Recent distractions and preoccupations include:

Local fresh blueberries, taken by the handful from the bowl and munched while reading over paperwork, chatting over coffee, listening to the news, or just anytime I walk by the bowl, truthfully.

This incredibly yummy and slightly tingly peppermint lip balm, made by the lovely Tansy.  Seriously, go buy yourself some, you won’t regret it.  I know that I’m going to buy several tins to include in Christmas gift baskets this year.

Cookbooks, specifically chocolate cookbooks.  See my aunt and uncle are coming for a visit in the beginning of October, just shortly after my aunt’s birthday and I want to make her a completely over the top birthday cake.  She’s an admitted chocoholic, and so it has to be chocolate, several layers of chocolate.  I’ve borrowed both the  Death by Chocolate: The Last Word on a Consuming Passionand Death by Chocolate Cakes: An Astonishing Array of Chocolate Enchantments Cookbooks by Marcel Desaulniers.  I own the Death By Chocolate Cookies Cookbook by the same author and it is wonderful.  I may just have to purchase these books for my library as well.  I have narrowed the search down to a few recipes, that I’m sure my aunt will love.  I’ll be sure to post about the actual cake after their visit.

Research for my Doing Not Thinking challenge goal.  

The big sky of Montana.  Honestly it is so very big.  When I was first moving to Montana and I heard the whole “big sky” stuff, I thought what the heck, the sky is big everywhere.  But in Montana it really is huge, you don’t fully understand until you come and see it, and as much as I love western Montana, I think the big sky is bigger on the east side of the divide, but that may just be because its flat with very mountains or even hills to get in the way of the view.

Oh, those amber waves of grain.  They really are so lovely and distracting.  Its hard not to sing this land is your land as your drive through my part of the world sometimes.  We have amber waves of grain and the purple mountains all within easy view.