Elizabeth Moon's Blog, page 108

From Twitter 12-31-2009

12:02:33: Weather change=pressure change=sinuses griping. Otherwise, work continues. Email from agent yesterday.
12:04:54: Birds attacking feeding station as if they knew something about predicted cold front. Fun to watch. Distracting from work.
12:40:08: 10+ pounds of beef leg bones smeared with barbecue sauce slow-roasting in oven prior to making beef stock tomorrow.

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Weather & Cooking

We're supposed to have a cold front coming in tonight--I believe it, from my sinuses.   Yesterday we made it into the '60s after the cloud cover blew eastward--while the farrier was bent over one of Illusion's hooves, he said "Boy, that feels good on my back."  And it did.  Today was also supposed to clear off and be warm, but after a sunny sunrise, turned cloudy.  Now it's partly-cloudy, not as warm as yesterday, and there's a bank of clouds in the north that looks pretty solid. 

The...

From Twitter 12-30-2009

10:56:25: Working on revisions, waiting for farrier.
14:32:18: Farrier came, two horses trimmed, revisions progress. Sun's out, will take short walk.
16:45:49: Walk on land: one new species (Cassin's sparrow) and startled by great blue heron flying out of the grass in front of me.
18:06:01: The lump of lamb curry I was defrosting looked a bit odd. Because it was actually turkey dressing. Old label left on.
19:03:29: New post up at http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/ with pictures of new...

From Twitter 12-29-2009

09:24:02: Dark, cold, sleet/rain mix. Good baking day.
09:51:10: Dark days make me sleepy. Desire for hot chocolate and bed. No! Onward and upward! Etc.
10:32:37: More sleet--and beginning to accumulate in tiny amounts.
11:20:22: A few snowflakes mixed in with sleet. A bit of crunchiness underfoot on pavement. Occasional liquid drops, too.
14:30:45: The sleet & snow turned to cold rain. Bread's in the oven. Revisions perking along.
21:09:26: Leftover boiled potatoes tossed into...

Nose to the Grindstone

2000+ words today on a new chapter of book two.   Plot is thickening so fast it's scary.  (You don't want a plot to congeal...)

The fun part (though nerve-wracking too) is watching the plot propagate in both directions at once--back into the deep history that lay behind the original Paks books and forward into what's coming next and after-next.

Writer's Block: Reflections

Best:  HS friend's visit in spring, return of rain in September, fall trip--train travel, visiting friends in St. Louis, Chicago, Oswego, NYC, Tosca at the Met, singing.

Worst: extreme drought through mid-September, the death of trees on the place, another HS classmate's cancer recurrence, various losses

Louisa May Alcott

Watched a PBS "American Masters" show on Louisa May Alcott last night.   Humbling, to the 20th and 21st century writer.   The poverty, the kinds of work available to women of that era...laundry, sewing, heavy housework in someone else's house, being a "companion" (if you were lucky.)   The total inability of her father to do anything useful...while still of course eating (and having to be cooked for, clothed, and cleaned up after.)   It's likely she was not getting adequate food for much of h...

Tuesday

Monday was spent, largely, in wrestling with the revisions.   Side issues were the chili (turned out good), laundry (getting flannel sheets to line dry in winter--even on a sunny day--requires intense optimism and a final run through the dryer--but without a dryer sheet), a minimal flurry of actual cleaning, and the replenishing of the house bird feeder. 

Revisions are being difficult.   That's because a) revisions always go through this phase of being difficult, and b) I'm trying to be...

From Twitter 12-28-2009

08:44:44: M- is hauling away the ligustrum cut down yesterday; R- is feeding horses, and I'm sitting here re-organizing chapters.
10:27:21: The family men were supposed to leave early this morning to scout bus routes into city for M-. Finally left at 10 am. Grr.
10:27:55: Why grr? Because they kept coming in and out, in and out, while I was trying to get going on chapter reorganization. Needed quiet.
11:33:30: Chili's on. Ground venison, pork sausage, onions, garlic, my favorite chili...

Chili

Thanks to friends who hunt, we have some pounds of ground venison.   The thought of venison leads to the thought of venison chili.    I used to make venison chili with venison sausage (a combination of venison and pork sausage ground together)  so, looking at this ground venison (lean is an understatement) I took about a third of a pound of pork sausage, cut it up into bits, and mixed it with the venison while starting the venison.  Then a big fat yellow onion, chopped, and six cloves of...