The Seed Catalogues Have Arrived

(Fancifully written for my 100Words exercise.) The trees were bare but in her hands she held a summer’s bounty: plump grapes, red-ripe tomatoes, dreams of raspberries, towering spikes of foxglove and ipomopsis. A carpet of alyssum, creeping phlox and sky blue petunias spread in her mind from the shivering cherry blossom to the corner of… Continue reading The Seed Catalogues Have Arrived

Finished Story

Woo-hoo! I finished up a short story this morning. (Thank you, G for sleeping in). I started it on Saturday when things were calm, and I finished it this morning. The idea came from a conversation in the car, one that made me laugh. And the story is 1000 words: about as much as it… Continue reading Finished Story

First Day Back

K and I are alone enjoying five minutes of mellowness before K rushes off to shower and I rouse A and the whole treadmill starts again (speaking of which I should hook up the treadmill). I’m not as depressed as I thought I’d be (yet). Today seems new and shiny and different. I have things… Continue reading First Day Back

Motivation

So, Kev’s gone back to work. Angus is at school. Gregor’s still in bed. And I have my brain to myself. I have really enjoyed Kev being here all the time. I wonder if that is sufficient motivation for me to write that best-seller? And is that ever the proper motivation? Well, maybe not for… Continue reading Motivation

On the Caucuses

Obama? I’m glad he won. I’d love to see him become president, although I think it might kill him (he seems too nice and too principled. And also half-black. Now that I think about it, it might literally kill him. I don’t know that this country of gun-toters has moved past assassination as a form… Continue reading On the Caucuses

Autumn Princess Cowl

I am really loving working on this. It is my first successful (to this point in a project) laceweight project. The pattern and the beading are just complex enough to keep me entertained but not so complex that I need to pay really close attention. Every fourth row is a pattern row and every fourth… Continue reading Autumn Princess Cowl

Affluence Meme

Zencuppa posted this meme and although it’s so US-based as to not necessarily apply to me, I’m trying it anyway. I have been struck by how much more affluent the people I’ve met here seem compared to most people I knew growing up in the UK. This might help me see if that idea holds… Continue reading Affluence Meme

George MacDonald Fraser RIP

One of my favourite authors has shuffled off, at the age of 82, hopefully to better things. George MacDonald Fraser is probably most famous for writing the wonderful Flashman novels (set in the heyday of the British Empire. Satirical, historical, hysterical). But he was just a great writer, writing everything from serious but engaging history,… Continue reading George MacDonald Fraser RIP