Cynthia Lord's Blog, page 77

Wordless Wednesday

Do you see him?


New Hampshire Wildlife

Happy Labor Day

  Last night, John and I took my son to Fort Popham to walk through the old fort and enjoy the beach nearby. 



  My son likes military things, so he thought this huge fort was marvelous:  full of "dungeons," stone staircases, and passageways that echoed when you spoke in them.



  The leaves are starting to turn color here. The full beauty of foliage comes in early October, but the early trees are beginning now. 


And today there will be a mass exodus of summer people heading south on the Maine Turnpike. 



  Maine is "ours" again.

Inspiring Each Other

   My friend, illustrator Hazel Mitchell, was inspired by my backyard chipmunk to do this great drawing of him.


And I was moved by this mention of RULES by Anita Silvey.  Sometimes as an author you think you know exactly who your audience is for a particular book, and then you are surprised. I get quite a bit of mail from kids who have brothers and sisters with cancer.



When I think of siblings of children with cancer, I always remember one middle schooler at a Maine school visit who came up to me while I was eating lunch and whispered in my ear, "My sister has leukemia." 

Five Things on a Friday

1. Okay, you've all convinced me that our pumpkin will need light to finish ripening, so here is Cindy's Squirrel-thwarting Attempt Number 2!  I slid the pumpkin into an old hamster ball we had at home.

2.  My Facebook Friend, Ruth, also said that when squirrrels stick their teeth into pumpkins but don't eat them, it's because the squirrels are thirsty. So I'm also going to put a pie pan of water near the birdfeeder (away from my pumpkins!) to see if that helps. 

3.  Our household is settling in to having Julia back at college again.  I miss her, but it is so fun to get text messages from her during the day. 

4.  Writing a novel is HARD. 

5.  School started here this week and it felt so strange that it was just an ordinary day for us.

 

September Events

 
Georgetown, Maine. Photo by my husband, John

Monday, September 19--Tuesday, September 20, School visits and library visit, Linebaugh Library, Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Friday, September 23, School visit. Hardwick Middle School, Hardwick, Vermont.

Sunday, September 25, Burlington Book Festival, Burlington, Vermont. 

Thursday, September 29, Events with Scholastic Canada, Toronto area, Canada.

Friday, September 30, North Words Literary Festival, Huntsville, Ontario, Canada.

Writing with Entertainment

I'm working hard to get my next novel to my editor before my fall speaking starts up in mid-September. So I'm writing in my little house in the backyard every day. 

My view from one of the windows is of our old wooden swingset, and I've hung a few birdfeeders there. This book has some birds in it, so it's nice to glance up from my laptop and see them out there: chickadees, bluejays, cardinals, sparrows, doves, and little birds I can't even name.

But yesterday, I looked up and saw this:



He tried so hard to get down there to those feeders, but not even the squirrels can do it.  I think I've finally found a squirrel-proof feeder--but you have to build a big wooden swingset first! :-) 

 



 



He didn't succeed, but since we were both working so hard, I took some seeds out and left them on the ground for him.

Cindy vs. the Squirrels

Apparently our weather pumpkin was scared into ripening by the storm!  However I also see some squirrel teeth marks on him.  How can I keep them away?
 
 
Hahahahaha!

Good Night, Irene

At our house, we have some branches to clean up and the wind bent our front door, but inland Maine, New Hampshire, and especially, Vermont really took the brunt of Irene in Northern New England.  My heart goes out to everyone who suffered damage and over  the loss of historic buildings and bridges.  This covered bridge in Vermont just breaks my heart.



Today, the sky is blue and the sun is out, which should feel welcome. But after yesterday, it just feels disorienting.    

Storm Team PUMPKIN!

I always feel badly for the poor weather reporters hanging onto the pier or the lamp post as Irene swirls around them.  So instead of sending a person outside to give you my Irene report, here's the pumpkin who is already outside, coming to you live from my yard in Coastal Maine.



Pumpkin:  "Well, folks, we've had some lightning and thunder this morning, but right now, it's rain with occasional downpours and light-to-moderate wind. In between the worst of the rain, the crows and seagulls are complaining loudly.  The little white dog, however, had to carried outside this morning, because he refused to go out on his own.  So both he and Cindy got soaked.

"Well, that's all from the yard at 8:20 am.  Assuming the Internet stays up, we'll have more pumpkin reports later.  Stay safe and remember that Halloween is coming, and many fruits and vegetables can be carved.  Watermelon, squash, canteloupe. . . it doesn't HAVE to be pumpkins!"

Happy Birthday, Hamster!

Here in Maine, we're waiting for Hurricane Irene to come calling tomorrow night. But today, I had a fun signing at the Children's Book Cellar in Waterville, Maine.

  

It's a great store!  In fact, the Maine shelves felt like seeing some of my best friends!

 

For this event, Ellen and I thought it would be fun to have a little birthday party for Hamster.  So we had cupcakes and glitzy beads and pencils for the kids (Which would YOU choose?). . .and I brought my two little dancing toy hamsters for the kids to play with.



The party hamster dances to "Happy Birthday," but the racing hamster dances to "Bad to the Bone." One little brother and sister really loved those and danced to them over and over.  It was adorable, but I noticed Ellen *hid* the racing one after awhile! :-)