A Contemplative Life

The Yorkshire Dales, autumn 2019 although I thought this was from spring, lol. (England matters in a post about writing because it was in the UK where I began my first novel!) Reading over Chapter 11 of The Possibility of What If ; my life as a fifty-something is nearly done. Not sure why I felt compelled to read over that random chapter, but I was. I'm posting it below, but first here's a little snippet of what else is happening.... I'll be sixty VERY SOON. LOL. No ahems, no visits from Future or Past Me. Simply this last days in my fifties me, which won't be that different than who I'll be after I turn sixty, God willing. I trimmed my fringe this morning, that's bangs to you Yanks. I'll get a proper haircut next month once shingles are DONE. They're close, but.... Last night I dreamed they had gotten worse. Thankfully that isn't the case. I've been reading through Home and Far Away and this morning I figured out how that section of On Being Br...

The block on the right was sewn last night. Don't those safety pins look annoying? Last night I worked on the Quilt of Grace (QoG); I appliqued one Lucy Boston block (LBb) in place, then hand-quilted around it, and in a few other spots accessible as only THREE blocks remain to secure! Out of thirty, which makes me pleased to have (slowly) accomplished that much hand-stitching. Each block requires some hand-quilting within, but I'll save that until later, because, well, in appliqueing them I remove more safety pins. And right now, removing safety pins seems to be the greatest joy of all! Safety pins are much happier safely ensconced in shaped plastic. Or I'm much happier, one of the two. What a silly notion, ridiculous even, but I can't help feeling super-victorious with every pin I gently toss into the plastic container on the coffee table. That container is nearly full, and I'll need those implements for my next project, which I am hoping to start next week, heh he...

The Kaffe Fassett collection side. Recently I gratefully accepted that all my ongoing projects, both in writing and quilting, aren't a burden; right now I couldn't wrap my head around sorting out something new. I preface this post with that realization because it's good to embrace one's limits and other extraneous forces wafting nearby. Now, to the placemats. I began sewing them in a rather impromptu manner a couple of months ago, having blithely purchased some gorgeous Kaffe Fassett prints. Incorporating my love for Kawandi-style stitching, as well as wanting to use up scraps for the backs, I whipped through four or five, then made my way through three or four more, employing fewer scraps for the backs because that quickly lost its shine, lol. Then I bought a wee bit more fabric (LOL) because my husband actually said he really liked one of the prints, and I found it in three other colourways! And then I found myself with only a few of the original choices left, so I pr...

  Chick party tonight! Chicks are pretty funny. One has earned a moniker for her behavior at the feeder; Camilla relentlessly roots out anyone near her slot, taking it back if someone manages to push her aside, and scratching while eating. My husband suggested the name when I mentioned that Camilla thought she was the new queen, but no one could take Queenie's place in my heart. Lol. We didn't plan to name any of them until personalities emerged, and Camilla takes the freaking CAKE for personality right now. The rest are figuring out their places in the pecking order, yet not a single one has managed to actually grasp the perch rungs, hah! They are starting to play under it, attempting to fly on top of it, a lot of wing-flapping this morning when I opened the brooder. A dear friend is visiting, who saw them last week, and she said they have grown! Which was good to hear because we think they're bigger, but we see them daily and other than a few tail feathers having sprouted...

Nevada in the distance. Sometimes, as I'm reading one of my novels, I realize how dear are the characters and how grateful I am to slip into that fictional realm. I don't live near my kids or siblings, but in many of my stories, they are at my beck and call. For eleven years I dwelled in Yorkshire, England, and while we loved it there and would have liked to have stayed longer, it was never where we were meant to remain. Yet that decade plus one year taught my heart that despite distance, beloveds are never truly far away. And now, pushing twenty years since our return, the children we raised there have their own families, and that is how my existence has evolved. Except, lol, within my books. In several of my novels, sprawling families live yards away from one another, multiple generations residing in the same house. I grew up as the one of the youngest in my large clan, surrounded by many elders who inspired my sense of how necessary are all ages within one's related grou...