in the sun & in the mail

vienna has been glorious this october. it's just breath-taking. all the colours. the picture-book blue sky. day after day. and it's been so warm too! today people were sunbathing in shorts and t-shirts - 25C (77F)!

i'd been feeling poorly the last few days, so i could not come out hiking yesterday (national holiday), but this afternoon i could not wait to finish work and go for a walk on donauinsel (the artificial island in the danube). i cross the danube twice every day, going to and from work, and although i am always reading on the train, i look up every time we come to the river. it's been wonderful to watch the colours change lately.

i took my time walking, i sat in the sunshine down by the river, and i took lots of pictures, some of which i simply must share with you (click to enlarge, esp aardman & mcclam):

















for more, visit my yahoo photo album.

being optimistic, i went to my place after the walk, to pick up mail, and double yay! frank matagrano's chapbook There Is Nothing to Love about Los Angeles has arrived! and - a surprise from the naugh... one-track-mi lovely ms nag! goodness knows why she thought of sending me a publication called From Porn to Poetry 2 - Clean Sheets Celebrates the Erotic Mind, but i am sure she meant well. she just assumes everybody is like her. thank you, darleneg, for what i suspect might be a belated wedding present. :)

speaking of clean sheets and dirty minds - temperatures over at the itws forum have not only been rising, but soaring. steve's cabin feels like a sauna, and my newly, um, erected cabin is already steaming up like a tropical rain forest. i can't believe what's been going on. i can, however, believe that as soon as something WAS going on, *i* was in the midst of it all ... it's been the most fun week i have ever had there. it is contagious. really. ask arlington. or mcnate. i don't know which of the two is worse.

oh and yes, we are still writing poetry, too. *nodding vigorously* i am on day 18 of round 8 today, but if it weren't for reports, i don't know whether i would have lasted. sometimes i feel like a duracell bunny, i swear. i keep going and going and going although i'd much rather drop dead. *L*

viii.12 - Report without a voice
viii.13 - Report with pink sky
viii.14 - Report - Still Life With Poetry
viii.15 - report with dry spell
viii.16 - report with jarring sound
viii.17 - poem with possibilities and uncertain outcome
viii.18 - cabin fever

song of the day: the maid needs a maid by emily haines & soft skeleton.