Happy December

I hope everyone is well, and I want to apologize for being so slack in blogging!

As my regular readers know, I have been writing a column for a local paper once a week, and that seems to fill my writing urges.  Plus, it involves meeting a deadline and proofreading! LOL

Talk about taking the fun out of writing! :P

I don't know if anyone other than my editor actually reads my column.  Well, that's not exactly true.  I did one on a local garage that did work on my car, and the next time I visited the owner said didn't see it.  Then he pointed to his wall, where he had cut out the column and hung it up.

Then I wrote another one on a local bully, and their neighbor put a note on my mailbox the next day wanting to talk. LOL.

I recently mentioned a local lady who then sent me a lovely Christmas card and informed me she has been clipping my columns and saving them!  Talk about pressure.

I  had a severe anxiety attack when I started; figuring the locals would come down the road with torches and drive me out of town.  So I have to actually think before I type and more than once after I have hit the send button I think I ought to grab the editor for a retraction.

The last time that happened, I was too busy to get online the next day and obseessed about it all day.  When I checked my email the next day, I had two from my editor (who usually never acknowledges receipt of the column) and I was like, "oh crap!"

Then I discovered he had actually been through something quite similar and more or less concurred with me. I figured I would get some hate mail on that one, but so far so good.  Not even a nasty letter to the editor, but I am hoping my editor would give me a head's up if that was the case.  He is also fearless in not printing letters to the editor that are aggressive.

I have been really slack with my photography.  Both my cameras crapped out and I have to borrow the Willow's , which I don't like.  I did take a pic of my wreath mess (yes, it's that time of year again) but forgot to bring the camera upstairs to download it and resize it and then upload the photo.  Time is just going too fast for this old lady.

So I better wish everyone a happy holidays NOW while I am typing, becasue by the time I get upstairs and logged into blogger again it might be time for spring.

                                              

Happy September

Tree

Summer(?) Break

Welcome Home to the Firebird!  I picked him up from campus Friday.  His last final was Thursday afternoon.  The Firebird will be home for a week or two, and then plans to return to work on some engineering projects on campus.  One of them is associated with NASA, so we are both excited about that!

The Firebird is majoring in Mechanical Engineering.  He took four years of Russian in high school, so he is an good position to eventually get employment in the Air and Space industry.

The Willow has another month of high school.  I think she is pretty envious of her brother being out of classes!  His current priority is catching up on sleep!  On one hand I am glad he is so comfy at home that he can sleep the entire morning away, but another part of me wants to spend as much time with him as I can while he is here!

I pulled one of the Firebirds windows a few days before he came home to air out his room. I kept asking him last night if he wanted me to pin a blanket over the screen to reduce the wind tunnel effect, but he insisited he was fine.  The temps dropped into the 40's last night, so I guess the cold air doesn't bother him too much!  I am crouched by the woodstove as I type this, sitting on the ottoman with the laptop on the coffeetable.  The waterfall is still running over the dam, and we all like to have the windows open this tinme of year to hear the rushing water.  And all the spring bird song and frogs peeping in the vernal pools.

Today the main audio is the windchimes tinkling in the gusty wind-and the sound of the trees blowing in the wind. I swear I saw a few bits of sleet while doing morning chores. Brrr!  I can't wait for summer!

Moose berries

The Willow and I took a walk a couple of weeks ago and found this in the path:

Moose manure!

That's a full sized bic lighter next to the pile for size comparison.  Yes, now I have Moose cooties!

I was relieved to see that the pile wasn't exactly fresh.  I have seen moose on the loose and they are very very large animals!  They can be quite a hazard on the roads, because they are dark so if it's night you don't see them until it is too late.  And they are so tall that a car will go right under them and the body goes through the windshield crushing the driver.

The advice is to try and aim to the front or back or get down under the dashboard in that split second before impact.

If it's daytime, stop your car well away from the moose until they go on their way.  Don't honk at them, I have seen videos of moose battering cars during the rut, thinking the honking car was a challenge!  If I was not in a car and came upon one, I would look for the nearest tree to climb or hide behind!

We do have a moose in the area-a summer or two ago I thought an animal had dug a hole in my lettuce bed, and then realized it was a moose track!  The tracks are very far apart because they have such long legs.  The moose had come right up my driveway, cut through the garden, and crossed the lawn in front of the house.

I had white tailed deer track in the driveway two days ago.  And we have a red fox that I caught trying to have goose for breakfast!  This morning I heard a red tailed hawk call in the trees.  They like nice juicy robin nestlings for breakfast.

Spring 2016

Spring seems slow coming despite our relatively mild winter.

This time last year I think we still had snow on the ground, so I am not sure why I am complaining!

The Phoebes came back around their usual time, the beginning of April.  Apparently they did not find things to their liking, because they moved up the neighborhood until the last week or so.  Now they are back, nest building under the eaves.

The first summer I started building the house, they went right through the framing and built a nest on the top plate under the second floor joist!  They have returned every year since.  I know spring is finally here when I hear the pee-wee, or kiss-it, call of the phoebe.  I miss them when they move on.

We planted peas. I bought a pound of peas seed, and we have planted peas everywhere we can think of, and it does'nt look like we put a dent in that pound of seed!  Guess I got a bit carried away.  I paid $4.99 PLUS tax for that pound of seed.  I couldn't believe they tax food seed now.  This state is just getting too much.  We pay tax on newspapers now as well.

I have seen daffodils blooming here and there, but ours haven't opened yet.  The red maples are just starting to bloom, and the alders have put out their catkins.

We have had a big red fox harassing the geese.  He's made two grabs for them.  I have a pen to lock them in during the day, but when I let them out in the morning I let them splash in their big puddle and nibble some grass while I am tending the goats.  A couple Saturdays ago I let them out and then went back in the house to hang on the internet for awhile, and then I heard their distress call and the dog lept off the couch barking.  I looked out the window to see Mr. Fox running across the lawn, so I grabbed the cam and snuck out hoping to get a pic of him.

He skirted the treeline, unaware of me, circled around across the drive when I took a chance to creep closer with the Blazer between us blocking his line of sight-then he made another dash for the geese on the other side of the blazer!  I jumped out and he fled through the woods out back, so no pic but the geese are ok!

I say he when referring to the fox, it may be a she, but I suspect it's a big dog fox.  They both hunt for the kits, and it is possible there are hungry baby foxes nearby.  The foxes come yipping around the house at night-I step out and holler at them to move on, but they are not as skittish as the coyotes.  The neighbors must think I am nuts.  Still, I know I can be scary because if the cat is up to no good and I yell, "HEY!!!"  I scare the pants off the Willow on occasion.  LOL

We had a light rain last night and the sun is just coming out.  Things had been very dry with extremely high fire danger because things have not greened up much yet.  6 acres of Marsh burned down in Old Orchard beach last week.  The old grasses are very dry, and we had big winds to go along with it.

I think I will head outside for the rest of the afternoon  The biting insects will be out any day, and that makes playing in the garden a lot less fun.  In fact, it is a frequent sight in Maine spring to see folks in their gardens high stepping and waving fist fulls of seed around their heads.  It's called, "Doing the Black Fly."

Update

well, my weekly newspaper column is going pretty well. I have managed to get one in every week since the beginning of February.  My April Fool's column, ironically, almost didn't make it in.

I did extensive research on April Fool's Day.  I used several books out of my own library, and spent a couple hours online chasing down Wikipedia sources.  One of the origins of April Fool's Day was "April Fish" in France, so I spent additional time searching for a public domain fish photo to go along with the column-the idea being the reader could cut out the fish and stick it on the back of their victim, an old tradition.

Things went awry from the get go.  I sent the photo link, but forgot to attach the column.  I rectified that, and then several days later, an hour before deadline, I happened to check my email to find a letter from my editor saying my column appeared to be cut and pasted from Wikipedia.  I was quite offended, and sent off several responses defending my research.  My nose was quite out of joint, to say the least.

The next day we exchanged a few more emails, and finally my editor sent my column back to have me take another look at it.  I did not recognize it, so I quickly fired off my column to him again, figuring it was 24 hours past deadline and the paper was going to print-there was no way the column was going to make it.  And I had added a birthday message to my oldest in it as well-which what may have been what saved me, because I had mentioned it to the editor and he didn't see that in the "column" so kicked it back to me.

On closer inspection, I realized what I had done.  I had sent him MY NOTES on my research, and not the actual column !! Talk about wanting to crawl into a hole and die!  Incredibly, the column did make it to print-but he forgot to put the fish photo in so the whole paragraph about snipping out the fish photo didn't make any sense!!!

Wow that was a big joke on everyone!

Well, I have lots more amusing anecdotes to share, but the beautiful spring weather is calling me to go play in the dirt!  Hope everyone is well!

RIP RICHARD

I just received word that my friend battling colon cancer succumbed about two weeks ago.  RIP Richard.
Your grandson is amazing.  Miss you bro'.

Let Them Eat Cake

The Willow and the Boy Who lived in the Tree both made me cakes for my birthday!  Here is a pic of the one the WIllow made:

homemade light as a feather chocoate with a cooked vanilla frosted.

Publishing

Since I have rather unsuccessfully been beating my head against a wall trying to generate income (don't they hide 100 dollar bills in walls?), I thought I might have a go at trying to get something published.

(I just shared this -what I thought brilliant line- with the Willow, and she said, "what, do you think you are smart?"  and I repeated the lines and explained the metaphor, and she thought if you beat your head against the wall your brains would splatter out and if you are smart they would be worth money.  Gross! ok... teenagers)

I suppose I was sort of inspired by a book I found in a free pile-maybe this should have been a sign-.  A compilation of shorts by a woman from Vermont.  Some of them were posts she had had published in local weeklys.

I pulled out my -also found in a free pile- 1993 Writer's handbook, which I had never opened, and started doing some research.

I wrote 650 words on the current ice conditions in a quaint little narrative telling about an adventure involving the Willow and myself last Sunday.  I knew the deadline for the local weekly here was Tuesday, so I laborously went over and over my composition and flew to my search engine looking for the contact info to dash it off to the editors of the weekly and a local daily.

I went for the weekly first, dutifully filling out a form briefly describing my intent, then fired off a copy to the daily.  By the time I got back to my inbox, I had a response from the weekly asking me to fire them off the copy.  WOW.  I sent it off and went about doing some errands, thinking things were looking pretty good!

When I got home, I checked my email and found a response from the weekly.  Apparently there is a weekly of the same name on the other side of the country, and they don't have any ice there.  HAHAHAH!

The editor was very nice, and I was grateful to find out my error, so I quickly thanked him and fired off an inquiry to the real local weekly.

While I was waiting for responses from MAINE papers, the editor of the weekly on the West coast and I exchanged a few delightful short emails.  He even said my piece was "nicely written".

Then I got a polite but firm rejection from the local weekly.  I wasn't even sure they had read the piece.  I slept on it, then fired off the piece again as a submission pitch, citing my google publishing numbers and views, and even daring to quote the editor's on the West Coast's compliment on my submission.  I was pitching for a guest column.

I was more favorably received- a guest columnist would not receive any compensation, however, and they would like me to be sort of specific to my town, and submit a few more examples of my work.

Today I went through this blog and picked a couple of posts and sent them along...if I get accepted, it will be a bit different than my anonymous gig on here, and I still won't be getting paid...but maybe I will make some connections and at least have something else to put on my writing resume in the future.  Or, maybe this will turn into a paid gig.

Or the household will be going hungry.

Say your prayers for me, I think I might be heading in a good direction.

Thank you faithful readers!

Goodbye David Bowie

Goodbye to David Bowie.

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