That is \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one more holiday market to go, and then we can put up our feet and enjoy Christmas \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, save for perhaps regretting that we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have time enough to hang out lights and ornaments on the bay tree for the amusement and edification of our neighbors. But on the other hand, we did get the Christmas fudge all done and distributed, save for the batch of Brandy Alexander which never solidified as it should have done \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always one batch that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go quite as satisfactorily as it should have, but with eight different kinds, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that anyone would mind or even notice.<\/p>\n
Blanco was cold and miserable; in the forties all day, with a sullen drizzle threatening in late afternoon. Still, there were people shopping, and we did pretty well, considering \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but would have done better if the weather had been as pleasant as it was in Johnson City two weeks ago. But still \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the cold! And this time we were in the pink pavilion, on grass, instead of in a place with a roof on three solid walls. I had long winter underwear on, and the brown woolen Edwardian suit, with gloves and a scarf, but my feet were near to freezing in thin leather lace-up boots. My daughter had a lovely insulated pair of winter boots, so her feet were fine, but the rest of her was miserably cold. Note to self \u00e2\u20ac\u201c another pair of long winter underwear, and one of those little portable heaters that run on a propane gas bottle. The weather is expected to be milder for next weekend for the Cowboy Christmas Market in Boerne, though \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 but that brings up still another problem. The pink pavilion developed a bend in one of the support legs which makes putting it up and taking down even more difficult than usual. Not certain of how it happened, but the metal is quite definitely indented and broken. It was never the sturdiest of pavilions anyway, and now some of the other joins have developed bends or cracks at weak points. It was most definitely not designed for the hard use that it has gotten over the past two and a half years, so this next weekend, we have to rent one of the Boerne Market Days pavilions (plain tan and completely featureless) while we arrange to purchase a sturdier pavilion for the next market season. One of the other vendors in Johnson City had a very nice one, with much heavier top and sides; she bought it at Costco; a new one of similar design and features is on our list.<\/p>\n
Today we went through some local favorite shops, picking up this and that with an eye to mailing gifts to family, and making our own Christmas the merrier. This included a stop at a Half-Price Book outlet, where neither of us found what we were looking for \u00e2\u20ac\u201c stocking stuffers for cousins\/nieces and nephews \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but I found a pair of David Hackett Fischer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s accounts of two episodes in the American Revolution. The next of my historical novels is dimly to be seen, at a considerable distance \u00e2\u20ac\u201c something set in that period. I thought earlier this year of what the next should be, after finally completing the Gold Rush adventure. I suppose the natural tendency would be towards continuing into the early 20th century, with the various characters from Adelsverein, from Quivera Trail and Sunset and Steel Rails. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve already hinted at some of those developments relative to the First World War \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 but I find myself curiously reluctant to go there \u00e2\u20ac\u201c mostly because that was the time and place in which the optimism of the 19th century died, in mud and blood, tangled in barbed-wire. Right now \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need tragedy and heart-breaking disillusion. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d rather go back, to the start of our republic, close to the foundation of the American experience \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n
Besides \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I have already hinted at a couple of different possible characters and plotlines: Race Vining had a relation named Peter, who served in Washington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tiny, desperate army at Valley Forge \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and Carl and Margaret Becker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grandfather Heinrich was a Hessian deserter, who fell in love with an American woman \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and perhaps the notion that the individual was the master of his own fate. Nothing more certain than that; the specifics of the plot will grow from research.
\nBesides \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I have to write another Luna City chronicle, and another Lone Star Sons, first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
That is \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one more holiday market to go, and then we can put up our feet and enjoy Christmas \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, save for perhaps regretting that we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have time enough to hang out lights and ornaments on the bay tree for the amusement and edification of our neighbors. But on the other hand, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,15,31,542],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aint-that-america","category-domestic","category-home-front","category-local","category-luna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncobrief.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}