After three days of brilliant sunshine I woke this morning to snow falling in huge puffy flakes–clumps of flakes really. They looked like communion wafters that someone had baked with leavening by mistake. While I was reading the Sunday paper (including a lovely story about 20-somethings discovering the joy of P-patches, that is, communal gardening) the snow turned to rain. And now I’ve just had an email advisory from the local weather station: high winds expected later. So it’s officially March in Seattle. Don’t like the weather? Wait ten minutes. (Don’t like the service? Wait ten minutes.)
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Also, I’ve heard from a handful of readers that some of you are having trouble with the comment box: you’re typing in a comment then Blogger eats it. If you’ve had this problem, could you let me know? It would be good to know how widespread it is, and whether its connected to browser or operating system or, hell, I don’t know, star sign. Also, if you have any ideas about fixing this glitch, or have a notion where the fault lies, can you let me know? I really, really hate the notion of people trying to communicate and being shut out by the system.
Meanwhile, the only thing I can suggest is that if it’s a lengthy comment, compose offline and cut-and-paste because apparantly the comment usually goes through the second time. I’m sorry about this. I’ll see what I can do.
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Ever since I started writing Hild I’ve been searching for a way for her to have alone time that wasn’t just wandering about in the woods. (Personally, I love wandering about in the woods, in real life and as a writer, but it is difficult to maintain any kind of narrative tension/reader engagement.) The other day the solution presented itself: Hild climbs trees. (I have Anthony to thank for this: I downloaded a sample chapter of Robert Macfarlane’s The Wild Places and, bam, there was the solution.) So now I going through the ms. looking for places to feather in her tree climbing habit. Along the way I’m researching a variety of tree species and growing conditions, and the beasties that live amongst them. I’m enjoying myself immensely. Life is good.
Nicola Griffith 
I had trouble with eaten comments. This only happened when new choices became available. If I try to comment through any of my accounts except Google, the comment goes away, but I always copy first.
Hmmn. So possibly it’s one of those Control-Freak-Gigantor-Corp problems. I’ve been running into a lot of bullshit over on MySpace lately.
Interesting. I’m trying it now with an open id. It doesn’t always ‘eat’ my comment, but it does always require me to push the button at least twice, sometimes more – just says error. I’ve gotten in the habit of always copying what I write in the comment box before hitting the button, as chadao does.Same thing happened – hit it twice. It’s no big deal to me really, but some people have trouble with this stuff I guess.
Alone time:When I was kid, around ten, I was put to work in my grandmother’s clothing store on weekends, holidays and summers. When I wanted to escape (to read mostly) I went to the basement where I soon discovered a catacomb that linked most of the older town buildings with each other, including the embalming room of a funeral home.I doubt that this is helpful at all with Hild, but still a thought.
I forget to select my account often? I think that says more about me than the platform.
jennifer from p, ooh, catacombs, that sounds perfect for a child–I would have loved it.
Great idea for Hild! I was an avid tree climber as a child. We had a rather wild orchard with a huge apricot tree in the middle, the kind that needs three people to circle their arms around its bark. Very old, and masterfully grafted onto a much sturdier rootstock so it gave bucketfulls of fruit each year. I’ve spent hours there. Great vantage point, and you overhear stuff. That tree was literally a friend – it’s bark was polished by my hands and as familiar as my own body.I hope you and Hild both have fun with it.