Barometer Falling
With my old straw hat crammed down over my gardening “do”, which is two pigtails, I stepped outside the backdoor. Right away, I knew exactly what was causing my restlessness. The sky was overcast, and according to Weather.com, local temperatures were 76 degrees Fahrenheit and humidity at 63%. The air felt like a hot, sticky blanket that you could stir like soup. It was perfect pre-storm gardening weather.
Gardening with a camera is one of my favorite things to do. Walking around the outside of the house, I take “before” pictures. The tree mess on the north side of the house is “so deep, so wide and so tall, that I can’t pick it up — there’s no way at all.” I wish for a Dr. Seuss Cat-in-the-Hat Picker-Upper, and don’t go there. That particular emotional storm was part of what sent me outside.
The south side of the house has normal spring mess: twigs and branches from pruning, messy bits left from making garden beds, and hoses hastily moved to facilitate mowing. I note that the dolly got left out when the lawn was last mowed, and that it need put away before the rain starts. The camera needs its battery charged, so I put away my toy, and get to work on the things I can fix while trying not to worry about the things I can’t.
Three hours later, the hoses are neatly coiled and separated into usable, and not usable. The soaker hoses are distributed, ready for use, in case the promised storm doesn’t bring enough water, and a broken office cart has been pressed into service as a future planting bed. The garlic and the hosta beds have been weeded, as well. I head back in to check on the camera battery, make some notes and consider my next, best move.
Posted in Lawn and Garden, My Homely Hearth
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Reconsidering the Problem
When my children were young, I used a lot of reverse psychology with them. Instead of asking them to do something, I would bet them that they couldn’t do it. Now, this is a ploy that can backfire, but if the kid is stubborn and prone to rebellion, it can produce positive results. How did I figure out that this would work? Because I knew this little beast of a personal quirk from the inside out: tell me I have to do something, and it is the very thing that I do not want to do. Add to this trait the simple fact that it is a lot more fun to take pictures, grub in the dirt, play an MMORPG and write fan fiction than it is to get down to applying elbow grease to writing prosaic, factual articles that someone has requested, and I can work up a pretty good case of rebellion all on my own.
Unfortunately, when you are the grown-up, and the boss, there isn’t really anyone to push back against except yourself — and the bill collectors, of course. I knew the real answer to my rebellious stubbornness before I ever went out to play. I would have to do up my students’ grades, write out next weeks lesson plans and write at least one more new article in addition to rewriting the one I got back. There wasn’t even any point in pouting, declaring it “isn’t fair” or losing my temper with the editor, who was only doing her job.
However, fresh air, sunshine — even though it was filtered by clouds, and some labor that produced immediate feedback in the form of visible improvement to my yard, puts me in a more cheerful frame of mind. To change the world, change yourself. Gardening is a positive attitude adjustment.
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Change is, But Is Not
The more things change, the more they are the same
The same problems. The same kinds of people.
The same sorrows. So few joys.
Change is, but is not.
The same problems. The same kinds of people.
The same sorrows. So few joys.
Change is, but is not.
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Writing for Pay
Writing-for-pay, in my book at least, moves me from just being a writer — which can mean anyone from a junior high kid hiding bad poetry in a box under the bed, to a grandmother who keeps a journal — to being a professional writer. It doesn’t make me an expert writer; at least, not yet.
Today, I met my May 2013 writing goal for Demand Media Studios. Writing for Demand Media makes me aware of my grammar, punctuation and research habits. It also provides some much-needed boosts to my ever-hungry budget. I wrote 16 articles, which is the the number I anticipated being able to complete in a month that includes twenty hours of librarianship, teaching a section of Public Speaking and attending my oldest granddaughter’s high school graduation ceremony, as well as spring gardening and the usual rounds of housework.
The articles are:
- http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/good-reading-series-young-teen-girl-10939.html
- http://www.livestrong.com/article/1002211-can-teens-balance-work-school/
- http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/apa-writing-style-kids-11534.html
- http://www.ehow.com/info_12274561_breastfeeding-wedding.html
- http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/teaching-child-cats-11645.html
- http://www.livestrong.com/article/1002507-should-teen-girl-pack-camp/
- http://www.ehow.com/info_12274953_helping-teenagers-independence.html
- http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/computer-etiquette-kids-11986.html
- http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/books-family-communication-12295.html
- http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/easy-paper-cup-art-kids-12476.html
- http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/christmas-books-kids-12477.html
- http://www.livestrong.com/article/1002989-physical-activities-families-missouri/
- http://www.livestrong.com/article/1003020-activities-ancient-aztec-gods-children/
- http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/teach-library-science-skills-children-12131.html
- http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/childrens-production-stage-ideas-props-12252.html
- http://www.livestrong.com/article/1002811-nobake-food-activities-along-childrens-books/
Posted in My Homely Hearth, Writing, Writing for Profit
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A Missing Friend
I feel a little lost today
Like a piece of me has flown away.
A voice is stilled,
A presence gone.
Yet I am here, and must go on.
Others need me now today,
But a piece of me has flown away.
Managing Life vs. Writing vs. Health
The last week of August I got a firm reminder that writers are human. I developed some kind of infection, probably sinus or ear. I ran a fever, I was getting up, feeding my animals, and falling face first (because that hurt the least) back into bed. Foods that I usually enjoy tasted like metal filings. I called my daughter and her husband who came and got me and my dogs. For four days, I did nothing but tend my elderly dog and sleep. It has been a long haul — nearly two weeks — getting back into my usual basic health.
However, this event was like a reset. I unplugged from just about everything, including eating. I lived on fruit, gelatin, and Gatorlyte. The fever went down. My appetite returned. And food was again edible. The weather grew cooler, and on Sunday, August 27, I returned home.
I have seventeen cats. (Yes, I’ll explain that later, but not now.) A relative had kept them fed and watered, but they’d had four days completely unsupervised in my home. Cat owners, I know I don’t have to explain what a disaster this was! Fortunately, I have a lovely new-to-me washing machine, and most of the usual implements of cleaning so I set to work. On Monday, I was doing five minutes of work, followed by 30 minutes of rest. So slow…and I worried that this was my “new normal.”
By Wednesday, I was up to 15 minutes of work followed by 15 minutes of rest — definitely better, and I began to whittle away at my writing backlog. I think I must have been sick longer than I realized, because I am still (September 15) whittling away at my mountain of backed-up work.
And that was when I knew I had to start making some changes. I am seventy-one years old this year. I’m usually fairly spry, and independent. But this was a reminder that I’m pretty much a one-bus accident waiting to happen. I need more planning, and better planning. This will start with more frequent additions to my website and getting the word out that it exists.
A planning book that I read recently stated that to sell your product (whatever it might be) you had to create the object, then you have to tell people about it. So here is me, creating and taking baby steps toward spreading the word.
Posted in Essays and Observations, Survival, Writing, Writing for Profit, Writing for Sanity
Tagged Cats, dogs, family, illness, life balance, writing
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Summer Garden
Summer Gardening is easy. The rain is gentle, the sun is bright, excitement is high when those first plants grow.
Never mind the bugs, the drought, the weeds, the failures…those are yet ahead. Never mind the bunnies, the raccoons, the possums, who come to feed in your garden.
No thought now for frosts or winter snows…just the joy of growing, and the promise of salads tomorrow.
It’s Camp NanoWrimo Time!
April is Camp Nanowrimo month. My goal this month is to get my writing commitments up-to-date. So far, I have written 41,483 words. Some of them are pieces of novels, some are blogs, some are book reviews.
The big question is: Once I reach 50,000 words (the magic amount for a Nano “win”), will I be caught up? Will I have achieved this month’s essential goals?
Recovering Daisy Peasblossom
Today is January 20, 2021. The year 2020, with all its bumps and warts has been laid to rest, and the world looks hopefully toward a fresh year. Covid-19 notwithstanding, 2020 was only moderately horrible for me. But I shall not boast. The quarantine history is not quite a year old, and the new vaccines are, well, new.
My writing for pay is doing modestly well, which is to say it now adds a substantial amount to my income. Big tree has been trimmed twice since I last added to this page. The cats featured in earlier posts have gone to the arms of Baste, but new kitties have taken their place and will be featured in upcoming posts.
I’ve been back in my home since the spring of 2012, not quite ten years since Big Tree dropped the limb on my house. WordPress has made changes, I have changed. Yet the struggle begun in 2012 continues.
There is more hope than there was in the spring of 2012. That year I used my 403b (it was rather small) to pay the electric bill. My WordPress account was one of those “icing on the cake” accounts that I felt I could safely drop. Today, I am paying it out of proceeds from writing. In a little while I will go grocery shopping — paid for with writing.
It feels good. It feels like spring. Best of all, it feels like hope.
Daisy Peasblossom Fernchild 