As I mentioned in my last post, I’m participating in a Knit for Food Knit-a-Thon on Saturday, April 5. The fundraiser will divide donations equally among four organizations: Feeding America, World Central Kitchen, No Kid Hungry, and Meals on Wheels. If you’re interested in donating, here’s the link: Knit for Food Knit-a-Thon 2025.
I’m a bit nervous since this will be my first time participating. I’m supposed to knit for 12 hours, generally 10 AM to 10 PM. It’s a honor system but, trust me, knitting for 12 hours is nothing to a lifelong knitter.
BUT.
April 5 is also the day when rallies are planned across the nation. You can learn more about that here. My husband wants to go. Two of our friends want to go. I should go. But I also committed myself to knit for charity.
So I’ve come up with three knitting projects so I can knit according to my environment. (Apologies for the poor quality of the photos. I have a learning curve when it comes other photographing indoors.)
The beginning of a watch cap in light olive.
The simplest project will be a watch cap in an overall knit 2, purl 2 rib. I’m using a design by Sandi Rosner, a knitter who also writes on Substack at A Good Yarn. [If you’re a knitter and a lover of books including audiobooks, I highly recommend Sandi’s newsletter. All her posts are free but I have a paid subscription because she offers detailed yarn reviews.] This is the kind of project I can easily do while distracted … like at a rally. Yes, I can knit standing up and no doubt I’ll probably squeeze in a few stitches while walking.
Multi-colored yarn that will be knit into a pair of socks.
The fabric in the photo above is what knitters call a swatch: usually a 6″x 6″ square knitted in either stockinette or a specific pattern with your preferred yarn and needles. The point of the swatch is to measure the number of stitches and rows per inch, or the gauge, and see if the results match the gauge of the pattern. I am the sort of knitter who tries to get around swatching, but in cases where fit is very important–for example, a sweater or a pair of socks–swatching is necessary. I haven’t measured the gauge of this piece yet, but I suspect it will tell me that I will need to use size 1 needles to knit the socks I have in mind.
The sock pattern is a simple rib stitch pattern, but with #1 needles and multicolored yarn, I need to pay attention to what I’m doing. I can watch TV more or less but I wouldn’t be comfortable taking this project to the rally. I have to be alert to any possible dropped stitches which, for me, are easy to miss when I’m knitting on such small needles.
Just the tip of the iceberg that might become a shawl … or a scarf
My third project is a Pines and Needles Shawl. You can see some versions of the shawl here: Pines and Needles Shawl by Sweaterfreak. Now I didn’t knit a swatch for the shawl, but I did experiment with three different needle sizes before I decided on one that seemed to suit the yarn best. The thing, I’m not using yarn recommended by the designer. The yarn I’m using is finger-weight yarn, or yarn usually used for knitting socks, which is finer than the recommended yarn. So … I’m using a finer yarn and smallish needles (#3) which means I’ll likely wind up with a Pines and Needles scarf. I think I can live with that.
This project requires me to pay close attention. I’ve already had to rip out (or frog in knitters’ parlance) and start that little triangle over several times. Not the kind of project that I’d want to take to a rally.
So, there we are … or here I am. I am excited about knitting all day on April 5 and for a good cause, not just my own selfish pleasure in knitting. Meanwhile, evenings are getting warmer here in north Florida so Raji’s snuggling might soon come to an end, at least for the summer.
Friends, I thought long and hard about this. This morning, I decided that it’s something I simply have to do. I’ve signed up to knit for 12 hours on April 5, 2025, to raise funds for Feeding America, World Central Kitchen, No Kid Hungry, and Meals on Wheels.
Many of you know that knitting is my “happy place.” I can do other things like weave or write, but my deepest intrinsic satisfaction always comes with knitting. And that’s one reason why I haven’t been blogging very much. I’ve been knitting. Recently I completed the Elvan shawl that I wrote about here.
The first photo of the Elvan Shawl is from the designer, Florence Spurling. The others are my own photos showing more detail of the intarsia patterns. Generally, it was fun to knit, and the yarn was wonderful to work with.
After these photos were taken, I sent the shawl to a friend. This particular friend was someone I knew from high school, someone I had lost touch with until a few years ago when I heard that her mother had died from Covid. And then a couple of years later, she was diagnosed with cancer. Thankfully, she’s gone through her treatments and (so far, so good) has been doing well. I thought of her often while I was knitting the shawl, thinking of how sweet the soft wool yarn would feel against her skin.
She wrote to me when she received the shawl. She wrote all the words that makes a knitter’s heart sing.
And so I keep knitting.
For the Knit-a-Thon, I’m planning to knit socks. I have quite a stash of sock yarn, and socks can be done quickly. Plus, who doesn’t need socks?!
Nature We rarely spend time on the east side of our house. Only a chain-linked fence separates us from our neighbors there, and they are on a higher elevation so we have no privacy if we are all out at the same time. Maybe not a problem; just an excuse. Still, we miss the wonder of our Camilla bushes when we neglect that side. One bush in particular gave a wonderful view of the cycle of Life, from one new bud to a spent bloom.
Snow To my utter shock, we had a couple of inches of snow in Tallahassee last week. Far less than other places (like New Orleans and Pensacola), but enough to surprise me. I’ve lived here since June 1990, and I can count on one hand the number of times it has snowed in Tallahassee. Usually we just have flurries and the snow melts as soon as it hits the ground. But this year was exceptional.
A panoramic view of our deck and back yard on early Wednesday morning.A view across our front yard.
As of this writing, we still have a bit of snow, or perhaps I should call it slush.
Writing Oh, I wish I could say I had started working on my novels, but alas, no. Instead I’ve been writing letters.
I may well be pissing in the wind, but given our current state of affairs, I have to do something … even if it’s just pissing in the wind. I am not limiting myself to only “my” Congressional Senators and Representative who are loyal to you-know-who. My attitude is that each Senator and Representative in Congress who is voting on bills that affect ALL Americans should listen to all Americans. I am being mindful to give praise when it’s due (hence the letters in the photo are to thank certain Florida Representatives for certain votes). But, yeah, when I see that a Democratic Senator voted for Kristi Noem, they’re going to hear from me.
So … letters and postcards for now. No novels.
Knitting Since I can knit or stitch while watching TV, I am doing that. No photos as yet. The shawl is finished but not yet blocked (i.e., washed). I signed up for a month-long knit-a-long which will start January 31. We are to knit a cardigan! One of my least favorite projects … lol. I’m hoping I can use up some of the stash that is threatening to break through my cedar chest. And maybe having a couple of Zoom sessions with a knitting expert will make the process less daunting.
Cats Thanks to the colder-than-normal temperatures the last few weeks, Raji has officially become a SnuggleBunny!
Raji getting close and personal with Greg while he watches TV.
I doubt that he will continue with this behavior as temperatures warm but we’re enjoying this closeness while we can. Wendy often sleeps with me, but she doesn’t cuddle. No, she just curls up in the middle of the bed and expects me to work around her.
Thank you for reading! Tell me truly: Am I pissing in the wind?
Although it’s not my first Christmas without my mom and sisters, I felt their absence more keenly this year. Especially the absence of my sister Shirley since Christmas was her favorite holiday. I still remember the utter shock on her face when, years ago, I said that my husband and I had stopped exchanging gifts. I barely managed to stifle a laugh at her reaction.
I do give gifts to my family, but I expect and ask for nothing in return. The gift is in the giving, as they say. But this year, I received a very special gift.
Front cover of the photo book.
Inside this book are copies of my sister’s recipes for cookies and cakes.
I can’t express how it felt to see her handwriting, the old recipe cards with smudges and stains from frequent use. I can only say that it was a lovely gift to receive at the close of this year and one that I will always cherish.
Writing
I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I don’t make goals anymore. I often have tasks related to housekeeping, doctor’s appointments, grocery shopping, but they are not the sum of my days.
Still. I do want to renew my focus on writing. I have four unfinished novels. Three of the novels are a kind of trilogy as they share the same characters. One is a standalone. All were first drafted during a National Novel Writing Month. I want to finish them. Get them done. I don’t want to write anything “new” until they are out into the world. I haven’t set a way for publishing them yet (all of them need considerable editing first) but I’m not in this for the money. As I did with my short story Love Me Tender, I might produce the novels using Bookfunnel and Lulu.
Nature
I’m continually surprised by what I sometimes literally unearth on our property. While weeding around the tendrils of our strawberry plant, I found this little critter.
Wooly bully
At first I thought it was a wooly seed of some kind. Further investigation through my iSeek app revealed that it was a caterpillar curled up in defensive mode. If all goes well, it will eventually morph into a Giant Leopard Moth.
While I contemplate renewing my focus on writing–that is, finishing my novels–I’ve been knitting. In early November I started knitting an intarsia shawl. Kind of like painting but with yarn. The shawl is still in progress but I wanted to share a couple of photos.
While intarsia isn’t difficult, the changing shapes and colors can be a challenge.
Here’s what the finished shawl should look like when completed.
I don’t work on this shawl every day. What I like least about knitting is the finishing process (well, I guess that’s true with almost everything I do) so, as with writing, I procrastinate. One afternoon I procrastinated by taking a virtual workshop on knitting little cats.
This is supposed to be a cat in a box but with the edges curled under, I think the box looks more like a bed. And I like it like that.
Which leads me to my fifth thing at the end of 2024.
Cats
Wendy isn’t so much reaching out to touch Raji as she is letting him know that he better not get any closer to her.
Thank you for reading. I hope you all have (or had) a Happy New Year. Here in the U.S., some of us feel dread as we begin 2025. I hope it’s many of us feeling that dread because we’ll need a lot of us to show up in 2026 and vote out the authoritarians and broligarchs and vote in Democracy. We won’t be alone. We’ll have lawyers: Democracy2025.
As one of my favorite lawyers, Joyce White Vance, would say, “We’re in this together.”
I’ve been a bit “out of it” lately due to world events and general procrastination. I keep meaning to get back into the swing of things so when I (finally) sat down to catch up with my online community, I came across this Lens-Artist Challenge is hosted by Leya. She encourages us to share what makes us smile. For some, smiles these days might be hard to come by so this is a particularly timely challenge.
What makes me smile? Here’s a few:
Nature
Whether it’s an Eastern Carpenter Bee getting up close and personal with Kay’s Pink Roses (photo featured above) …
Or the tell-tale sign of a raccoon visiting our campsite at night …
Or a swallowtail butterfly feasting on penta blooms …
Or a praying mantis praying that it is blending in …
Or an red-tailed hawk just hanging out in the ‘hood …
Or a momma gator and her baby.
Sometimes Art makes me smile …
Sonic Blooms, Seattle, Washington, 2014
From the exhibit: Created by Seattle-based artist Dan Corson in a collaboration between Pacific Science Center and Seattle City Light, these sun loving, harmonic blooms use regionally manufactured, custom solar panels to generate their own power. Each flower top contains 48 solar cells that produce 4.6 Wp (watts at peak production) for a total of 1,104 Wp for all 5 flowers.
The electricity generated will make the flowers dance with light through the evening and sing through the day, 365 days of the year. Sonic Bloom combines art and science to help educate about solar energy in the Pacific Northwest and inspire people to consider how they can incorporate renewable energy into their lives.
Especially funny signs or photos …
A bigger smile from me when they refer to knitting …
What makes me smile the most? Cats, always the cats …
Junior (RIP) and Maxine (RIP) staking out their territory on my husband. Wendy and Raji zonked out in the sun.
I hope you got some smiles out of my selection! Let me know what makes you smile.
If you want to participate in this Lens-Artists challenge, remember to tag with Lens-Artists and link to Ann-Christine’s original post.
Next week, Sofia will lead us from her beautiful site Photographias – be sure to visit on Saturday 30!
To all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you have a wonderful time with family and friends. Despite current world events, we still have much to be grateful for. I know I am grateful for each one of you.
This week Donna from Wind Kisses challenges us to find connections using photographs.
Let’s photograph connections this week. Are you interested in the intricacy of mosaic art, or how the strings of a marionette bring it to life? How about railroads, rivers and bridges connecting spaces and places? Personally, I can’t have bacon without eggs, or paper without a pen. And it is impossible to ignore interactions of people connecting with each other and the world around them.
I’ve thought long and hard about this challenge, and I might (I said, might) step outside my comfort zone to meet it. Donna’s post is truly inspiring, expanding the idea of connections beyond what I usually consider the word to mean. And that’s a good thing.
Of course, I see connections in Nature, such as how my (finally) blooming Indian Blanket plant follows the rotation of the sun.
Every morning, and sometimes in the afternoon, I rotate the pot wherein this plant currently resides. It sits on my deck, and I see it through my window while I’m sitting at my desk working. The plant keeps me connected to the outside world just by being available to me visually.
Now, this might sound strange, but I feel connected to myself when I work with fiber, whether it be knitting or weaving. When I was about 9 or 10, I taught myself (not very well) to knit, and so knitting is part of who I am. I’ve used my knitting to connect me to others. Weaving came to me later in life at a private college where I was floundering. I was very unhappy at that college until I signed up for a weaving course. Long story short: the class had such an impact on me that I elected to take my tuition money and buy a loom rather than continue at the college.
I wove a few things but not very well and eventually sold my loom to a friend. Fast-forward a few decades and I yearned to weave again so I bought a modest 20-inch rigid heddle loom. My first project:
I wove this scarf with wool and alpaca yarns meant for knitting socks. Needless to say, weaving the scarf went a lot faster than knitting socks would have. Still, I made mistakes, wasted a bunch of yarn, but … I wear it. I love it. And the process itself connected me all the way back–40-some years–to when I first learned to weave.
I try to connect myself to the environment by upcycling and recycling. From a poster on a Facebook group I was in, I got the idea to cut up all our old t-shirts. Some were so worn that I knew they would only end up in a landfill if I gave them to Goodwill. I used a rotary cutter to slice through the shirts, tied the ends together, and then rolled the strips into balls. A weaving project was born.
I wove the above with no real end in mind. I just wanted to practice weaving. At worst, whatever I made could be used as a cat blanket. Then I wove another piece, only this time I untied the strips as I went, making the weaving process more meditative, connecting more closely with the threads and fabric.
This work I do with my hands often connects me to other people. I can’t wear all the scarves, shawls, socks, and potholders that I make. Sometimes I work with a special person in mind.
I knitted this blanket (above) for my mom. She’s no longer here and the blanket is with someone else now, but I still remember her saying that she loved it.
Connections.
I grew up among women. My mom and my two sisters, my aunts. My uncles were around but disinterested in a pouty-faced little kid.
Out of the seven sisters, only one is left, my Aunt Orvetta, the blonde in the middle. My mother sits to my aunt’s right. I look at photos like this and pine for the days when connections could be made with a letter or a phone call or a visit. Now the connections are made through memory.
I am so grateful for how photography, over so many years, has helped me stay connected to my family. So many of them have died, but when I see photos like the one above, I can almost hear their laughter.
Many thanks to Donna for this thoughtful and expansive challenge. If you choose to participate in this week’s challenge, take Donna’s words to heart:
Have you ever thought about how photography connects the world? Nobody sees the world exactly the same way you see it, and our impressions are as unique we are. How you interpret this week’s challenge is up to you.
Please include the Lens-Artists tag and/or link in the comments so we can find you.
Also, thanks to John for last week’s challenge, AI. What fun that was! Participating in John’s challenge helped me feel a bit less intimidated by AI, and I really enjoyed the contributions and conversations around it.
Ritva will host next week’s challenge starting Saturday 12:00 EST. Visit her site and get ready to be inspired.
Interested in knowing more about the Lens-Artists challenge? Click here for more information.
I’ve been finding a lot of ways to avoid writing. Firstly, I challenged myself with a new-to-me method of knitting. Well, not entirely new to me as I had knitted “top-down” sweater patterns before, but those patterns always resulted in raglan sleeves … you know, the ones with a diagonal seam from armpit to collar. Not the best design for someone with a pear-shaped figure like myself. This new-to-me method, designed by Julie of Cocoknits, has a tailored yoke and pattern variations for different body types.
Are you all still with me?
I bought the Cocoknits sweater book and workbook and even a work stand (which I haven’t yet used but it came with a nice hemp bag that I could put all my tools in so that was handy). I do have some issues with the book as it was written in a narrative style, and I spent a lot of time flipping pages to figure out what to do when. I also had three false starts (meaning I started knitting and then had to rip out and start again because I misunderstand the instructions). Eventually, I also realized that it would be best to use the stash yarn that’s been wallowing in my cedar chest for the past 20 years. If the sweater is a failure, no great loss then.
And I persevered … much better than I do with my writing. For some reason, I rarely, if ever, give up on my knitting. Following is the result of my labor. Yes, this is a selfie. I do NOT enjoy taking selfies but my husband was busy and I just wanted to get it over with. The “pose” is simply to show a sleeve, not my hair, but … whatever.
Me wearing Prototype 1 of Cocoknits Emma Version B, posed to show sleeve
As if that were not enough to distract me from writing, I decided to weave potholders. Yes, you read that right. Potholders.
Many, many years ago, long before I moved to California, I learned to spin yarn and weave at a college I briefly attended. I fell in love with both activities and when it was time for me to pay tuition for the Spring semester, I decided instead to buy a 4-harness floor loom and move back home. The loom I bought is similar to the one below, but mine had four treadles instead of six.
Four harness, six treadle floor loom from Harrisville Designs.
I wove a few things, dragged the loom across the country with me, wove a couple of more things, then sold my loom to a friend when I moved into a studio apartment that simply didn’t have enough room for it. Since then, I’ve wanted to resume weaving, but haven’t felt like I have the space for it or the dinero. And now I feel totally out of touch with weaving.
I subscribe to a magazine called Little Looms which promotes weaving on small, even tiny, looms. A recent issue had an article on weaving potholders. I know I wove potholders when I was a kid, but my memories are vague. That said, I was hooked (no pun intended) by the article. I promptly ordered a potholder kit from Friendly Looms (which just happens to be affiliated with Harrisville Designs, the company from which I bought my floor loom all those years ago). Of course, I also had to buy a pattern book. Of course.
Wendy wondering what all this has to do with her.
Here’s my first potholder.
After I shared these photos on Facebook, two of my relatives asked me to make a couple for them. Cool.
Weaving potholders is a meditative practice. It also doesn’t take long to make one. It’s almost instant gratification compared to knitting a sweater.
But, in truth, I have been writing. I joined a group in the SmokeLong Fitness Community and have written a bit. I want to share what I’ve written here. I just need to figure out how I want to do that.
And if you’ve read this far … here’s your gratuitous cat photo.
My little boy Raji loves snuggling up to my big boy Junior.
My youngest, Raji, superimposed over a stony path. The only time he is outdoors is in his dreams.
Happy New Year, everyone, and here we all are once again. You might notice that I’ve made some changes to this blog. I’m not yet done. Perhaps I’ll never be done, but I needed a change, and I needed it before the new year started.
As many of you already know, the last six months of 2022 were rather hellish for me and my family. Both of my sisters died unexpectedly as well as two of my cousins. The last (so far) was my oldest sister who died the evening after Thanksgiving, leading me to take the rest of the year off, so to speak. I can’t say I’m “better” since just thinking about my sisters will bring tears to my eyes. But I might be adjusting. Maybe.
I know death is inevitable. I get that. I just thought that everyone had more time. My mother, after all, is 99 and still squeezing some quality out of her life. I am, however, in a perpetual state of alertness now: always anticipating that phone call; always hoping, when I call her and her phone rings and rings and rings, that she’s just in the bathroom.
Well, there was that time recently when her phone rang and rang and rang because she had mistaken her TV remote for her phone. That gave us a good laugh.
When I ask her how she feels and she responds, “With my hands,” I can’t help but feel she’s got a lot more time ahead of her.
Meanwhile.
I have no resolutions for this year. I don’t believe in resolutions anymore. Too much pressure especially since I usually don’t do what I’ll say I’ll do and I often do what I say I won’t do.
I guess you could say I’ve resolved to have no resolutions, but I am lining up a few things to bring myself back to writing and to the social world I’ve been neglecting.
First, I’m cleaning up my blog, much like cleaning my house when I’m expecting guests.
Second, I’ve resubscribed to SmokeLong Fitness to get myself back into the writing groove. Yes, I still have my novel to work on, but it seems like a kind of punishment to focus only on that … at least right now.
Third, I’ve signed up for a Yoga Fundamentals Workshop at my local yoga studio. Four Saturdays where we will do a deep dive into the basics of yoga. I’ve been practicing yoga for over ten years but never really thought much about the science behind the poses. Plus, the instructor is an awesome woman who brings joy and humor to my practice. One can never laugh too much.
Last but never least, I’m also knitting. Knitting grounds me more than anything else I do.
We have a lot going on around our house … literally. Just recently we had a hardscaper install a patio and walkway on the west side of our house. The crew started work before Christmas and finished on December 30. Next, we’ll have a fence put up, making our patio private and our next-door neighbors happy. (Apparently, they don’t like seeing into our yard any more than we like seeing into theirs.) Roughly about the same time, we’ll have work done inside our house: replacement of hallway floorboards damaged by water from a leaky valve, and new tiles in our foyer. After that, we’ll take a breather and give our checkbook a rest.
So good things are still happening. I just have to make them happen. Hence, this post.
Happy New Year!
So tell me, dear Readers, what are your resolutions, if any, for this new year? And what, of all the things you do, grounds you the most? Please share in the comments, and thank you for reading!
I thought Wednesday was Saturday but I knew Thursday was Thursday and, so far, I’m confident that today is Friday (and my calendar says so too). Tomorrow should be Saturday and I just hope I don’t think it’s Wednesday because I have a couple of appointments and getting my days wrong would really screw things up.
I’m still backsliding on blogging and keeping up with blogs (as in, I’m not keeping up with blogs), but I have been writing a bit. Most of my writing has been on Medium mainly because I submit to publications there. I don’t crow about these publications because, although some of them do offer some good reading, I frankly don’t equate getting published in a Medium publication with getting published in a mainstream literary journal. The truth is, I’m always suspicious when my writing is accepted generally as-is, with perhaps only minor reformatting or editing. But maybe my writing is that good. What do I know?
In any case, here are a few of my most recent essays and stories. The following are “friend” links meaning you do not have to be a paid subscriber to Medium to read them, although you will probably have to open a Medium account if you don’t already have one:
I also started my own publication on Medium but it’s only for my writing. It’s called “One Sister’s Journey Through Grief,” and I’ll be using it to share my journey of learning to live with my grief over losing my sister. So far, I’ve published two essays there:
I’ve been toying with the thought of also using Substack for my writing. I follow a few writers on Substack, and I’ve only seen one writer (so far) who has the same readers on both Substack and Medium … but she writes about Medium so that’s probably why. Anyway, the idea is to expand my “audience” so to speak. And, while I’m used to WordPress and have had this blog here for a gazillion years, the platform can be clunky and temperamental. Life is getting shorter. I like going with the flow but feel I have less time for the ebb.
Meanwhile …
I’ve joined the SmokeLong Fitness Community Workshop which started on September 1 (that was Thursday). You can read about it in detail here: SmokeLong Fitness Community Workshop. Basically, I pay a monthly fee to be part of a small group online workshop. Every week we’ll be given a writing prompt, and we’re expected to provide feedback on each other’s writing. SmokeLong Fitness also includes monthly webinars, discounts on intensive workshops, and “surprises.” It’s only been a couple of days but I’m feeling psyched (and anxious) about writing and reading in a small group. I still have my novel to work on, but I’m hoping that being prompted to write flash [fill in the blank] will oil my writing gears and get me back on track.
Meanwhile …
I’m knitting.
The beginning of a cardigan!
We decided to get out of town for a couple of days and at the last minute, I grabbed a kit for a knitted cardigan to take with me. That was Tuesday, August 23. Today is Friday, September 2, and I’ve completed the back, left and right front panels, and one sleeve. Woo-hoo! At least I’m on a roll with my knitting. This might be the fastest I’ve ever knitted a cardigan. The key thing for me is to keep momentum and not stall when all the pieces have been knitted and it’s time to stitch them together. Finishing a project (much like editing a novel) is my least favorite part of the process.
Did I mention that I now take two Excedrin first thing in the morning, followed by a caffeinated drink? Caffeine is this writer’s little helper.
I close this post with one of my favorite photos of my sister Shirley (courtesy of my niece-in-law).
In a New Yorker article (September 13, 2021), author Amia Srinivasan made this observation: “[…] the Internet, […] has simultaneously given us too much to read and corroded our capacity to read it.” The context was feminism and what we think we know about it, but her description of how the Internet has impacted reading applies far beyond her subject.
It’s something I struggle with every day. So much to read, especially online, but also on my Kindle and my bookshelves, the dining room table and the living room desk where magazines pile high. And yet I’m supposed to be writing.
I know I’ve been going through a stressful time. Which requires a couple of updates:
My sister’s cast was removed last week and she was fitted with a walking boot. She’s still at the facility, but she’s been having more good days lately than bad days. The facility change was definitely a good move. Still, the uncertainty as to when she’ll come home and what kind of help my brother-in-law will given as he continues care for her subdues my efforts to be positive. We all just keep saying, “One day at a time.”
Maxine, our feline dowager, has been more her old self lately. Spunky, willful, and talkative. She’s been handling our handling of the twice daily antibiotic injections and every-three-days subcutaneous fluids quite well. My husband has even been able to give her the antibiotic injection by himself, that is, without me having to hold her still. Unfortunately, she has “good” days and “bad” days: good days are when she limits her pee and poop output to a litter box or a potty training pad; bad days are when she and Junior get in a tussle and, in her excitement, she poops on the kitchen floor (this morning) or when she sits on the potty training pad but still pees on the floor (also this morning).
I’ve been working through my stress not by writing, but by gardening (healthy activity) and binging on a podcast call Casefile (maybe, maybe not healthy). If you enjoy true crime stories (is enjoy the right word?), check out Casefile by clicking here. A few things I like about the podcast:
The narrator is anonymous. He wants the audience to stay focused on the survivors and victims in these stories; however, his fans call him Casey.
The podcast has no dramatic reenactments, no roleplaying, no editorializing, no aimless, mindless banter. Casey narrates in a steady, calm voice. Occasionally he narrates dialogue, which can sometimes be humorous with his Australian accent.
I say no editorializing, but Casey’s empathy toward survivors and victims is real. At the beginning of each podcast, he cautions the listener in case the crime is of a particularly disturbing nature, such as crimes against children. For example, I chose to not listen to the episodes on The Moors Murders because Casey admitted he had to stop recording a couple of times because he was so disturbed by the abuse done to the children.
He has, on occasion, expressed frustration with law enforcement responses (or lack thereof) to violence against women. But he doesn’t rant, he doesn’t rail. He just points out when injustice is being served.
The episodes do not focus gratuitously on details of crimes. Casefile only shares what is necessary to understand the seriousness of a crime, which doesn’t require a second-by-second account of an assault or a murder.
The podcast often includes interviews, audio clips and other materials, providing a deeper context of the crime.
The effort Casey and his team put into their research and production is impressive. Links to their sources are provided with each episode.
My most recent binge from Casefile was several episodes on crimes committed by the The East Area Rapist, the Original Night Stalker, and the Golden State Killer in the late 70s to mid-80s who happen to all be one man–Joseph DeAngelo. The best episode was the last one where Casey read or played clips of survivors’ impact statements at DeAngelo’s sentencing hearing. It was the best episode because too often, justice is not found. In this case, it was. A little late, but that was due to the limitations of forensic testing at the time, the fact that DeAngelo was a former cop and knew how to avoid capture and identification, and lack of communication among the various law enforcement agencies involved.
Finally, if you write crime fiction, this podcast will teach you a lot about crime, the justice systems in the U.S. as well as other countries, and how law enforcement, even with truly dedicated officers, can be hampered in their efforts to find and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Now, what about my novel, which is about a murder?
I don’t consider myself a gardener really, but I might allow myself to wear the label of amateur gardener. I am thrilled when one of my plants starts to bloom. Why, hello there, Georgia Aster! I’m so grateful to have a fall-blooming plant.
Georgia Aster. Photo by Marie A Bailey.
My red penta is still going strong, and I’ve planted a lavender penta and a red-yellow lantana in the front yard. Fingers crossed that I can keep them safe during the winter. The following Ruellia or Mexican petunia was an impulse buy.
Ruellia simplex. Photo by Marie A Bailey.
We had gone to Home Depot to order a new dishwasher (a whole other story, but let me just say that we’re never buying GE appliances again). I needed a couple of pots so we went to the gardening section. This lovely purple plant caught my eye. We’ve seen it around our city so, hey, let’s get a pot and see what happens.
What happened was I did some research since the pot only said the plant was Ruellia. Well, according to the iSeek app, this is Ruellia simplex, a highly invasive plant.
WTF.
Through my research (and panic … what does one do with an invasive plant and why was it being sold at Home Depot????), I found the distributor (Costa Farms) who claims: “We sell sterile Mexican petunia varieties that don’t spread by seed. However, these are often vigorous plants and can colonize quickly in gardens and landscaping beds and borders — especially when grown in rich soil.” Okay, fine. The Ruellia I see around town seem well-controlled, but I’ll have to think long and hard about this. It’s so tempting to plant just this one in the front yard, yet perhaps I should keep it in a container.
Meanwhile, there’s that novel I should be working on.
One of the joys of gardening is discovering critters who like to eat my plants. I have three Black Swallowtail larvae on my Rue which is fine because that’s what Rue is for.
Larvae for Black Swallowtail. Photo by Marie A Bailey
More Black Swallowtail larvae. Photo by Marie A Bailey
I’ve also been knitting. Finally finished this wool lap blanket so I can put it away in my cedar chest since cold temperatures won’t be arriving down here anytime soon.
Teal and purple wool lap blanket. Photo by Marie A Bailey.
I’ve started crocheting granny squares for a larger blanket in a desperate effort to use up my stash.
I have a punch needle kit and a cross-stitch kit as well as three knitting projects waiting for my attention. And sewing? Did I mention sewing?
And then there’s my novel. Oh, boy. You see what I’m doing here?
I’m avoiding my novel because I’m intimidated by the idea of writing from the POV of three narrators. My instinct (these days anyway) says to stick with one, that it will be enough of a challenge to write in first person. I’m trying to work through that. I’m trying to get my writing groove back. But I’m a bit overwhelmed.
Going back to the quote at the beginning of my post, I am realizing that I’m my own worst enemy when it comes to being distracted and drowning. I need to develop some discipline if I’m ever going to finish my novel.
So what do you all do? You publishing writers out there: How do you organize your time? I see a lot of you engage in social media. How do you manage to do that AND work on your writing? Is it just a trick of the Internet that you all seem to be out and about on social media all the time? How do you manage to stay engaged and yet productive?
Thank you for reading, and thanks in advance for any advice you wish to share.
Bonus cat photo: Junior, the green-eyed bully who harasses Maxine until she poops.
Junior, green-eyed monster. Photo by Marie A Bailey
Marie at 1 Write Way 