There was a glorious sunrise this morning, all apricots and burnished peaches and corals. It was slightly overcast, so when the sun rose high enough to be seen over the horizon it illuminated the underside of the clouds, so there were pinks and peach clouds floating in front of the overcast background, and a slice of brilliant glowing colour right along the underside of the overcast sky, and beyond that, bright blue. If there’s something good about the sun rising later at this time of year, this is it: we’re all awake to see it work its magic.

I got fiftyish pages edited yesterday. I’m taking out em dashes, rearranging words, tightening sentences up, removing things that create atmosphere but do it with too many words when I can do something to similar effect within the actual scene itself, weaving it into the action. I’m also picking up small inconsistencies (place names, timeline) and fixing them. Karine and I shared a lovely sushi lunch, too, after a couple of false starts (the place we once ordered lunch from closed, the place HRH and I defaulted to wasn’t open for lunch). O’Sushi (the name amuses me) makes decent sushi: firm rice that isn’t too sticky, velvety fish and crisp veggies, very fresh-tasting. The only thing missing was a bit of zing, so next time I’ll know to add wasabi to all the maki and nigiri (I usually avoid wasabi). Nothing outstanding, but very solid for an order-out place.

Today is more laundry, cupcake-baking and -icing, bread-baking, and then a trip to Ariadne Knits with Ceri to knit and nibble the aforementioned cupcakes (not only is it Ceri’s birthday, but it was Ariadne Knits’ birthday three days ago! Our favourite LYS is two!). I suspect I will actually step up and try out one of the Hound Design spindles the shop got instead of just petting them and weighing them in my hands, which may be dangerous. An afternoon off will be lovely. Not that it’s entirely off; I have some serious Yule gift work to accomplish while there

Tomorrow morning it’s cello, and then at 12:45 I’m moderating an hour-long Out of the Broom Closet panel with eight to ten of the local contributors to the anthology at the local Yule Fair hosted by Le Melange Magique. The boy has asked to be there, and he has been told that it depends on how his morning goes.