Writing fiction — the magic’s all tied up in the details

Despite the thirty-six fast-moving and unrelated balls I have in the air right now, I’m thinking about my novel again. The characters keep whispering bits and pieces to me as I build bamboo trellises and snake cotton string through ferny leaves to support the tomato plants. Lucy tells me more about her uncomfortably strong feelings [...]

Fruits of my laboring breath

Wheeze… wheeze… I meant to take the camera out this weekend. The yard is spilling over with lush green and I’m sure the light in the afternoons had that gold-filter quality that makes the world feel this close to sepia. But I squinted a lot due to headaches and couldn’t get over feeling sorry for [...]

Dirt doctor

From Angelina’s latest post The lesson is plain: always keep one foot in the dirt. I want to know what other gardeners feel when they are working in their little kingdom. Tell me what it does for you, what you think about (if anything) while you prune and plant and weed. I want to know [...]

Nobody but mama puts baby in the corner

It’s amazing how fast the house can go from tidy and peaceful to chaotic and cluttered with towering piles and overflowing boxes and baskets. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been tackling one small area at a time, and working with the other members of the family on developing a daily maintenance practice. It’s amazing [...]

Worked myself like a mule

Where the frack did that weekend go? My body is so bone tired I can hardly type right now and am thinking that the cup of coffee I have in front of me isn’t nearly strong enough. We never had any of that predicted rain over the weekend, just a few sprinkles and then nothing [...]

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