A day like today is why I loooove October. Blue blue skies, sunny but cool, and dry. The earth here is green from all the rain we had last week. No leaf change color at all yet, no leaves falling, looks like summer but feels like fall. Memory: I remember driving to a seminar once on an October day like this and so much wanted to stop and throw a blanket down on the grass in the woods, close my eyes and absorb the sunlight, feel the cool air on my skin and listen to the sound of wind through the pines--but obligations kept me on the road.

Yesterday, another gorgeous October day, I drove to the dig site down from the house just as a man wearing a Notre Dame T-shirt walked from the path in the forest down the the potty's by the road. An SUV parked ahead of me had Indiana plates so I figured he was the owner. I accosted him and asked if they had found anything. A few arrowheads and shards of pottery--not much, he said.

The man said "I'll get the the state archaeologist to speak to you if you like--you know what that is?" How insulting. I said I may look and sound like a rube, but I didn't just fall off a turnip truck. Of course I know what an archaeologist is and have been to a dig before. Only one Mississipian is at the dig, all the rest of the volunteers come from other states and look down their noses at us which makes me madder than hell. I got more information from a local who was gathering firewood for the campers.

Speaking of turnips, a friend brought a bag stuffed with baby turnip and mustard greens to the house and I spent an hour washing grit off those greens, then cooking them with bacon. Made a pan of cornbread, poured a glass of buttermilk, and by 11pm was enjoying a gourmet meal. I was one satisfied old gal. Know what happiness is? The simple things--a beautiful October day, ending with a bowl of baby greens at night. AAhhhh. Yeah, Mr. Indiana, if I had fallen off a turnip truck, that wouldn't have been a bad thing either.