In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

  Jawbreaker candy that illustrates my current state of body and mind. Physically, emotionally, mentally.... Are there any other ways to be roughed up? Not spiritually, because only in that sense am I feeling like my feet are on the ground. It's a weird Sunday, but hey, sometimes they happen. Occasionally it's a bad Monday. Or a wild Tuesday, or discombobulated Wednesday or.... You get the drift, in that at times life feels HARD. Unpleasant. Frustrating. Wearying, etc, etc, etc. I need some ice cream, or a strong drink. Ice cream is better, lol, and now that the sun is shining, perhaps it's time to scoop up some Ben & Jerry's Phish Food. No gluten in that, just small chocolate fish amid delicious chocolate ice cream and plenteous marshmallow filling. Yeah, I'm going to retrieve that, then return here. Okay, that was delicious, maybe not nutritionally satisfying.... But I'm in a mood today, feeling overwhelmed and grateful, lonely and uplifted, mildly disgust

I didn't mean to cut back a dahlia, but sometimes it happens. We might get some rain tonight, so today was spent prepping for it. Leaves were raked, the wood area cleaned, and boy my back is feeling all that exercise! I've lamented not doing more in the garden, but have earned my outdoor stripes over the last few days. Amaryllis have been cut down, blackberry vines among them whacked back. My better half dumped several bins of refuse, bless him! I swept the back patio and am looking forward to how much leftover dust is washed away by the precipitation, perhaps a quarter-inch worth. I can't complain about the impending wet weather, because it's nearly the middle of October and we haven't had much in the way of damp days. In fact, we've enjoyed loads of warm temps for our neck of the North Coast. Yet it's time for a change. Huh, not much about retirement, semi or otherwise, so far in this post. I did feel quite relaxed while raking this morning, the sun shinin

All photos taken at The Hook in Capitola, California by yours truly. Not that I need another hobby but.... Yesterday I made cards to share with family and friends. The blanks were initially purchased to use with grandkids, making fabric scrap art, which my granddaughters recently thought was The Bomb! That was very pleasing, so I bought more cards, then recalled prints made LONG AGO when we lived in Silicon Valley and every few months I drove over Highway 17 to visit The Hook, in Capitola. Part of the process; I used a rotary cutter specifically for paper when trimming the photos. Boy that feels like Someone Else's Life! Yet over a dozen years ago, every time I completed a new draft, I treated myself with a trip to the Pacific. Usually I brought with me a pretty good camera for the time, a Nikon Coolpix 8700, and took shot after shot after shot of the ocean. September 2010 When I say shot after shot after shot , what I mean is HUNDREDS of photographs of one section of the Californi

Where did last week go? Family left yesterday, and only now am I sitting at my computer, mulling over what to say, as the right side of my middle back recovers from a recent wrenching that I can't explain other than to say I moved wrong. Aging sometimes sucks, but it beats dying prematurely. Well, that's a mouthful. I enjoyed a relatively pain-free, marvelous week with family. The weather was FABULOUS, and remains so, a multitude of bright, cloud-free days that were warm in sun and not bad in the shade. So much occurred that I simply had no time to sneak in an entry, but I considered writing here, and managed a wee bit of editing on The Hawk that reminded me exactly what is at stake in next month's election. More than economic policies or immigration outlines, but true liberty for every single American. More about that soon enough. The center square is a scrap from an old fave. Love this design! Currently on my mind is the possibility of busting out a quilt in the next six

Family is visiting this coming week, looking very much forward to that! The son of a dear friend has been diagnosed with cancer, which totally sucks. I'm pleased for how Book 3 of The Enran Chronicles survived an edit. And I came up with a great plot point for much further down that series' road. I'm trying to maintain a safe distance from my country's upcoming election, but at times find it hard to not fret. And about that, I may post a bit, just a heads-up that this blog could sport some political entries. I had pizza last night, made with a gluten-free crust, yet today I'm feeling some effects as though the crust wasn't quite gluten-free. The Eden quilt might take more time than I considered, as I'm not happy with the plethora of blocks made with gray borders. I'm digging those pictured above, and may adjust the borders on a bunch of stars still in need of perimeters. It's nearly October; where has September gone??? Not that our weather has chan

  A Red Sky at Night block in progress. I've been engrossed in the third novel of my current series , finding it required a good looking-after, lol. The story is fine, mostly, though I need to read it again to confirm when one character is first mentioned by another character to make sure I didn't mess up later events, ahem. That's one level of competence, in that when a novel is written on the fly, occasionally plot points don't meet up at correct angles. I have also discovered minor examples of prose requiring mild sharpening. That's fine, what revisions are all about. But it was startling to me to read a sentence, then immediately refashion it first within my head, then onto the document. Or deleting a sentence or phrase, making for tighter writing. Again, why edits are important, as well as time away from a manuscript so perspective can play its magical role in the process. I think of editing as the easy part of writing. Some may not agree, but for my method of