Helen Mathey-Horn's Blog, page 21

Flora and Fauna

Quince



Forsythia



Orchid



Daffodils – from the yard



Stella Magnolia



Stella Magnolia – single flower



And…Fauna #1,



Fauna #2

I love spring with the daily changes in plants. A spot of greenery, a bud, a flower and just as quickly, it is all over.

Enjoy it while you can.

Jena and The Gift

Drifting off to sleep last night I was thinking of this book. It is still one of the ones I really like. Oh, what the heck I like them all, but I like Jena and her story, and creating her culture.

The basic outline is about her struggles to be a woman of agency, to stand up for herself after a childhood of domination in a male-centric society.

I’ve probably mentioned this before, but after my mother read it she wrote me a really sweet note about the things she liked about the story including the title as foreshadowing. (Spoiler?)

Probably what I’ve written here is not a clear sense of the story and its direction and maybe that is okay.

It is fantasy, set in a world I’ve used before, (Dream Warrior & Bait) but this time, I’ve gone backwards in the timeline. It is an earlier time, and the place is along the eastern coast of this world (Tienna’s World) where women don’t have much say about their futures, something the new governor is trying to change. While Jena struggles with that, there is political intrigue to maneuver and ghosts from the past that still have wicked surprises for the present.

This can be found on Amazon.

Where Family Stories become Traditions, or is it Family Traditions become Stories?

March 4 question – Other than the obvious holiday traditions, have you ever included any personal or family traditions/customs in your stories?

The short answer is…no.

I have not included those stories in books I’ve written, but I have written a blog or two about some family traditions.

The Graft Blanket.

How my aunt felt about squirrels.

Christmas cooking traditions.

The summer of the 3-Bean Salad.

Ground Hog Day – Woodstock, Illinois.

Monarch Butterflies

The monarchs appear several times as they were always a sign of summer for me and I raised them in my window at the first house we lived in.

There is probably plenty of ‘fodder’ to include in stories now that this question brings it up. Oh dear, another rabbit hole to fall down. And I suppose some of these are more of family ‘lore’ than tradition. Which makes me think of many more verbal sayings and jokes that are definitely inside stories…but I have digressed enough.

Just because this post needs a picture of a good dog.

To see others’ answers go to…

The icon should take you there.

An Extra Day

One really should not pass up an extra day. Did I do anything fantastic?

Not really. I worked on a knit hat that has a colorwork pattern. It is slow going as you are swapping yarns every few stitches and have to follow a chart…otherwise you have chaos not a pattern of trees against a sunset.

I’m tempted to start a ten-stitch blanket using up the leftover yarns from two ‘floral’ afghans I’ve crocheted from Lucy at Attic24. But that can wait.

I discovered a pair of socks that the second one is past the heel, so all I have to do is finish the foot, but looking at the first one the ‘cuff’ pattern does not match what I have on the needles. The question becomes…do I care enough to rip the first one all the way back to the beginning, or just make them matching in color and fraternal in pattern. I’m voting for fraternal.

And then I ordered more yarn today. The colors were so pretty, named “frosting” and based on “The Great British Baking Show”, so how could I not. “Twelve perfect scones” anyone? I have no idea what I will make with them or the other yarn piled on my desk (Bare Naked Wools by Knitspot, or Onyx Fiber Arts, or the Miss Babs). Do we see a trend?

So I really should go back and either work on that hat (slow and easy or make a mistake) or the second sock (even if it isn’t an exact match for the first one). Meanwhile I’m thinking about that 10 stitch afghan and all the little bits of yarn I could use up knitting it. Right.

One extra day a year is not going to make a dent in my yarn stash, especially if I don’t pick up those needles.

And because we shall soon be in March.

I don’t care about the gold, but what happened to the treats?

Happy Valentine’s Day

It is cold. Probably the coldest day we’ve had this winter season. 30 degrees F in the sun and 26 degrees F in the shade. The waxwings are thronging the heated birdbath for water with a robin or two thrown in the mix. Again robins in February? A little early guys.

The front seed feeders are mobbed with gold finches and here and there house finches and on the ground juncos. A cardinal or two at the backyard feeder and one woodpecker, a red-bellied.

So my Valentine to the birds, food and water.

The Valentine I received? Daffodils! Nothings says spring like a fist of yellow daffodils. Gift from husband and basically I told the florist just to give me what she had left in the bucket. With daffodils I think more is better? Or perhaps as my brother Al would have said, “If some is good, and more is better, than too much is just about right.” (I’ve quoted him here before, but that quote is just too good not to share ‘too much’.)

I was also gifted a schleferra. I just read it is poisonous to cats and dogs and now husband is worried. We’ll just have to watch the cat, but she isn’t much of a plant nibbler, so I’m not worried.

Just what you need on the coldest day of winter…signs of spring…greenery and flowers.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Dahlia Afghan

This is how I keep track of where I am on the Dahlia Afghan project set up by Lucy of Attic24.

This picture ends with section (2 rows) 51 I am now about to start 88.

Apache

Just photos today.

Definitely has the ‘posing’ thing down.



This is about 4 years ago at the end of her first ‘Obedience Class’ in which she and I learned a lot, of which I need a refresher, lol.

What to do on a Snow Day #1-10

1) Bake Bread – there is nothing better than a house warmed with the heat (and smell) of baking bread. Eating it feels pretty decadent too.

2) Clean the walk as soon as reliably possible. My husband did that. As soon as it is apparent that any future snow is going to melt it is a smart idea to give yourself a clear walk because once you start walking on the snow you are going to make more problems for yourself. And I’m sure the mailman appreciates it.

3) Build a fire in the fireplace. Nothing better than a nice flame and looking out the windows at white snow.

4) Bring in extra wood for the fire so it will be ‘dry’ when it is needed.

5) Crochet (or knit) in front of the above fire.

6) Eat a slice of bread the bread you baked, or two, or three while you knit/crochet.

7) Look out the window and appreciate that you have no reason to go out and skate around other drivers.

8) Make certain the feeders are full and count how many different birds show up. House finch, gold finch, sparrow (not certain type, but not the house type), cardinals(male and female), juncos by the scores, woodpecker(downy?), wren, titmouse, chickadee(s), and one (count it only 1!) squirrel.

9) Watch the dog nosing the snow piles for the scent of squirrels. (At least I think that is what she is trying to smell.)

10) Repeat any of the above as necessary.

I do get SADS(Seasonal Affective Disorder) with the dark months of winter. I’m looking at you January and February. But when there is a fresh snow, and we have snow infrequently, I can get behind the idea of a warm, cosy chair, doing handwork, and eating fresh baked bread in front of ‘a cheerful’ fire.

All the above were always even sweeter when it was an unexpected day off from school, aka a “SNOW DAY!” But now being retired there is no getting up early to check the weather and the school closures to see if I can go back to bed.

I still wake early, because there is something special about the quality of light when there is snow on the ground and in the air. The reflection of the cloudy light off all the white surfaces seems to light up the windows like some scifi scene where the aliens have landed outside on your farm. I remember that distinctly from growing up in Northern Illinois and also the flash on the bedroom walls of the snowplows going down the road. We were one street over from a major highway. Or maybe it was aliens? No, the lights were always accompanied by the scrape of the blades on the highway. I can’t see aliens dragging bottom.

So I’m enjoying the snow day…if it remains more than a few days or turns into ankle twisting, iron-ridged heaps…all the love will be gone.

Two Posts today, because it was the writing prompt day and WE GOT SNOW! and I didn’t feel like pushing this post off until tomorrow.

Insecure Writers Support Group – February – Inspiration

February 5 question – Has a single photo or work of art ever inspired a story? What was it and did you finish it? The awesome co-hosts for the The awesome co-hosts for the February 5 posting of the IWSG are Lee Lowery, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Jennifer Hawes, Cathrina Constantine, and Tyrean Martinson!

I cannot recall any photo or artwork that has inspired a story and I’ve been around some world class artwork (The Uffici in Florence and The Gilcrease and The Philbrook in Tulsa, US and many others).

That feels like a dead end, but I will admit to ‘scenes’ or ‘moments’ in nature that spark some feeling or ideas that I have to put on paper.

One was the drive to school when I lived on the coast in Italy. I was always headed east and although the sun might not be up, the moon might be and one particular view became the ‘feel’, starting point for one book.

I even used the idea for the book cover.

There must be something about early mornings with moon’s overhead as I opened another story with that setting also. Here the protagonist is chasing someone he sees in the early pre-dawn moonlight.

Along the same lines, I wrote on another ISWG post about the idea for a murder mystery (I have yet to write) idea based on the rocky coast in Marina di Pisa, Italy.

So moments in nature certainly suggest writing ideas to me.

Three on Thursday – The “DRAT” Edition

Do you ever have ‘drats’ or ‘rats’? Nothing so terrible, but just kind of a life annoyance. I should complain?

1) My computer mouse dropped on the floor. The batteries ‘popped’ the back cover off. It took a few minutes to find the cover on the black carpet. It did not get stepped on, but after replacing everything, the mouse buttons are ‘reluctant’ to work. Click – nothing. Click again – nothing. Sigh. Click again…aah, there it goes. At least it works, otherwise a trip to the ‘tech’ store.

2) The afghan is at a halt. Not because I’ve lost steam, interest, yarn or any of the many things I normally would have slow me down, but because yesterday I completed all the current directions in the CAL and have to wait for Friday (tomorrow will it never get here?) to arrive to get the next week’s directions. How can I be ahead on this? I’m never ahead on something like this. Rats, I might have to find one of the socks that isn’t finished and work on that.

3) I’m out of almonds in the shell. So eat a handful of shelled almonds? They curiously aren’t the same. The ones right after you shell them are drier and my preferred. Go figure. The thing is the stores only carry the almonds in the shell during December. (Or any bulk shell nuts.) So I might get lucky if they have some left in the ‘bins’ they had them in, but chances are going downhill everyday. I really do like the almonds in the shell and I like to think they are the healthiest treat I could be snacking on.

All three of these are ‘first world problems’ aren’t they.

Everything is better with puppy kisses.