:
first, two mosquito attacking SAFE products. She recommends a leave-on product rather than a soap or shampoo...especially for people like me who are Mosquito Magnets.

And second, a new soysilk site. Mmmmmmm...extruded protein! Love it!

Having finished with Henry James, I thought we needed a REAL woman to freshen our pallette...Calamity Jane.


Not so much Doris.








Don't know if you've watched Deadwood (NOT for sensitive ears!), but it at least started out close to accurate as far as I can tell. My son and I got to see Wild Bill and Jane's graves








when we drove through there in early August. We ate where Bill was killed by Jack McCall--which sounds more morbid than it is...he was killed in the poker room of a saloon. They stage reenactments of his murder every night, I think.

Jane was quite something.



CHEERS!





And here in the "costume" of her sex.




I'm sorry it's a guy reading the autobiography, but it's still amazing to hear her own words. She was one tough cookie. And while she has the reputation for being, um...not the most attractive woman of her time, I think she was actually a rather handsome woman--far less...weathered than I would have imagined for one of Custer's scouts.









And then a little Bret Harte






For some more local color and American Realism. Let's bring ourselves back from the mannered Victorian brink into a little good old American...Puritanism? Victorianism?
Ah...
When everyone knew their place...

And then some really cool links sent by really cool listeners like Spider_Knit who sent me the Library Thing and Dawn who sent the Purlescence Storytellers Challenge and PeaceFleece! Whoo hoo!

WARNING: Some of you were good enough to let me know pronto that there was a problem with the file. I fixed the glitch in the audio file and replaced it, but not before some podcatchers downloaded it. Sorry about that. If you re-download you should be fine. Many apologies!