My Backyard
30 Apr 2008 Leave a Comment
in Housekeeping Tags: garden
Since I’ve been writing gardening analogies, I decided to show off my inspiration. Here are current photographs of my backyard garden.
Early Girl Tomatoes
I planted tomatoes the first week of March. I have six plants, and each plant has fruit.
Grapevine On My Red Tree Branch Trellis
I built this trellis last year out of a tree branch and red spray paint. Everyone who sees it asks, “What’s that red tree?”
Grapes On the Vine
The vine is fifteen years old. This is the first year I’ve had grapes. Hope springs eternal.
My Zinnia Patch
Our next door neighbor asked, “Did you feed these plants something to make them so big?” Nope. It’s the one thing I’m sure I can grow.
Blue Salvia and Eutin Roses
Coco grew the salvia from seeds several years ago. It’s a perennial that keeps on giving. The Eutin rose in the background is an antique. It smells fabulous.
Window Box with Moonflowers
This box holds begonias, stonecrop, and you guessed it, moonflowers. The line above is jute attached to the eave. Hopefully, the vine will reach for the moon.
Sedum In the Rock Garden
Bacon built a rock garden that looks like a creek bed flowing from my patio. Here are a few container plants from Holy Ghost Creek Too. The grass is called Fiber Optic Grass ’cause that’s what it looks like. The watering can holds Cyclamen, past its prime, but still green. The large terra cotta is home to assorted sedum.
Hope you enjoyed the tour.
Taking Root
27 Apr 2008 Leave a Comment
in Writers Write Tags: artists, creativity, writers
It started with pansies. Cherry couldn’t part with the pansies and ornamental kale we planted in the window boxes in March. Leggy and wilting, it was time to make way for summer flowers. Plants are disposable, but tell that to an eight year old. We moved the pansies to the vegetable garden. They’re still blooming. A few days later, I moved the Gerbera daisies from their container to a spot next to the parsley. Short on sun in a pot that didn’t drain, they looked like goners. So, I performed the second rescue mission. This morning, I moved the butterfly plant to the sunny perennial bed. Squeezed by the sweet potato vine, it was starting to look more like a stick than a flower.
Nothing stays the same in my backyard. It’s a proving ground, a safe place to experiment where the smallest adjustment makes the biggest impact. Working forces me to make decisions. Move it or lose it. Do I rescue the pansies or throw them away? Unless I’m pretending to be Moses, nothing is written in stone.
The very act of creation involves choice. Will I paint the sky cerulean or smoky green? Will I write this character living at home or will she move to her own place? When I act, will I scream in anger or will I be cold and calculating? Artists learn to make decisions.
It’s hard to throw away an idea once it takes root.
News You Can Wear?
24 Apr 2008 Leave a Comment
in A Zany Life
CNN.com is experimenting with an alternate format, the news shirt. You’ll find them by clicking on the little t-shirt icons next to the news headlines on the CNN website. I wondered who would wear these headlines:
Russian Missile Obliterates Spy Plane
Citizen Tickets Cop for $540 Violation
Blind man grabs, pummels intruder
Synchronized swimmers faint in unison
Maybe it’s me, but this feels like this a marketing strategy gone berserk. According to the CNN FAQ ”With CNN Shirts you can wear the news.” The question is. . . why would I want to?
Out of Sync
22 Apr 2008 3 Comments
in Recipe, Writers Write
I apologize to readers waiting for a post. I’m behind. Friday was my 51st birthday. I know I’m past the point where it’s acceptable to announce my age, but I don’t feel 51. I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel. I’ve lived most of my life out of sequence.
I married my one true love at age 30. I had a teaching career for 21 years. Instead of settling in for 10 more years of work, I quit cold-turkey to be come a mom. I was 42. The second child came when I was 44. After spending days, nights, and weekends with other people’s children, I decided to hang around the house to raise my own. I haven’t regretted the decision. When people ask, “Do you miss teaching?” I answer with a question. “Do you miss a toothache when it’s gone?”
Now, I’m a writer, too. The funny thing about writing is no matter how many craft books you read or lectures you attend, the only way to be a writer is to write. No one can tell you how to manage your life when you work on your own. I have tremendous days of personal insight and awareness. Then, I have days when I’m a blathering idiot. It keeps me humble. Just when I think, “A-ha! I know the secret to the universe. Follow this roadmap to publication.” The earth quakes, and I shudder. Darkness falls all around. Every good idea I ever had falls out of my head and into the circular file next to my desk.
Last weekend BBC2 (Big Brother Crisp #2) and my wonderful sister-in-law, Cookie Crisp, came to visit. My family gave me a fabulous birthday that included my favorite dessert, Symphony Brownies and ice cream. (Symphony Brownies are like a bacchanal for chocoholics.) We had a great time.
BBC2 and Cookie headed home Sunday morning. I judged a few writing contest entries for my RWA Chapter, and I wrote four pages yesterday. This morning, I woke up to discover I had lost rhythm. It happens. When it does, I have to take a little time to get myself back together. Author, Julia Cameron advocates taking an artist date. For me, it was an excuse to push a basket around Target for an hour.
Now, I’m back. E.L. Doctrow once said, “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” Here’s to finding my way back to the road in the dark.
Symphony Brownies
2 boxes Ghiradelli Brownie Mix
3 extra large Symphony Chocolate Bars with Toffee Chips
Preheat the oven to 350. Following package directions, mix one box of brownies and pour into a 11 x 13 inch pan sprayed with PAM. Unwrap and place the three chocolate bars side by side on top of the batter. Mix the second box of brownies according to package directions. Pour on top of the chocolate bars. Bake for 40 minutes. Cool completely before slicing.
Power By the Hour
17 Apr 2008 Leave a Comment
in Goals, Writers Write
I went to last night’s San Antonio Romance Author’s meeting (SARA) to hear one of my chaptermates speak. Jo-Ann Power is the owner of Power Promotions and the author of many books, most recently, Missing Member, a very funny who-dun-it about politics. Since she owns and operates a PR firm, Jo-Ann is an expert at book promotion. She presented some interesting statistics.
Wal-Mart sells 35% of all books sold. Of the rest, 17% are sold by independent booksellers affiliated with the American Booksellers Association (ABA), 14% by stores affiliated with the Christian Bookseller’s Association (CBA), 12% are sold at Target, my store of choice, 10% at Borders, 7% at Barnes & Nobel, and 5% are sold at all online stores combined.
I’m amazed the percentage of online booksellers isn’t higher. In the romance world, online booksellers get a lot of press. The promotion and sales of eBooks are always in the news. Jo-Ann reminded me there’s no substitute for holding a book in my hand.
It’s something to think about.
crisp |krisp| adjective
