Christmas is coming, the cat is getting fat...

Well, not having a goose running around, it's the best I can do. I realized that it's been over two months since I blogged! Two incredibly busy months. The month of November flew by - we hosted our friend Jim Malcolm in two house concerts over the weekend of the 15th-16th. What a lovely time we had as well! Jim is a brilliant singer/songwriter from Scotland, whom I've written about before. We had a full house for both shows, which means we had 30+ folks crammed into our little living room/dining room area on both days. Some of them travelled quite a distance to see Jim. We're currently one of two venues hosting him on a yearly basis in Alabama. He has a devoted following here. And what do you think - Alabama made such an impression upon him that he has written us a song! Now, whether or not it's good for him is yet to be seen. It's based upon all the odd foods we've tried to force upon him over the years...turnip greens, peanuts in your Coke, Fancy Pears...it's a hoot and I think it's going to end up on his next CD. Oh, now we're immortal.

Our friend Noreene was also staying for the weekend, and she snapped this photo to commemorate the occasion:

Poor Jim. He's a good sport. We did feed him better than this while he was with us.

One of the best things about hosting house concerts is the people that you meet. You open your home to folks you don't know from Adam when you host a show. It's stepping out on faith that they are nice people, and they are! Jim says that people into folk music are almost always kind and always have cats. Anyway, we made some new friends from Montgomery, Dave and Diana, and a couple of days ago we received this wonderful folk art doll from Diana in the mail. What a dear heart, and a brilliant artist. And it made us glow all over that she had such a good experience, to be so inspired as to create this:

"I Can't Get the Wren's Nest Off My Mind".

The nest on her head is full of wee brown eggs. It's the kind of thing that makes you do a happy dance. I cried when I read the sweet note she included; what kindness! Thank you again, Diana!

THEN....here comes Thanksgiving! We had Marcella's oldest brother Buddy and his girlfriend Mary come from California to stay. Buddy is a sweetheart, and we hit it off with Mary right away - funny, and a textile artist to boot. We talked about crafts all weekend. She's done alot of things like glassblowing that I've never tried and it was fun to hear about her experiences. Now if only she didn't live so far way. I was sorry to see them go home.

We're currently getting ready for Christmas - watch for pictures soon. Eleven trees of various sizes....