He's Baaaack

I couldn't stay away it seems. All traces of the pre-existing pensione pensieri blog seem to have been obliterated and I was allowed to create a new blog with the same name. That's nice since I like the name.
I have always liked the way Garrison Keillor begins his monlogue on The Prarie Home Companion, "It's been a quiet week in Lake Woebegone, my home town. Out on the edge of the prarie."
It has been a mostly quiet ten months in my home town, since I last took up keyboard to blog. In the Western shadow of the Wasatch Front.
My final approach to the six decade milestone has been relatively smooth, without external turbulence and only occasional bursts of frenetic fantasies in my head. Starting at my last birthday, I began a handwritten journal again. There is a peaceful feeling as thoughts flow down your arm, through pen, and onto paper. Tactile sensations are critical to my personal well-being. Making is important to me.
Since that most recent milestone I have done more work with leather, an excellent medium for unique smells and variety of textures. I recently purchased a beginner's basketry kit. I don't really like kits. Adn only one of the baskets I will make from the kit seems to be an interesting output. Most people (based on what is sold, market forces do not lie) do not want to make what I want to make. But I need to begin somewhere. And I firmly believe that a good foundation is the key to success. Shortcuts are the longest way to a decent destination.
On the reading front, I have just finished the entire Earthsea series by Ursla K. LeGuin. Written over a period of 30 years, you can see her improvement as a writer. The first book of the series wasn't bad, but the final one was mature and well developed in a way that was very satisfying. Sort of the opposite of much of what you get today in books and film, a phenomenal start -- Ender's Game, Pirates of the Carribean -- descending into trite rehashing of the initial premises. I may or may not read other LeGuin "classics" as I also see that she developed her work into a somewhat veiled social moralizing tool, although not so blatant in this series as to make it unpalatable. But the Earthsea series is supposed to be young adult fiction, and so I fear that her offerings for adults may be too heavily editorializing.