more mushroom

I finally got the pictures out of my camera. I also got some mud on the lens. Serves me right for procrastinating on getting a new UV filter. I dropped the camera over the holidays, sacrificing the old UV filter (which is its main function, actually) and preserving my expensive lens. So anyway, it was wet, and I had the dog along, and I managed to soil the lens. I'll take it to a camera shop and have them clean it. Then I'll buy a new UV filter. All that to say here is a pic of that log with the white shelf fungi on it. Good thing the stretch of woods is small—I did quite a bit of zig-zagging around to re-find it. Funny how memory changes--the log was a lot smaller than I remembered.

Which picture do you like better?

In other news, I worked from home today, keeping a sick child company. Got a lot of work done, though. She slept a lot.

In the poetry corner, I began reading about the ballad form. I think the biggest characteristics are that ballads are informal and they usually tell a story. You have permission to play fast and loose with the rhythm. Somewhat. You need four lines to the stanza, usually iambic, four beats on the odd numbered lines, usually three beats on the even numbered lines. Rhyme scheme is usually abab, but you can do abba, too, and even abcb. You can throw in unaccented syllables pretty much all you like as long as the time between the beats is the same. This is what we get in nursery rhymes like Old King Cole. Recite that one to yourself. You get all sorts of numbers of syllables, but the accents are nice and regular. I suppose I ought to try my hand on a verse or two. Let's see—what should the ballad be about?