What you will not be seeing this year

You nor I will be seeing this in 2010. We had our enormous maple tree pruned last winter. I practically cried all day as they hacked away at it, leaving nothing but a shell. Then we had a very  hot summer and drought. So my beautiful tree couldn't make the comeback the landscape service had promised. The maple tree that was the glory of the neighborhood will be very sparse this year.

We're also having our fall color early because of the drought and heat. And I'm guessing it won't last long. Such is life. The good thing about it is you don't have to wait for the chilly weather to see the gorgeous leaves. We took a mini-fall color tour yesterday in my convertible. It's not full color here but it's coming along. Strange, but really fun to see it all with the top down.

I'm back from my writers' conference and it was a very mixed experience. You hear an awful lot of doom and gloom at these kinds of meetings. On the other hand, I got some very positive feedback on two manuscripts. And some good advice. And some wonderful signed books for the grandchildren. And  a critique group. Yes! An electronic critique group came out of the experience. That was worth the whole trip.

And, Michael and I have tickets now for Thanksgiving week. We'll be enjoying lovely and absolutely unpredictable Texas weather. I'm looking forward to the best birthday ever on Thanksgiving Day.