Thursday 13: Summer Mish Mash

1. What could be more colorful than picking up and plotting out the annuals that will be planted in the yard? These made it to the ground more than a month ago, but it was so much fun to look at them all lined up, like our very own garden center.

2. Here's the front of the garden, with all its potential just beginning. This was taken more than a month ago also. Now it's fuller and messier.

3. Ms. Stella, relaxed, into cookies and chicken, and a pretty fine companion for all circumstances.

4. Do you recognize the artist? This gem is taken from Ces' painting of JB and me. Imagine the good fortune to have such a talented friend?

5. These are my grandparents. My father never knew his mother because she died when he was very young. I remember my grandfather, who lived next door, as a nice man with gruff hands. He was a mason and when I knew him he was making cement birdbaths for the whole neighborhood. (Anon: see, birds run in my family....)

6. I'm proud of this. This is the shade garden in the front of the house. I kept it simple and with little modesty I can say it came out great.

7. Columbine from the garden--a magical plant.

8. I have shifted from writing per se to marketing my writing per se. I am trying to be organized about it, each week holding myself to certain preparations and submissions. It's funny how my mind tells me not to expect much and my heart doesn't dare hope at all. Never-the-less, I am not going to let negative thinking or fear stop me. So until further notice I am submitting.

9. After two years of back and forth with my agent, I am for the first time on my own shopping my writing. I am used to setting up businesses and marketing but this is something else again. See # 8 for my current status.

10. Tonight I joined two of my friends at a horse fair. They prepared appetizers for a group of horse and carriage riders. Then we were able to drive into the fairgrounds where i saw the most stunning, handsome, musularly trim horses. I haven't ridden since I was a teenager, and I was always a scardy cat on a horse, but man, are they beautiful creatures. I'd like a relationship with a horse...

11. When JB is away for work for a night or two, I tend to be messier in the house. I wonder how I would keep my surroundings if I were alone? It's good to have another person for motivation in things like this.

12. I am spending my weekend with a six month old doll for the first time in 29 and 1/2 years. I don't quite know what to expect, but I think it will be all good.

13. In mid August, jb and I are having an art fair in our yard. We asked our friends and neighbors if they join in the fun of selling, buying, or just showing. So far we have someone making wooden birdhouses, knitted scarves, quilts, decoupaged watering cans (JB), art calendars (my good friend with the first initial of "C"), homemade soaps and jams, antique salt shakers with fresh flowers in them, oil paintings, kid's art, tarot card readings (yours truly), hair and nail design, instant carnival-type photos, and I'm sure other interesting offerings. Then we are throwing a backyard party into the night.