These socks hiked around the coastal town of Mendocino in northern California. Well, actually I did the hiking, the socks added panache.

I bought these beauties in a small shop as soon as I arrived in town. I’m a southern California desert gal and get cold in anything below 60 degrees. (The golf socks I brought weren’t going to cut it.) So between these pzazzy socks and New England clam chowder everyday for lunch, plus jeans, a turtle neck, and jacket, I stayed warm.

I was in town for the Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference.

A Pair of Pzazzy Socks

It was a good conference and one of the highlights was the opening keynote talk given by poet Ellen Bass. These are some bullet points … She discussed the writer’s constant quest to say the ordinary in an extraordinary way. To illustrate, she read this poem about a newborn by Sharon Olds called  “Her First Week”.

Bass suggested we “move off center” in our work. Approach it from a different direction. Using Cain and Abel as an example, she said to try asking ourselves things like, What did they do the afternoon before?

She encouraged remembering “the loneliness of the monster, the cunning of the innocent” when developing characters. As a poet, she was partial to this quote by Coleridge: Prose – words in their best order; poetry – the best words in their best order. It was a good night.

St. Anthony’s, Mendocino, CA

The meeting was held in the Parish Hall next to historic St. Anthony’s Catholic Church. First was the opening night reception, then dinner, and then Ellen Bass. As I listened to her, I felt toasty warm, especially my feet. (Okay. I admit it. A glass of wine helped, too.)

Any favorite socks in your collection?