Plot conflict #7B: woman against ice

I love the sound of ice hacking in the morning. It sounds like…winter. Since I’m a bit crazy and I’m one of those disgusting people with a naturally high set-point for happiness, so my second thought on seeing half an inch of ice on everything (my first was the obvious) was Cool! I finally have […]

Caught a junco, sort of

With their dark grey backs, juncos are really easy to spot against the snow, but they move so quickly, it’s really hard to get a picture. This morning, the juncos (and the sparrows and the starlings and the cardinals) were hungry. They were all over the feeders, the sunflower seed, the nyjer, the suet. They […]

Happy to be here

You will have to excuse my typos and arrant maunderings, as I am trying to wrap my arms around the cat occupying my lap and several acres of warm quilt. When you’re a cat, in your accustomed spot, at the accustomed hour, purring the accustumed purr, life is good. I think I approach that feeling […]

Can you exposit?

It may be an old nugget in the web scale of things, but the Writing Excuses about exposition is a really useful nugget. My one, incredibly silly quibble in the midst of hearing good advice like the three detail rule and reassurances that fantasy readers expect to be tossed into your world headfirst, was hearing […]

Change without changing

It’s still cold outside. I’m still knitting. The orchid is still opening. I’m still fighting with my current story. And there’s still six guppies.

Minor reading list housekeeping

The flurry of fascinating-sounding books seems to have paused for breath, so I’m sorting out my reading lists. It’s a bit embarrassing to see how many books I wanted to read last year that I still haven’t picked up. Well, I have picked up a couple; I just haven’t finished them. At least I’m nearly […]

We have orchid function

Annnd, five days later, my first orchid of the year is fully open. So if I’m crazy enough to follow a recent suggestion and make my own timelapse video of a phalaenopsis orchid opening, I know how long it takes. Tempting. There’s four more buds in the spray, and the next one has started to […]

Fingerless gloves

Some say the essence of writing is rewriting. The essence of the physical act of writing is planting your butt on the chair and sitting still and thinking. The only bit of you that’s moving is your fingers on the keyboard. So why is it that when I get up, my butt is warm, the […]

Orchid opening

Here’s a quick note and picture to show off Audrey Jr. Orchids may open slowly, but they last a long time. Pretty, pretty, pretty.

Out with the old, in with the new scarf

Today I inaugurated Scarf 2.0. (Yes, I finished my gloves, I’ll show them off later.) As you can see, I’m unraveling it from the end and knitting it into a new pattern, called German ribbing.