Remember that little book I'm supposed to be writing?  As I hoped, starting was the hardest part.  Despite ten thousand visits and visitors in December, I've now finished a rough draft for the first chapter and a quarter out of six chapters.  (So what if the chapter I finished was the shortest one....)

Yesterday, I spent most of the day researching the Arcto-Tertiary forest -- a vast expanse of trees which once spread across the northern portions of North America, Europe, and Asia, then got whittled down by changing climates until all that remains is a pocket of close relatives here in the southern Appalachians and a pocket in eastern China.  I think that my head is still somewhere deep in the Ice Age, watching the advancing glaciers batter the European forest against the Alps until every tree (ent-like in my mind) perishes.

Meanwhile, and far more relevantly, Mark and I spent our Christmas money from his mom's side of the family on replacing the stunning camera which I had to return to my nonprofit when I severed the knot.  You can look forward to vibrant photos again from here on out!  (This photo is of our lemon tree taken indoors at night without a flash.)  Thank you, Rose Nell and Jayne!