In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

Twelve months ago yesterday we bought ten baby chicks. Two died days later. Eight have muscled their adorable poultry lives into our hearts and daily existences. Currently one is missing her tailfeathers from molting. Another is opting out of the broody stage except at bedtime. The rest are being their little henny-penny selves and here I am, writing a post about them. Because a year ago, I was overwhelmed in becoming a new chicken mama, also wondering what the hey we'd done. Lol.... It's not like I ponder, "Oh, what would we do without them???" Though, I do wonder for how long our lives will include them, especially since early this morning I again saw the gray fox trotting around, then slinking into the underbrush. Whatever! I've let go and let God concerning these hens, which for the most part are very healthy and seemingly happy. And honestly, what more could I seek? Suspicious of scratch in a pan.... All photos courtesy of my husband. Becoming chicken owners ...

For the last several days hints of summer have muscled their way through an entrenched marine layer. A couple of hours of sunshine one day, another few hours the next. June Gloom is the theme, and I'm trying to be patient, but.... LOL. I'm very grateful it's not HOT here, and as for the sunshine, well, it'll come back one of these days. Gigi is in the Broody Hen condo and just about everyone else desperately wants in! Photo courtesy of my husband. The chickens don't seem to care; they're a year old today, going about their henny-penny ways, including Gigi going broody again, as well as a few hens molting. Hard to believe it's been a year since they hatched, and a nearly a year since we chose them, brought them home, and began our chicken adventure. The good thing about the marine layer is that I don't have to move their water container in and out of the sun. By the time the sun does come out, where the waterer sits is in the shade, not something I consid...

Broken hearts, mended hearts; some of last night's Warm Hearted hand-quilting.... A year ago I wrote the first of four sections of  On Being Brave , the next Enran Chronicles book. Part One focused on Tama Zanetti, her cousins Bobby Tranler and Marcus Wentz-Sorenson a few years after Tris went missing. I'd planned to continue with Parts Two, Three, and Four, but none of those emerged, though over the last year plenty of ideas about two of those installments have emerged. I still don't know what's happening with Squee, Yamist, Jale, Da'Nota and the rest , but this afternoon I came up with why Gilly Lund hasn't figured heavily in her family's tale. When things of that magnitude occur, I gotta give thanks. Then blog about so hopefully I won't forget, LOL. Because I have yet to make any notes about this plot point, other than pulling out the scant notes made for Home and Far Away , finding I'd erred on one character's birth date. Fixed that. Then mo...

Because despite busy days with grandgirls, the longest day of the year means much to me, and I don't want to lose that notion amid whatever else is going on.... Okay, so it's early morning, all are sleeping. As for that solstice.... Currently it's heavily wrapped in a whopping marine layer that yesterday kept the sun from shining on our North Coast, and may again today veil the blue sky that on these lengthy daylight summer days seems unending. I am totally a summer person, or perhaps I merely gravitate toward the light. Whatever it is about this time of year that tugs at my heart, I long for a peek at blue sky, and if not today, then maybe tomorrow. This post was waylaid by an early rising youngest granddaughter who sewed this mostly ALL BY HERSELF!! I did the pressing, lol.... Could it be all those years we lived in the UK, where clouds dominated? Which butts up against my childhood spent in the hot Sacramento Valley here in California, few clouds in summer of which to sp...

From a few days ago before I did too much hand-sewing and angered my right shoulder. Our granddaugthers are here for the week, and we've already enjoyed some marvelous summer weather. This morning is a June Gloom extravaganza, lol, but in a few hours that marine layer will lift, the sun heading high into the near-solstice sky. Currently it's myself and chirping birds, fog beginning to rise upward, a few cups of black half-caff tea ingested. I've not written much about giving up almond/oat milk in tea, but after the last week to ten days, I've managed what I never thought possible. And maybe that sums up our lives, going about this and that, wishing for a dream to become reality or to shed that which hinders, then a week to ten days pass, a few months perhaps, and there we are in that long-considered yet didn't think we could achieve life. Huh. Pretty weird. But good! Why did I give up a milk-substitute in my tea (but not my coffee, lol)? Because when I visited my da...

It's ALWAYS a thrill and pleasure to announce the release of a new novel! Somehow that never gets old. Can't Be Done Alone: The Hawk Book Five is a story close to my heart for the subject matter introduced, as well as a new character, dear to Pastor Marek Jaworski. Funny to think halfway through this saga new faces are still emerging, but with five novels left in The Hawk , some of the plot had to shift from Eric and Lynne Snyder, Renee and Sam Ahern too. This installment focuses on Seth Gordon, cousin to Laurie Abrams. Seth's story becomes paramount to Eric, once he learns that Seth isn't returning to New York from Florida despite the Synders' having left for home. That niggle turns into a nightmare for Eric, who cannot shake the sense of being torn from his family, especially now that Lynne is pregnant with their second child. Only after a heartfelt discussion with his pastor and friend does Eric begin to find peace, but it's short lived after Stanford Taylor...