Rose Anderson's Blog, page 32

Always look on the bright side

My internet is rather sketchy this morning. I was expecting it. This past Tuesday our sun unleashed two solar flares — a large blast and a lesser one right after. According to NASA “Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation that send gases, plasma and other matter into the solar system. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to affect humans, but when intense enough, the explosions can disturb GPS and communications signals.”

Apparently such flares are classified by size like tornadoes. This was an X-class solar flare — an X2.2 to be exact. One of the largest. At this size there’s a chance the event might “trigger planet-wide radio blackouts.” From my understanding of it, these things let loose a coronal mass ejection that takes from one to four days to pass over the earth. It’s Thursday, so there you go — the force behind my sketchy internet reception.

Solar flares. One can’t help but marvel at the earth’s fragile balance on the cosmic knife edge.

Perhaps we’ll see the Aurora Borealis this week. They tend to happen on the heels of solar flares. Every once in a while, the northern lights dip south and dazzle the eye in my neck of the woods. Mainly we see them as faint blue-green ribbons that wave and ripple interspersed with spotlight-like beams shooting up from the horizon. I’ve seen auroral displays in the Canadian wilderness — bold sweeping curtains of greens, blues, and swaths of magenta-hued reds. I imagine they’re even more spectacular further north.

The deep magenta doesn’t usually come this far south. Usually. Just once did I witness an aurora-magenta night sky similar to the one shown here. The sky I saw was darker at the horizon and redder like burning coals. At the time it honestly didn’t register that what I was seeing was an auroral display. It occurred in October. My husband was away at a conference and the US had just gone to war in Afghanistan. I was following the tensions in the world at the time and not celestial events so I wasn’t expecting this bold visual lighting the sky. The first ten minutes of sky watching had me wondering what terrible thing was happening on the ground that allowed me to see it burning in the sky. Forest fires do that. New York’s Twin Towers had just been attacked so my mind envisioned all sorts of terrible things. A few phone calls revealed what it was.  I watched it throughout the night and hauled myself to bed at 2AM. At one point it looked like someone had taken a photo of the night sky, outlined the farm buildings with white chalk, then smeared that outline up into the magenta sky. Everything glowed. It was amazing. And the batteries were dead in my camera.  :(

Speaking of power…I discovered something truly fantastic the other day. It was new news to me though several friends had already heard about this invention and the crowd funding  getting it started. I’m talking about the Solar Roadway. I can picture this coming to parking lots and driveways soon. I doubt it’ll pave every road and lot in my lifetime but oh how my imagination runs with it. I’m sure this manufacturing has its own impact, electronics come with their own brand of poison and pollution, but can you imagine the new jobs this refitting would create around the globe? Not to mention cleaner world in the long run. Clean solar energy is the way to go. I’ll stop here with the video. I’m feeling the bubble of my political discontent rising.

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For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Clichés.

There are 96 entries to come.

Here’s a cliché for today:

Always look on the bright side

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Today is Author Gemma Juliana’s blog day.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

The June contest is on Romance Books ’4′ Us and the theme is wedding. This month’s contest will have 2 winners who’ll each receive a $50 gift card for Amazon/B&N and a $10 gift card toward books from Secret Cravings Publishing. The rest of the prizes will be split between winners (randomly chosen by RB4U). http://www.romancebooks4us.com

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Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

Sample my love stories for free!

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971

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Born under a prophecy

Happy King Kamehameha Day.   :)

If you’re not up on your Hawaiian royalty, King Kamehameha was the man who conquered the warring tribes and united the Hawaiian Islands in the early 1800′s. Because of this, Hawaii was able to stay an independent nation rather than be absorbed as a colony by any of the European powers that trolled the seas seeking to claim newly discovered land for king and country.

I recall reading how this Hawaiian king was born under a prophecy. Apparently several key signs occurred just prior to his birth…things like odd storms and strange lights in the sky — otherwise known as Halley’s comet. Because of the unusual signs and threats from warring tribes, the newborn was hidden away. Several versions of the King Kamehameha story have events playing out so he was eventually raised by an uncle who taught him all he needed to know to become a warrior king. There’s even a “sword in the stone” -type legend that said the man to move the Naha stone (a large immovable stone) would be the man to unite the Hawaiian islands. Kamehameha not only moved it, he flipped it over.

I found two videos to tell the tale. Enjoy!

That ancient Hawaiian form of martial arts is fascinating.

More~

http://www.nps.gov/puhe/historycultur...

http://www.hawaiihistory.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&PageID=398

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For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Clichés.

There are 97 entries to come.

Here’s a cliché for today:

All dressed up and nowhere to go

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Today is Guest Author Paty Jager.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

The June contest is on Romance Books ’4′ Us and the theme is wedding. This month’s contest will have 2 winners who’ll each receive a $50 gift card for Amazon/B&N and a $10 gift card toward books from Secret Cravings Publishing. The rest of the prizes will be split between winners (randomly chosen by RB4U). http://www.romancebooks4us.com

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Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

Sample my love stories for free!

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971

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Don’t blink

 

I recently discovered the extreme winter killed my red arbor roses. Too bad. That was an incredible display that just got better and better as time went on. A few years back we actually had a cardinal nest there and raise three chicks. Talk about camouflage! But oh what a harsh perch for little bird feet. That bush had more thorns than any rose I’ve ever seen. My husband cut the dead rose down to the ground and new growth has started from the roots. Another 18 years and I’ll have my arbor back. lol

The peonies and irises and the rest of the flowers are in full bloom around the yard today, and the perfume in the air is so heavy it’s almost cloying. In a word, my yard is stunning. Nearly all the flowers and ferns around my home were rescued from old farmsteads torn down over the last 25 or so years. All were in sorry abandoned condition as they fought overgrown grass for sunlight, water, and soil nutrients. They were terribly weak and spindly when we found them and brought them home. But careful tending by my husband has made them healthy and robust. Many of these are old varieties you just can’t find anymore. I like to imagine they thank us for saving them from the bulldozer with bigger blooms for us to enjoy each year.

There is a desperate transience to this beauty. These flowers are more than just pretty things that feed bees, hummingbirds, and the human soul. They are a reminder to stop and enjoy the view. Stop and smell the roses. Without fail, the very moment the peonies and irises are at their best, the June weather changes. I wonder if it all operates on some mystical principle that brings heavy rain as readily as washing your car or hanging freshly washed clothes on a clothes line does. My flowers look fabulous today so of course there’s a heavy thunderstorm expected this afternoon. Afterward, the petals on the peonies will be nothing but a white and pink mess on the ground and the tallest irises will all have their stems broken. I well know exactly how this drama unfolds here on the hill.

In anticipation of today’s storm, we cut huge bouquets and brought them indoors last night. I’ll have a few days of flowers at least. I confess I had to take the vase of peonies off the table. The sweet heavy perfume was choking me this morning.  :)

The Ark

Back when we were involved with The Mother Earth News (my husband was chapter president in Chicago), we were introduced to The Seed Saver Exchange.

I mention it because this is the time of year when people do gardening. As mentioned above, our old farmstead flowers are varieties who knows how old. It’s important to hang onto old varieties of plants for the genetic material they hold.

As a kid in Chicago I remember when the Dutch Elm Disease hit the neighborhoods. My block had huge shady cathedral elms on both sides of the street. The city cut them all down because they were infested with the beetle that spread the disease. The trees were planted too close and exclusively, it didn’t take much for the disease to spread. Miles of city blocks were treeless because no one thought of diversity in city tree planting. This single-minded planting also contributed to the Great Famine of the mid-1800′s when potato crops all across Europe succumbed to blight and one million people perished from starvation.   As a species relying on agriculture for our survival, we continue to do short-sighted moves like that. In 100 years we’ve gone from more than 300 varieties of sweet corn to just 12.  What if a corn disease takes out the 12?

A rush is on to find and preserve the seeds of the world as species rapidly disappear. Important work if ever there was. Our lives may depend upon them.

http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/millennium-seed-bank

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2008-02-26-seeds_N.htm

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/07/food-ark/food-variety-graphic

When you’re putting your garden in why not grow an heirloom? A search online will turn up many small and large companies to get seeds from. You can find rare flowers, fruits, vegetables, and more.

Here are two to get you started:

http://www.heirloomseeds.com/

http://www.rareseeds.com/

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For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Clichés.

There are 98 entries to come.

Here’s a cliché for today:

Absolute power corrupts absolutely

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Today is Author R. Ann Siracusa’s blog day.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

The June contest is on Romance Books ’4′ Us and the theme is wedding. Find the little bride and groom hidden all across the site to win. While you’re hunting, be sure to check all our pages for news about authors and their books, publishers and their books, and industry representatives.This month’s contest will have 2 winners who’ll each receive a $50 gift card for Amazon/B&N and a $10 gift card toward books from Secret Cravings Publishing. The rest of the prizes will be split between winners (randomly chosen by RB4U). http://www.romancebooks4us.com

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Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

Sample my love stories for free!

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971

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Packing it all up

My hiatus has ended. I sought mindlessness for a while, and you know what? Mindless is good sometimes. There were just too many things weighing me down and I had to temporarily walk away and gain some much-needed perspective –  a reboot of sorts.

The good news — my old puppy has rallied. It was touch and go there for a while when she stopped eating and drinking. It was such a battle and she was so miserable, I ended all the medicines that were upsetting her stomach and took off her cone from around her neck to let her die on her terms. Unbelievably, she ate the tumor off her foot instead. Ate it. It took her nearly two weeks but it’s completely gone and she can walk again. I guess she just decided to stick around a bit longer. What a load off my heart and mind.

Without the pain of the tumor and strong antibiotics, without the addled mind from the pain medication, her happy attitude and spirit have been restored. It honestly looks like she’s regained two years of her life. She walks around the yard looking for sticks to carry and is her loveable self again. If not for her advanced age and arthritis I know she’d be running after squirrels and retrieving her Frisbee if she could.



When she sleeps, her dreaming is amazing to watch. I’ve never seen her dream state so active. She full-out runs and barks and wags her tail. I swear she’s visiting that great beyond where Frisbees and balls fly through the air and rivers and ponds beckon for a swim. When she finally leaves us, my hope is she just follows her dream.

Having grounded my activity for a month to see to other things, I’ve decided to pack up my weary emotions and blog a bit…a small bit…until I get my author wings working again. Hopefully by the end of this week I’ll be writing in full swing. I have novels to complete!

To get in the writing groove I went to sign up for the 100 Things Blogging Challenge again (nothing like making a commitment to blog) and found it’s just not happening. Oh well. I like doing them so I’ve made my own. Any blogger wanting to snag my 100 Things logo and do one for yourself, just right click the image and Save As. Who knows…I might feel ambitious one day soon and actually run it through my Exquisite Quills blog. Other authors might be interested in posting 100 things in 100 days. Just 21 days makes a habit.  :)

Speaking of dogs…I have an excerpt up ~ http://ifollowthemuse.blogspot.com/

Well..he’s sort of a dog.  ;)

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For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Clichés.

There are 99 entries to come.

Here’s a cliché for today:

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

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Today is Author Melissa Keir’s blog day.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

The June contest is on Romance Books ’4′ Us and the theme is wedding. Find the little bride and groom hidden all across the site to win. While you’re hunting, be sure to check all our pages for news about authors and their books, publishers and their books, and industry representatives.This month’s contest will have 2 winners who’ll each receive a $50 gift card for Amazon/B&N and a $10 gift card toward books from Secret Cravings Publishing. The rest of the prizes will be split between winners (randomly chosen by RB4U).  http://www.romancebooks4us.com

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Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

Sample my love stories for free!

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971

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Best laid plans

The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men

gang aft a-gley.

~Robert Burns

So I had planned to jump in with a longer post after my week off after the A to Z Challenge, but we’re anticipating a huge storm and I have things to see to before that happens. I’ve mentioned before that I live on a hill and any strong storm can take my electricity away for days. I must see to things that require electricity (like laundry) because I just might lose the ability if the storm comes as predicted. If it doesn’t take out my internet, I’ll be blogging tomorrow.

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See you Monday

I’ve been taking a much-needed blog break since the A to Z Challenge ended. I’ll be back Monday, business as usual and a new 100 Things Challenge.

:D

To all the moms here and abroad and to all the other nurturing souls out there…

kick back and have a wonderful Sunday.

 

The A to Z Survivor ~ Reflections Post

Well, another April has come and gone and with it another successful A to Z Challenge. Using last year’s interest as a guide, I didn’t do as many science posts this year, focusing on history instead. I chose the Miscellaneous category again because I write my blog posts first thing in the morning, and I wanted enough leeway to go where my own interest wanted me to go.  Just in case I woke up with a science post in mind.  :)

This year’s A to Z Challenge had some fabulous posts. I visited a lot of blogs and beyond wishing I had time to make all of them, I discovered several I’ll happily visit again.

As for me, the event brought 994 visitors and 14 new subscribers to my blog. Each visitor averaged 2.29 hits. Don’t ask me how that’s possible, same thing happened last year. Hit and run surfers I guess. lol Overall, my daily blogs hits were consistent. Stats show most people returned for these busiest letters of the alphabet:

A – Automaton
B – Bagdad Battery
C – Cholera in  London 1854
D – Doggerland
E – Easter Island Moai
F – Funeral Mementos
G – Gargoyles & Grotesques
H – Hobo Nickels
I – Ice Man
K – Kokopelli
L – London Fog of 1952
M – Medicine Shows & Mountebanks
N – Nebra Sky Disk
P – Phrenology
Q – Quadratura
R – Red Hair
S – Sundials & Shadow Clocks
W – White City
Y – Yellow Fever in New Orleans 1853
Z – for Z The Lost City

Of these, I had four very high traffic days:

C- Cholera in  London 1854
F- Funeral Mementos
I – Ice Man
M- Medicine Shows & Mountebanks

The least busy days:

O – Organ Grinder
U – Underwear

These two and the letters not shown just missed the mark by a few visitors. Like I said, my blog had pretty consistent hits. I also had lots of wonderful comments and an unbelievable 16,015 pieces of spam caught in my spam sweeper. Compare that to just 25 total spam in March. Boy am I glad the spam sweeper works!

I think the yearly event is a blast. If the organizers do it again next year, I’ll certainly sign up and be  ready to go. In fact, I’ve already started my topics list. :D

Hats off to the inspired minds behind the A to Z Challenge. Thank you!

Check out their interesting blogs ~

Arlee Bird: http://authorstephentremp.blogspot.com/

Alex J. Cavanaugh: http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/

Stephen Tremp: http://authorstephentremp.blogspot.com/

Tina Downey: http://kmdlifeisgood.blogspot.com/

Damyanti Biswas: http://amloki.blogspot.com/

Jeremy Hawkins: http://www.beingretro.com/

Nicole Ayers: http://www.madlabpost.com/

M. J. Joachim: http://mjjoachim.blogspot.com/

Heather M. Gardner: http://hmgardner.blogspot.com/

AJ Lauer: http://frodofrog.blogspot.com/

Pam Margolis: http://unconventionallibrarian.com/

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See what’s happening on the RB4U blog today

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Our May contest is on. We’ll have 1 winner for all prizes. http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

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Love Waits in Unexpected Places -

Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971

Download your copy of my free chapter sampler!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<< ۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Coming soon!

Here is the A to Z Team with their links:



Arlee Bird:  Tossing it Out
Alex J. Cavanaugh:  Alex J. Cavanaugh
Stephen Tremp:  Author Stephen Tremp
Tina Downey: Life is Good
Damyanti Biswas:  Amlokiblogs
Jeremy Hawkins:  [Being Retro]
Nicole Ayers:  The Madlab Post
M. J. Joachim:  M. J. Joachim’s Writing Tips
Heather M. Gardner:  The Waiting is the Hardest Part
AJ Lauer:  Naturally Sweet
Pam Margolis:  An Unconventional Librarian – See more at: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/2014/05/easy-friday-atozchallenge.html#sthash.SyAyffTZ.dpuf
Arlee Bird:  Tossing it Out
Here is the A to Z Team with their links:



Arlee Bird:  Tossing it Out
Alex J. Cavanaugh:  Alex J. Cavanaugh
Stephen Tremp:  Author Stephen Tremp
Tina Downey: Life is Good
Damyanti Biswas:  Amlokiblogs
Jeremy Hawkins:  [Being Retro]
Nicole Ayers:  The Madlab Post
M. J. Joachim:  M. J. Joachim’s Writing Tips
Heather M. Gardner:  The Waiting is the Hardest Part
AJ Lauer:  Naturally Sweet
Pam Margolis:  An Unconventional Librarian – See more at: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/2014/05/easy-friday-atozchallenge.html#sthash.SyAyffTZ.dpuf
Here is the A to Z Team with their links:



Arlee Bird:  Tossing it Out
Alex J. Cavanaugh:  Alex J. Cavanaugh
Stephen Tremp:  Author Stephen Tremp
Tina Downey: Life is Good
Damyanti Biswas:  Amlokiblogs
Jeremy Hawkins:  [Being Retro]
Nicole Ayers:  The Madlab Post
M. J. Joachim:  M. J. Joachim’s Writing Tips
Heather M. Gardner:  The Waiting is the Hardest Part
AJ Lauer:  Naturally Sweet
Pam Margolis:  An Unconventional Librarian – See more at: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/2014/05/easy-friday-atozchallenge.html#sthash.SyAyffTZ.dpuf

 

Funday Sunday & a Twitterpated post

No, that’s not a typo. :D

I lead a busy life. To have one less mentally-busy day and still have a good time on this blog, I’ve decided Sundays will be all about wonder and smiles. In honor of mentally kicking back once in a while, Sundays will be Fun Days! Each Sunday, I’ll post a fun, interesting, or unusual something here. I’m a nerd with a complex sense of humor and absurd wit. It literally could be anything.

Today’s post turned up in my Facebook feed the other day.

Did you notice the other elephant groovin’ to the tune? Very cute.

It’s my blog day over at Romance books ’4′ Us. I’m talking about that spring mindlessness called being twitterpated.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Come back tomorrow for an update on April’s A to Z Challenge.

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Our new May contest is on. We’ll have 1 winner for all prizes. http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

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Love Waits in Unexpected Places -

Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971

Download your copy of my free chapter sampler!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<< ۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Coming soon!

Revisiting green

They say it takes 21 days to make or break a habit. That comes from the observation that it takes 21 days for amputees to stop feeling phantom limb pain. Imagine what 26 days of off-the-top-of-your-head writing does. Coming off the A to Z Challenge I looked at my laptop this morning and my fingers and brain itched to go hunt down some obscure facts so I could reassemble them into a morning A to Z post.  There are over 100,000 alphabets used in the world today. Imagine me doing the Khmer Challenge. The Cambodian/Vietnamese alphabet has 74 letters.  ;)

I’m an info junkie who went on a month-long blogging bender. I’d better blog something before tremors seize me. lol

Anyway…I was just outside with the dogs in our usual morning routine and found the sun hidden behind a smooth cloudy sky. I love this defused light. The details of nature pop without bright sunlight and shadows. It’s like you’re seeing the world through polarized lenses. The green this morning could literally steal your breath, the visual statement, an exclamation really, is that bold. I was going to sit down with my coffee and write about my yard in the spring. Then I remembered I already did that two years ago. Here’s that post tweaked and polished. I hope you enjoy.

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As the story goes, when god spoke to Moses from the burning bush, he revealed his true name. From the very moment of man’s first inkling he’s tried to put a name to the vast miracle of his own existence. A name is not merely an arbitrary designation or a random combination of sounds. The name conveys the nature and essence of the thing it’s been given to. It represents the history and reputation of the thing. But a name by itself just isn’t enough somehow. Moses may have been privy to the Name, but everyone else added the adjectives – all-seeing, loving, and almighty are just the nice ones.

In school, we were taught to avoid overusing flowery language because too many adjectives and adverbs can ruin the reading experience. Well sure, I can see that. When the writer expounds for the sake of expounding, the reader’s brain has trouble making sense of it all.

Victorian writer and shameless expounder, George Bulwer-Lytton, whom I’ve mentioned before, left a few other memorable tidbits behind such as the well-known opener – It was a dark and stormy night…

For some unknown reason no one ever seems to mentions the rest:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets, for it is in London that our scene lies, rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

A century later Ernest Hemmingway might have taken a stab at it like so:

After dark a storm came, and sometimes in the wind there was a noise on the rooftops. You could see the streetlamps struggling to stay lit.

A half century more and Cormac McCarthy might have a go:

Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world. The blackness he woke to on those nights was sightless and impenetrable. A blackness to hurt your ears with listening. No sound but the wind in the bare and blackened trees.

My mind has this ability to add and extrapolate. In Bulwer-Lytton’s description I can feel the wind but also see scraggly city trees bending from the force. Back-lit by the flames of flickering light, I see the slanted rain streaks on the street lamps’ glass panels and see shop shingles flapping like wooden flags. Over all that, I can imagine a dirty, sooty, 1830’s London with poor and ragged souls hovering in doorways. Chilled to their marrow their cloaks sodden, they turn their backs to the cold and heavy rain.

In Hemmingway’s version I see an overall mild storm with the occasional gust that wants to extinguish the lamps. My mind doesn’t care to fill in or extrapolate here.

Even without the rain and gust-dimmed lights, in McCarthy’s few lines I see desolation. Again, the words are so tight, the image so compact, my imagination dabs away the tears and says “Enough already. I see it.”

I’m ok with all three but you can guess the one my imagination prefers – George Bulwer-Lytton’s.

I find adjectives and adverbs to be life’s jumbo box of crayons, you know, the super-sized box with the built-in sharpener on the back. These modifiers express feelings both physical and emotional. They give a reference point to interpret with. They describe and evoke. But most of all, they lend a tangible quality to the names of things — they color our world.

These thoughts came to me today, surrounded as I am with the many colors of spring. I live in the upper Midwest where the snows of winter have melted and the whole of nature is determined to get its show on the road. Just across the road I hear a bluebird. I can’t see him standing on his weathered pine birdhouse calling the attention of any female nearby, but I know his downy breast is a softly muted blue that turns sky blue at just the right angle. Outside my window, I see the cardinal in the cedar. He’s vibrantly red and his song…well, the only way to describe that sound is sweet. A rich sweetness that makes your heart ache just a little to hear because it’s that beautiful. My mind needs adjectives because I see and hear and feel the colors, textures, sounds, and beauty of life. I need them because I have feelings, and one size does not fit all.

A noun comes to mind as I sit here with spring all around me– Green. In spring one must spell it with a capital G. This isn’t a generic monotone color. Oh no, far more descriptors are needed here. The range and scope of spring green needs as many as language and imagination allow.

I’d like to give you a 360 º tour of spring in my yard. Picture this if you will:

The newly budded weeping willow tree whips have filled with running sap and turned a yellowish-green. They’re also nubby with unsheathed catkins, each of which has the slightest reddish tinge. Hosta lily spikes of numerous varieties jut up from the ground in clumps and are mostly white-tipped emerald or jade. Lacy bleeding hearts appeared just last week and their stems are a plump hunter green shot with dark crimson edges. This morning I see a small string of pink heart-shaped flowers. Vibrant yellow daffodils have thick kelly green spikes and my mind adds another adjective here – succulent. This year’s cedar growth is dark, almost a shade of olive, but where the squirrels have been stealing bark for their nests, I see the yellow-gold cambium layer exposed in strips that run in long lengths up the trunks. After all these years the trees seem to take this vernal pillaging in stride.

The oak flowers are just emerging are not quite as yellow as the willow. The small bit of umber and brick red interspersed throughout tend to play a trick on the eye unless you purposely look for the green. Yesterday’s rain colored the bur oak’s corky bark. Each tree is riddled light and dark with damp and dry places. The rain also woke the pubescent moss and lacy-edged lichen of sea green that innocently grow all over the trunks and wait patiently for summer’s leafy shade. After 200 years, I do believe the oaks could care less.

By far, the most green comes from the lawn. As my house is surrounded by rolling fields, the lawn stretches as far as the eye can see. In two week’s time, I’ll look out on a dew-kissed morning and imagine I’m in Ireland because the whole of it will be dressed in emerald green. It will stay like that until the mature grass gets so tall it goes to seed and bends under its burden. That changes the color dramatically. The crabgrass and fescue are darker and thicker, more of a teal green. The small clovers and tiny weeds have their own variations on the theme. Describing the green of my lawn is a hard one because all the many shades collectively defy description. There just aren’t enough words for the job. Slender blades, newly sliced through the topsoil are the faintest and purest of all the greens in my backyard.

George Bulwer-Lytton could have run with this. Cormac McCarthy could certainly describe the emotion of the colors here. I think it might have been lost on Hemmingway. Or maybe he’d just keep it to himself.

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See what’s happening on the RB4U blog today

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Our May contest is on. We’ll have 1 winner for a total of 15 prizes including giftcards, ebooks & more. http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

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Love Waits in Unexpected Places -

Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971

Download your copy of my free chapter sampler!

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Coming Soon!

 

What comes after Z?

Hear that stillness? That’s the sound of my mind at rest. My hamster has temporarily hopped off the wheel. :)

In a day or so I’ll post my A to Z Challenge results.

If you’re here for the first time, by all means scroll back to read previous entries. Should a topic tickle your imagination, feel free to reanimate the discussion in comments. I would truly love to delve deeper, especially if you bring new information!

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Thanks for stopping by everyone!

♥ Rose
:D