Reader feedback has been coming in steadily (thank you for that) and has prompted me to take care of one bit of housekeeping before we proceed: My haircut! After all my waffling a few weeks back, I didn't even show you the end result. For shame. It's not a pixie, no. But, it's exactly right.

Now that that's taken care of, three of the items that made last week's shortlist:

1. This sunset to end all sunsets.

I held my phone out the window of the dining car (the name we've given to the area of the RV that contains the dinette table and cushioned bench seats) for a full 22 minutes, the longest of my life (dinner was ready and waiting), snapping a picture every 30 seconds or so, and trying to keep my hands steady. I think my favorite part is how the sky starts to go deep and dark...but, then it catches on fire one hot, last time, and reinvents its color palette entirely. I believe we're all capable of that kind of transformation. The epic, color-changing, fiery kind. The kind that maybe feels impossible, but isn't actually that far off...perhaps just a single distinction away from where we stand right now. I've witnessed it, helped it along, experienced it for myself. Oftentimes, 90 minutes of conversation does the trick (and those first 90 are always on me).

2. Hail the size of garbanzo beans.

We woke sometime in the wee hours of Sunday to the urgent sound of rocks hammering against the roof and windows. My Love Interest was on his feet immediately and had sprinted the length of the RV twice before I could even lift my head from the pillow, checking that all of our windows were closed. When he returned to the bedroom, I remember asking if we would be okay (even in my semi-conscious state, I seemed to realize there was a distinct possibility we'd have to make a dash for the storm shelter in the clubhouse) and, if so, could I please surrender once again to the lead apron of my unconsciousness. (FYI: The answers were yes and yes.) Yesterday afternoon, shady patches around the RV park sheltered piles of ice pebbles identical to the ones used as beds for raw shellfish. I handled some until my palms went numb.

3. Johnny jumps ups.

A fun fact: If you google "johnny jump ups," you'll likely click on the Wikipedia entry for Viola tricolor, which will land you on this, and, if you're me, delight you to no end: "Viola tricolor, known as (exhaustingly) heartsease, heart's ease, heart's delight, tickle-my-fancy, Jack-jump-up-and-kiss-me, come-and-cuddle-me, three faces in a hood, or love-in-idleness, is a common European wild flower, growing as an annual or short-lived perennial. It has been introduced into North America, where it has spread widely, and is known as the johnny jump up." It actually contains the parenthetical "exhaustingly"! And nine different nicknames!

'Til soon,
Helen

Notes from the week of March 6

DISCOVERED

+ to limn means 'to suffuse or highlight with a bright color or light'
+ compunction means 'a pricking of the conscience'

ADMIRED

+ Heather Smith Jones's inadvertent texture walk
+ Rachael Ringenberg's show of blogging restraint in favor of a long(er) form writing project (although, selfishly, I want her to keep publishing delicious essays on the blog)

MEALS EATEN, DRINKS DRUNK

+ kale & brussels sprouts salad with blackened salmon
+ southwestern salad
+ Margherita pizza
+ almond coconut macaroon tea (a rooibos herb tea that tastes indulgent with a splash of cream and a smidge of honey)

READ & NODDED MY HEAD

+ "A diary can tell you where you went, when, and with whom; a journal can tell you what you did while you were there, who said what and what it all meant. But a commonplace book catches the rest of it, and in the end provides a much different portrait of a life over a period of time"
-"In a practice that is every single day there are bound to be good and bad days. You can't get around that"

BOOKMARKED (HAVEN'T READ, WANT TO READ)

+ Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived In That House by Meghan Daum (via Jane Flanagan)