My season

Yes, it's even more vivid in person! I use the bare minimum of chlorine during the season and ran out of pills for the plastic Ducks in September so this is just water and some very healthy algae. 

This will be the first year that there are no trees hanging immediately over the water so the natural chemistry is a first. This is the same liner that we bought in '98 so I must be doing something right. Keeping the pool filled keeps the kevlar-based liner from drying out and keeps the frame from flexing inward. Come Spring we are due for replacing the main hoses. All we have to do now is make sure it doesn't get any significant ice. 

I have to float some wood scraps in case a bumbling critter falls in. I have watched deer browsing inside that chain link fence and have been in the water when one hopped up on the deck for a drink. 

The rabid Purslane continues to rout out any pot mates. There's a rather pitiful nasturtium struggling along on the fringes. I'm wondering if I cover this with dirt or straw will it over winter? I hope so. They are hard to find.

 The grape hyacinth finally gave me some blooms. Turns out I overfed the poor thing. Too much nitrogen? You get leaves galore but no flowers or fruit.  I'm going to add another panel or two to the arbor next year. No fertilizer for you! 

 

We had a lovely mid-week get-together because school was closed for some kind of break. He's a thoughtful child open to the world and other creatures. I've read that seven is the age of reason without really understanding what that referred to. I see it as awakening to the fact that one is not the center of the 'Verse and that all beings are connected. 

a Sale

 The whole birthday month things peeves me. One day is plenty for me. The only thing I'm doing for my birthday month is clearing the decks. Making space. Cleaning house. Changing course. Having a sale!

Click on the link up there for the details. Email me with your picks. As ever, first come first served.

days of yore?

Right now, Facebook and its mutant offspring are down. Dick-in-the-dirt down, and it's an interesting turn of event that this happened while a FB representative named ANTIGONE was defending the company against some pretty damning allegations made by a whistleblower. FB did what lined Zuck's pockets regardless of how it stoked political divisiveness and misinformation. NO SHIT!! 

                                                                         

I do miss Instagram. Bailey was a star yesterday.

Ah, technology. The new version of Scrivener sucked into the big laptop today with no issues. Now I'm going to force myself through the learning hoops. I limped along only half using this powerful tool for the first three books. I'll try to work smarter this time and pretend I paid to sit in a classroom and get the most out of it.

Just this morning I bought an 18-month planner because a web-based calendar tool that I've been using for years is saying goodbye so it can become another silly I-phone app. Dude, I think you may have chosen poorly. Anyway, I will clean my fountain pens tonight. I already have a bunch of stamps that I'll have to do the math to use, they are so old. I can do that with a pencil and paper too. 

the prosy stuff: I bought my first-ever set of dishes. Mom's hand-me-down Corelle was good forever, but even Corelle is not indestructible. I have three of the four coffee mugs that my sister-in-law gave us for a shower gift. Number four paid the price when Jimmy took it to work with him one day.  Joked to his buddy that they were supposed to be unbreakable and banged it on something as if it was a hammer.

The new stuff is gorgeous, huge, and heavy. I will probably wind up putting the dinner plates under my house plants. The bowls and dessert plates are perfect.

galaxies under the grub

 

churning the scrap basket

 

conversations

Going forward, posts like this about the writing life will go to Cooking the Hook. 

Art and fiber-related posts will stay here, but damn, I can crossover on a whim. Nice being a landlord.

  It was much too early for that kind of conversation. Let's just call that a fever dream. I had my booster Monday and ran a little hot that night. 

Here's a sweeter conversation. A dear friend called out of the blue. We've known each other forever. Two human beings could not be more at odds, but the core of our relationship was our good fortune of having had decades-long marriages to good men. 

Time and distance did their thing but Barb and I still had the biannual hour-long catch-up calls. This time she shocked me. My dear girl has always been straight as an arrow and charmingly old-fashioned. How we meshed remains a mystery. She called to tell me that she's bought my books, read them and loved them and when was the next one coming out.  

I guess I had better pick up the pace.