“The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one on a rainy day who doesn’t know how to read.”
~ Benjamin Franklin
The clouds are low and it’s raining. The desk in my woman cave is situated such that there is a perfect view out the window of the yard, the ridge, and the mountains. I’m editing photos and glance up to see the grouse family, puffed up and fat, staying dry under the lilac bush.
i spend the whole morning in silence, playing with light and my camera and various subjects. Maya, just now curled up in her bed next to my desk, comes and goes, preferring, like me, to retreat to a solitary place now and then. We are suitable companions for one another; we understand the irresistible lure of silence and solitude.
Later I go upstairs and make an apple crisp, I take the sheets out of the dryer and make the bed, I spy the garlic on the shelf and make a mental note to get it planted in the next few days. I brew a cup of the expensive tea and settle in to my wing chair with a book and a fragrant cup.
It’s a perfect silent October Saturday.

You plant garlic in the fall? Explain the process please. Do you use the old bulbs? I’ve only ever bought garlic at the store so I have no idea how it grows.
Karen, yes you plant garlic in the fall. I bought bulbs from out local nursery because I want a certain variety of hardneck garlic. I could have used bulbs from this year’s harvest but have used most of them up already! The garlic you get in the grocery story is likely softneck garlic from China. There’s a world of difference between it and the garlic you can grow yourself. I’ve given up on buying grocery store garlic, with its tiny cloves, completely. If I don’t have mine, or other locally grown garlic, I either go without or use powder.