Just learned on @wchlchapelboro.bsky.social that I was one of 32 people who voted yesterday in Orange County! I hope some others were in Hillsborough so my dad's write-in vote for me to be mayor goes nowhere 😖

I am once again grateful for the Orange County "Fork It Over" program. 400 utensils did not go in the landfill after the farmers market event last weekend!

I am still hesitating to cut my favorite meadow. A mama spider used a baby oak tree to shelter her egg sack, and it has hatched but the babies are still there, and she seems to be hanging out with them!

Hello #edibuddies I spotted this movie coming to my local theater: www.rebelwithaclause.com (the Chelsea for anyone in the Chapel Hill area)—anyone seen it? "Come for the grammar, stay for the humanity" 🥹

We're setting up for tonight's benefit for the farmers market, and it's going to be beautiful! Seven tickets left if you're interested: www.enoriverfarmersmarket.com#home

Bad sign for the sourdough starter you gave your neighbor 😂😂😂

The neighborhood ghosts are excited about the approaching nor'easter!

I am calling it: AC unit is covered for the winter

My parents neighborhood has the best Halloween decorations

Forgoing coffee this morning for my new tea from Catdrip Curio. Nami was my neighbor at Spa-Con and just about sold out of her teas! catdrip.square.site (she said she'd be working on getting them back in stock after the event)

Can I get to the gym before "November Rain" ends? [Insert video of me head banging in the planet fitness parking lot]

Local friends: the Eno River Farmers Market is having a silent auction to benefit its SNAP double bucks program, which has become largely self-funded: givebutter.com/c/VKYLf1 Lots of great items like a goat-milking experience and bottomless u-pick blueberries in 2026.

Many thanks to Joy Held for featuring The Fire Apprentice in her "books by my friends" feature: open.substack.com/pub/joyeheld... (Joy wrote a historical mermaid novel!)

It's kind of sad to return home from a September vacation and find all the garden spiders gone and only the remnants of their once glorious webs... hoping they left some egg cases behind!

I was always mystified by Hillsborough's "Flush Fest" music festival until I learned it raises money for sanitation projects around the world www.flushfest.org And this year they have their own beer!

He's never letting me pack this thing again

Thank goodness for @wchlchapelboro.bsky.social providing some heartwarming news these days chapelboro.com/sports/years...

Vacation grand finale: A stop at Elvis's birthplace in Tupelo, MS. Such a sweet park and exhibits. The park was built around the original home after Elvis helped the town purchase the site.

Vacation report #5: Three days driving the Natchez Trace Parkway, peaceful green scenery including a cypress swamp, the original trace road, lots of turkeys, and historical sites. Would be a great bike ride!

Vacation report #4: Unexpected UNESCO World Heritage Site in the middle of Louisiana farmland, where we took an informative guided tour and learned about life there 3400 years ago.

Vacation report #3: So much to love at Crystal Bridges, definitely will return here! Loads of wonderful paintings, not pictured. I loved how they made their current construction project and gallery reorganization into part of the exhibit.

Vacation report #2: Lake Ouachita highlights include a tarantula sighting (!), the Caddo Bend trail, and especially the rocks! Arkansas has the best rocks.

Vacation report #1: Loved the historic promenade and bathhouses in Hot Springs, and the many bathtubs, but kind of disappointed that no natural springs remain in the forested areas.

5 stars to the Root Cafe of Little Rock www.therootcafe.com Food from local farmers, plus easy parking and plenty of shady seating!

We met Hamish, the Crystal Bridges cat. He's a sleepy boy these days. Greeted us at 8:30 but slept all day after that until we left at 2:30. #caturday

Very exciting day for my Seahawks-loving BF apnews.com/article/merr... (I'm shocked that "petrichor" was not yet included.)

A well-intentioned person moved this box turtle into a fountain, thinking it would be better off. I know it's hard but it's usually best to leave turtles alone (or move them across the road in the direction they're going).

I am spending the weekend at Spa Con in Hot Springs, Arkansas. It is a lovely event and was a great excuse to go somewhere new.

Who's under the table and biting my knee? Not Coco!

Well, it took only 2 1/2 years but I finally managed to hang up the towel hooks I made in #blacksmithing class while researching for The Fire Apprentice!

I think these beetles have forgotten the rules of horror movies...

Dewy morning highlights just how many giant spiders are hanging out in my yard 😬 such as this one *on my mailbox* HOW LONG has this web been here? Does the mail carrier know?

Not only are the lycoris blooming, but my ginger lily is blooming for the first time!

Highlights of weekend in New York: Twelfth Night in Central Park under red moon, Hamilton (10 rows from the stage, right in the center!), visit to Swatch store, dinner at Dirt Candy, and the Empathic Universe exhibit at the Museum of Art and Design

"it sits for scrap now / on the tow truck. / Majestic as a king … before the final journey." 😭😭😭

I tried out a new pot for baking bread: blue enamel, which preheated quickly. It worked great, but since the orange pot was in the oven at the same time, the blue pot's dough was able to share the heat.

Gen X nostalgia alert from a fellow Hillsborough author 📼

I went by the town visitor center to check on the autumn zephyr lilies, fully expecting to have missed their blooms. But amid the dead stalks were two buds! I will try to catch them blooming later this week.

Yet another spider attached a web to my bike, only this time it is this spider 😕 I'm tempted to skip the gym to avoid disturbing her. I hope she can rebuild by this evening.

It took me all summer but I am done: a terrible first draft of Sourdough and Sweethearts.* (I added a line to my Trackbear plot to show my original two-month goal.) Now I need to figure out how to revise it into something less terrible. #amwriting

Nice sky on today's #stetwalk

Someone's just a leeeeettle too big for his box

Entertaining myself with fridge magnets while I clean the kitchen (apologies to mom and dad)

More nice insects brightening my yardwork. These seem to be pink-striped oakworm moths.

Although many of them were already taken, there are still ceramic bananas available at the "Curve Appeal" installation this morning!

More green excitement in my garden. Third mantis sighting this month. Based on size, I think this is a male, which I hope means I will find some egg cases this fall!

Giant green spider adds excitement to lawnmowing. I'm not sure, but she appears to be chowing down on her mate?

Happy #caturday from someone enjoying his new pillow

OMG "Creamed" is a hoot 🤣 But I got locked in the freezer at my high school job (Friendly's, for ~10 seconds before they heard me screaming and got me out) and I'm not sure I can read a story set in a freezer. It was subzero and every surface stuck to your skin like the pole in A Christmas Story.

I've been struggling to wake up in the darker mornings as summer wanes. But on the bright side, the bakery is now shady at 8 AM.