"Audie Murphy!" (A W.C. Fields exclamation of wonder!)

Somebody nominated Ramey's Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge for the Pulitzer Prize! Wow, wow, wow! She spent yesterday getting her picture and other stuff sent in, and I helped a little, I'm proud to say, by printing her new photo.

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Every time I cook, I learn something. Yesterday I made a beef stew or pot roast in the crock pot, and I learned that before cooking you ought to decide whether you're making a stew or a roast. Eating stew with a knife and fork is challenging. Anyway, I ate most of it yesterday and today. I also learned that I like fire-roasted tomatoes, in spite of the black flakes that stick to your teeth.

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O wild west wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,

Thou from whose unseen censer the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing--

This morning I watched the wind blowing leaves eastward across the back of the lot. For several days it was just small stuff blowing off the trees; but now the bigger leaves are beginning to turn loose and fly around. And settle, of course. But I don't care. If they get knee-deep on the lawn or the back yard, Mo and I will just get out there and roll around in them. The poem is by P.B. Shelley.