A Contemplative Life

Finished yesterday afternoon! Sweetness in Shell Rummel's Traverse fabric from her Daybreak collection. This project was far less painful than I imagined. The last time I made curtains was in 2014 for the house my youngest daughter was then living at, and those drapes were produced with the barest of sewing essentials; a machine, an iron and ironing board, tape measure, scissors, pins, um.... Certainly no ample table or cutting mat or rotary cutter. Which might not sound like much, but believe me, they made a big difference this time. My husband recalls me saying, "I am never again sewing curtains!" I don't remember that, which is good because if I did, I wouldn't have made these. Of which I am so pleased, especially since I didn't even think about matching up the waves when choosing the fabric. I simply had plenty, though I ordered and used more, and I LOVE the print, and.... I learned that in future curtain/drapery construction I won't pick prints that ...

Making soup on an initially damp day while anticipating revisions. That was yesterday's morning weather, much the same today without the overt drizzle. Again I made soup, split pea, same as yesterday. Not that I ADORE pea soup, though I do enjoy it. Merely that yesterday's batch went in the freezer and today's is in the fridge, and will last the next couple of days. What's different is that today is still cloudy. That's one beauty of living on the North Coast; how weather alters from day to day. Yes we most often begin with the marine layer, but when the sunshine emerges, and for how long, can't be predicted, and that's not taking into account the microclimates depending on how close one resides to the actual ocean/bay. Point in case: Yesterday it was almost RAINING, so heavy was the mist! Perfect weather for soup, as it felt like October and not the end of August. However by ten a.m. the sun was nudging its kind way through the clouds and by noon it was as ...

Nadia amid the wishflowers, what my granddaughters call dandelions gone to seed. Our chickens are sneaky creatures; this morning as I finished breakfast, I peered out the window and there's Nadia strutting across the front yard. It's not even eight a.m. and she's already flown out of the run, exploring as she is wont to do. Lately I've had breakfast before I feed the chickens, as I'm up early and we don't feed them now until around seven o'clock. But this morning I was mesmerized by a band of heavenly light sandwiched between two pushy layers of cloud that JUST COULDN'T PUT OUT THAT LIGHT! (Lol.) They tried, those portions of the marine layer, squeezing with all their cloudy might, but that light was just like Nadia Chicken; stealthy, smart, powerful in its own not so little way. Nadia's merely a hen, and yeah, she scales the door, and can fly right back in, as my husband witnessed later this morning. But those clouds, that marine layer, my goodness!...

This morning's gorgeous sky! Last night my husband and I shared supper with good friends. Before we left our house, marine layer-looking clouds were drifting from the north along the western horizon. I figured that marine layer would spread, and while I'd not been to our host's home, I hoped for a few minutes to admire the blue sky from her place until the clouds firmly took hold. This morning as the marine layer was interrupted by a smidgen of blueish sky, I was brought back to our lovely evening filled with great conversation, delicious food, marvelous friendship AND a clear sky that seemed to defy the marine layer until well past nine p.m.! Our host has beautiful western and southerly views from her backyard,where we ate, chatted, then enjoyed a fire in her firepit. All the while I kept remarking how amazing was the sky, unfettered by the ubiquitous cloud bank. I saw Venus descend, other stars emerge, and the waxing gibbous moon to the south, such astronomical treats! Ou...

Probably. But you never know.... Because novels/very long short stories end as they are wont, both in the form as well as the content. The Deadfern Miracles concluded in a three-chapter marathon over the course of one day, DUDE! I didn't even know I could pull something like that outta my hat. However, this basically untitled tale is taking a more languid course, and equally I am JUST FINE with it. Because, um, the end of this story with no proper name has a slightly, no, definitely darker conclusion. Or the penultimate chapter is chaotic. The one before that one is also on the less stellar side of human reactions. Sometimes those sorts of stories emerge, because life isn't all roses and donuts. Having just read over the entire chapter, all twenty-six hundred-plus words, I'm pleased with the results, if not a little heartsick for the plotline, which I knew was coming from early on. Well, once I grasped this wasn't a short story, then.... Then the eventual end was going...

Seven of eight hens, as one was being camera shy. More about the chickens at the end of this post. While I've placed several excerpts of On Being Brave within this blog, now the end is nearing, so no spoilers. In part for myself, because if I change my mind and drastically alter a chapter, though usually I don't, I also don't need that recorded here. This novel, which wasn't meant to be a novel, carries great hope and some darker undertones. And sometimes it's tricky keeping my head above the rollicking waves, assured of my own safety. I don't write dark fiction. I do write tense, emotionally charged scenes. I write deaths, I write deep loss. But overall a Happily Ever After triumphs because that aligns to my core beliefs. A week or two ago the Sunday reading was about Peter walking on water to meet Christ, standing on the lake. Peter was doing just fine until he took his eyes from Jesus, then promptly began to sink. Jesus hauled him up, and the main takeaway i...