Elizabeth Moon's Blog, page 105

80 Acres: New Species, Rain, Pictures

New post up at the 80 Acres blog, with more about the first real rain (two inches!) of 2010, and the first new species identified on the place.   Pictures of the Goatweed Leafwing (just trying saying that fast ten times!) and the wet, wet ground.   We spooked a lot of little grassland sparrows on our walkaround yesterday, and a raptor we didn't ID (it flew toward brightest part of the clouds...so there was a dark silhouette from behind--not that useful), but no good pictures of those.

From Twitter 01-16-2010

01:48:30: New posts up at http://www.paksworld.com/blog/ about recruit mischief and dragons.
01:51:27: Arcolin's dilemma: how do you tell the king something that's going to make him think you're crazy--without making him think that?
22:02:48: Lots of slogging through water, mud, quicksand, tall grass today. Chilly and dull, but needed to see what we saw.
22:03:37: Dull light, I meant. Not good for photography. It's not ever dull in the sense of boring to be out on the land.
22:13:29...

Not That Good a Morning

I would like to think that's because a) I've been following the news about Haiti and b) I've been re-reading The Best Science Writing of 2003, which had some of the saddest articles about forthcoming ecological disasters, two of which had previously managed to slip my mind, but in fact it's  Other Things, more personal, so that I get to feel guilty for even thinking about personal other things when there's a major disaster going on.

Of course, when isn't there a major disaster going on, and t...

From Twitter 01-15-2010

12:41:06: Looking through photos for wildlife management report. Decided on flying heron for top "wide" shot.
12:44:24: Drought shots and flood shots--almost nothing "normal" in 2009.
12:46:37: Bathroom sink drain disintegration fixed--yay plumber! Yay husband realizing it was not a home repair job!

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From Twitter 01-14-2010

10:49:28: Family gone for the morning. Work on book 3 progressing nicely. Connected? I think probably so.
13:08:03: 2768 words on book 3 so far today. Heading to city now. Maybe more in evening.
21:47:36: Trap under sink in larger bathroom corroded through--more adventures in plumbing to come, no doubt.
22:23:55: Work day (at 10:23 pm) topped out at 3173 words on book 3. That plus the trip to the city made a full day.
22:53:52: New post up in Paksworld blog: http://www.paksworld.com/blog/

T...

Choir

Last night's rehearsal started with the altos and basses providing the grounding for a soprano-tenor descant on a hymn...just to warm up.   This was followed by two John Rutter anthems, for this coming Sunday, and then a Stanford and then an Elgar "Ave Verum" and then two Tallis anthems and then an assault on one of Britten's "Te Deums."  Not the "Festival Te Deum," thank goodness, which I can't like, but the gentler one, still somewhat of a workout. 

I  hadn't had a voice lesson before (D...

From Twitter 01-13-2010

13:52:01: Trying to condense 170K book into one paragraph. I am not good at this kind of thing, but I try.
15:00:53: Perhaps not surprising that I have a whopping headache resulting from the attempt.
22:25:35: Music to learn by Rutter, Stanford, Elgar, Tallis, and Britten. "It's easy," says director. "Ha!" says I.
22:27:01: My sneaky back route through the city is blocked off for construction. Had to take alternate, but made it OK.

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From Twitter 01-12-2010

09:28:08: After-midnight plot-bomb, hence late start today, but expect progress.
11:22:11: Between after-midnight & this morning's work, 2500 words. Hands hurt. Taking bread and ibuprofen.

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Nose to the Grindstone: Book III

Since midnight, over 2500 words on book three.  Had a plot-bomb hit around midnight, after doing less exciting stuff to three other chapters--just sort of filling out stuff--and then it was madly typing at top speed to keep up. 

Did manage to get some sleep, but woke up with the morning's round clear in my head.   (Clear doesn't mean I knew that dragon was going to walk in the door without knocking first.)   Not sure if Arcolin's impulse is going to lead to "No good deed goes unpunished" or  ...

From Twitter 01-11-2010

07:07:13: At the desk, reviewing weekend work on book 3...what was I thinking? (Oh yeah--pipe repair.) Chapter repair, now.
23:36:39: Started the annual report on the wildlife management stuff today. Blecch. Started the process to enroll in Medicare today. Blecch.

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