A cloudy Saturday a.m. For the tourists' sake I hope it doesn't rain off and on all day like it did yesterday. The street was flood behind the Court when I picked Steve up. He was teasing me that we could be on St. Martin in this beautiful weather. He had wanted to go over there for a week but I am so far behind in grading and time at Montessori we stayed home. He has all of next week off. I will be at Montessori for most of it. I have nightmares I won't get their database done before I leave.

Anyone looking back through my blog will see that I do have a tendency to read fantasy, so of course I had to take a fantasy title with me on the New Orleans trip. I loved Calwyn, the sometimes insecure, but feisty female ice priestess in the first book of The Chanters of Tremaris Trilogy, The Singer of All Songs, by Kate Constable. I tucked the paperback copy of the second book, The Waterless Sea, in my carry-on. Calywn is coming into new powers. Perhaps she is The Singer of All Songs, something the wicked Samis was not capable of in the first book, but did he really die as they had all thought? And, Darrow has returned from his self inflicted isolation to find Calwyn and the rest of the "crew" off to the desert, the Empire of Merithuros, to rescue two children with the gift of enchantment. Children with the gift of enchantment are stolen away and taken to the Palace of Cobwebs, which the songs of the young enchanters keep intact. This is truly an ecological tale as the reader discovers that this desert was once forested and the dried out land grieves. It is also a social/political tale as the rulers of Merithuros have no idea how poor their subjects are, because they don't care enough to take notice. The inhabitants of the Palace of Cobwebs are more interested in how elaborate their leather gloves and court clothes can be. Constable has written a fast paced fantasy adventure with thought provoking issues of social conditions and ecology weaved into the story. Can't wait to read the third book, The Tenth Power.

We are off to have an early lunch at Shipwreck with Vickie, a friend who is leaving for a new job on the Mainland. She is so excited she was ready to go to the airport at 9:30 and then realized her plane doesn't go out until 3:00. :-) I can relate. It is very difficult for professional women to live down here.