I believe Maria is living the life she was meant to love, today I thought of her as the Fiber Fairy, I was writing and thought she was in the studio, but she was, in fact, just outside of my window with Gus and Flo in attendance, she was skirting the wool sheared at our Open House in October.

Sunday, we are taking the wool up to Brandon, Vt., to the fiber mill there, and picking up the wool we brought in the Spring. That wool will go on sale next week for $25 a skein plus shipping, details will be on Maria’s website. The wool was especially beautiful this time, as the sheep mature, their wool gets richer in color and soft from the lanolin.

The wool was clean and easy to sort through, she was almost done before I knew she was out there. When I am writing, the world just fades away, I hear and see nothing else. I think writing is the only thing I do well, other than shop for food and talk to dogs. Maria sold two quilts this week and a hanging piece, and agreed to make three more quilts for a mother who wants to give one each to her daughters.

We both are committed to doing what we love, to work only for money is to be a slave in our minds. It was a nasty November day up here today, raining and misting and chilly all day,  Maria was quite at home on the porch, a dog on one side, a barn cat on the other, skirting the wool from her sheep.

My cold is much better, the coughing has slowed, although I still feel somewhat weak and groggy. I’ve got a new history book by Gordon Woods, “Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson,” about the complex friendship between these two remarkable men, both of whom died within an  hour of each other on the same day, July 4th.

Maria is going out with some friends tonight, I’m going to hole up with this book, three dogs and a cozy fire. Sweet. Life is good.

Today, I took some time out to think of the people killed in church in Texas Sunday and their families, I am determined that this never becomes routine for me.

I see that for many, this is just another senseless slaughter. I hope it never becomes that way for me.