Suzanne Stengl's Blog, page 9

Fairy Garden 2

Last November, I made a fairy garden—a place for my imagination to sit and dream up new plot lines, or mull over old plot lines, or try to forget the plot lines completely. I think this is a “displacement activity”.

From the MacMillan Dictionary, a displacement activity is  

something that you do in order to avoid dealing with an unpleasant situation.

In biology and psychology, it is something that a person or animal does that has no obvious connection with the situation which they are in and that is the result of being confused about what to do.

The Collins Dictionary defines a Displacement Activity this way:

1.    (psychology) behaviour that occurs typically when there is a conflict between motives and that has no relevance to either motive, e.g. head scratching

2.    (zoology) the substitution of a pattern of animal behaviour that is different from behaviour relevant to the situation, e.g. preening at an apparently inappropriate time

I first heard about Displacement Activities from author Cherry Adair when she spoke at one of my writer groups. She told us how she made a binder for each book—spending time making a cover for the binder, putting in dividers, finding pictures.

For a writer, a displacement activity might be something you do to avoid writing. But, in a writer’s case, that may be a good thing. A displacement activity is a way of turning off the Editor so that the Creator can perform its work. Building a fairy garden can be a displacement activity and that is what I did.

Yesterday I showed you the plants I used. Here they are, freshly planted, before any of the other stuff showed up.

I started off with the black “large” furniture, but later I changed to a scale half this size.

For ROCKS, I used a piece of quartz that I found while walking. (I put it through my rock polisher.) And I had some ocean rocks from when I was on Vancouver Island. (They also were in the rock polisher, for a long time.)

I needed some WATER so I used marbles from the Dollar Store. This makes the “ocean”. Some glass shells, also from the Dollar Store, float on the ocean.

My fresh water POND is a blue agate slice that I bought at the Rock & Gem store in Whistler.

Once it was all put together, it looked like this:

And like this, up close:

I needed some fairies too. This fairy garden is full of fairies, but you can’t see them because they are invisible.

By February, the garden was slightly overgrown. This shows the “half-size” furniture, which makes the garden appear so much bigger.

But there is still lots of room to sit and dream.

However, by early April, the plants are taking over . . .

I should go in there with a machete. But I don’t have time. I’m working outside in a real garden now.

Anyway, I like the way the plants have grown. I make a cup of tea, sit by my garden, stare at it and try not to think.

That is when the Inspiration Fairies show up and help me out.

fairy from bigstockphoto.com #45611884

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Fairy Garden 1

Look at that. It’s the end of April and I haven’t checked in yet this month.

After a long winter, spring has arrived. We didn’t have a lot of snow over the winter months. Lots of snow in the mountains, but not in the city. That made for gray days.

To amuse myself, I made a fairy garden. These are the plants I used.

Bernard’s Elfin Herb

Dee Dee’s Box Honeysuckle

Belle’s Pink Cranesbill

Fine Gold Leaf Sedum

Kay Kay’s Angel Vine

Silver Carpet

Stefan’s Blue Moneywort

Violet’s Creeping Thyme

Tomorrow, I will show you the assembled garden.

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Skiing in a Whiteout

On a ski hill, a whiteout is a condition where visibility is limited and contrast is almost non-existent. No sun, so no shadows. It’s an odd sensation to be slipping down the hill, hoping the terrain will stay smooth.

Today at Sunshine, the cloud covered the top of Angel. We thought of staying low on Wawa, but the lift line there was discouraging. So we went up Angel and into the mist. The top part was tricky, and then visibility improved as we dropped lower. At times it was snowing, making it even harder to see. However, the temperature was mild, hovering right around freezing. There was no wind. And the snow was perfect.

Rolf at the top of Angel

me, closer to the bottom of the hill

Taking a break at Trapper’s

More snow

Finally at the end of the day, the sun came out. This is the ski-out as it passes the Turn Station.

Turn Station

And on the way back to Calgary, a hail storm.

Though I would have preferred more Sun at Sunshine, it was a relaxing day away from the routine.

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Leap Year

About every four years, we have a Leap Year. Instead of the usual 365-day year, we get 366 days by adding an extra day to our shortest month.

The Gregorian Calendar needs Leap Years to round out the calculation for the time it takes the Earth to complete a revolution of the Sun.

It takes just a little bit longer than 365 days for a complete revolution.

In fact, it takes 365.242189 days – or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds.

Without a Leap Year, that six hour addition would add up over time and throw everything off.

Three rules apply in order to have a Leap Year.

The year can be divided evenly by 4.
However, if it can be divided by 100, then it’s not a Leap Year,  unless . . .
It can also be divided evenly by 400.

So, 2000 was a Leap Year, but 1900 was not.

Leaplings are people born on Leap Day.

They still celebrate a yearly birthday on either February 28 or March 1. Their choice. They may run into issues for when they reach the Age of Majority depending on the country they live in. Some countries call the “official” day the 28th of February, others choose the 1st of March.

One of the most interesting traditions surrounding Leap Year comes from Ireland where legend tells us that St. Brigid and St. Patrick decided it would be okay for women to propose to men on Leap Day, rather than having to wait for the man to do the proposing.

This is the premise for one of my favourite movies, Leap Year, starring Amy Adams and Matthew Goode.

If you haven’t seen it, I hope you do.

And Happy Leap Day to you!

Movie poster from imdb.com
Calendar from bigstockphoto.com # 91053725

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Happy Valentine’s Day

I’m not in the Tuesday Café much these days but I wanted to take a moment to wish you all a Happy Valentine’s Day.

Celebrate it with an excellent piece of chocolate along with your favourite kind of coffee.

Give someone a flower or draw them a heart. ♥

And collect hugs all day.

Coffee cup from bigstockphoto.com #112763912

 

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Inversion at Sunshine, and things to do in the New Year

Yes, it’s the middle of January and you have not seen any goals or intentions from me. Or any thought at all of what I’m planning for the new year. I’m still thinking about it, and I guess I’m not really making resolutions. Mostly, I’m continuing to do what I’ve already been doing.  Like skiing.

Last Monday, I was skiing at Sunshine in cold weather. Normally, I like skiing. It makes the winter enjoyable. But on this particular day, I needed my mask and I didn’t think to bring it.
Yes, mask. When it’s really cold, we wear these neoprene masks. Combined with your goggles and helmet, your whole face is protected from the elements. So, no mask, but I did have mitt warmers. I always carry a package of disposable mitt warmers in my jacket.

Those of you from southern climes probably wonder what mitt warmers are.

They are made of iron, water, cellulose, vermiculite, activated carbon and salt, and they come sealed in plastic. Once you open the package, exposing them to air, they make heat. I don’t know why, they just do. Drop one in each mitt and soon your hands are warm.

As well as being cold, it was also misty, so the visibility was not that great. By lunchtime, my toes were cold and I was feeling tired.

After lunch, it was a different story. We rode up the new high-speed quad chairlift, the Tee Pee town chair. Here, we are enclosed in orange bubble covers and have heated seats. At the top of the lift, we schuss*  over to the Divide chair, which takes us to the top of the mountain.

(*a straight high-speed run on skis)

above the inversion

Look down there at all that fog!

Up here, it was beautiful and sunny and, compared to the bottom, warm! Normally, the air temperature decreases as altitude increases. On this day, Sunshine was experiencing a temperature inversion, so the temperature increased as we rode up the Divide chair.

Other resolutions/goals/plans/intentions for this year

Each morning on waking, I want to take a few moments to think about what I am grateful for. I will name three things, and treasure them. And then get out of bed.
I will keep line dancing.
I will drink lattes and create new worlds and publish at least one new book this year. Maybe two.


In the summer, I will fly east to Ontario. And later in the summer, I will drive west to Whistler.

And I will enjoy being a new grandmother and loving this little guy.

I think it’s going to be a great year.

Pen from istockphoto.com #000014549265
Teddy bear from bigstockphoto.com #113776316

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A tiny star

“A ray of hope flickers in the sky
A tiny star lights up way up high
All across the land dawns a brand new morn
This comes to pass when a child is born”
~ JACOBSON, FRED/ZACAR

Yesterday, on December 24th at 12:30 pm, our first grandchild was born.

Rolf and I knew it would be a while before Mom, Dad and baby were moved from the Delivery Room to the Postpartum Ward, but we went to the hospital to wait in the lobby. All around us, people were rushing home, saying Merry Christmas to each other. We got coffee and waited. It seemed to take forever but it was only about two and a half hours. Finally we got a text from our son saying they were moving to the ward.

We took the elevator to the fifth floor, found the Unit, found the Nursing Station and got signed in. And then we went into the room and saw the baby in his mother’s arms. Now—and this has nothing to do with being even slightly prejudiced—he is the most beautiful child I have ever seen. He was all bundled up and wearing a little cap. He was awake and looking around. And his little nose is so cute.

I held him for a few moments, this tiny little boy. I was about to hand him back to his mom, when Rolf said, hold it, and he took the baby in his arms and got his snuggle. We didn’t want to stay long because the parents had been up all of the previous night and now it was about 4 o’clock in the afternoon.

I can hardly begin to describe how blessed we feel this Christmas.

I wish you could all be as happy as I am now. Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Star from bigstockphoto.com #3743103

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Simple Gifts – A Bottle of Wine

Here is a simple gift to make for Christmas.
 
You will need:

 bottles of wine
some address labels

I have always wanted to make wine—or at least, I thought I did. What I really wanted to do was design the label.
 
So just buy some of your favourite wine, and soak off the labels. Then design your very own label.
 
You can purchase large address labels at Staples or a similar business supply store. Sometimes you can even find labels that are shaped specifically for a wine bottle, but the large size address labels work as well.
 
Then you can either freeform your design with markers or crayons, or you could create something on your computer so you can print a bunch of wine labels. Add a pretty bow and voilá, you are finished.
 
Here is my label:
 
Of course, you don’t need to design a special label. A bottle of wine is always a great gift. Especially once it’s opened and shared with a friend.
 
And I suppose, since it’s so close to Christmas, you could just get the wine and let everyone make their own label. That’s right. A label-making party! If you allow a couple of extra bottles of wine for drinking while labelling, this is bound to increase the creativity of the labels.
 
Last year, I posted some other Simple Gift ideas.
 
Soup Mix in a Jar – Find it here.
Cookie Mix – Find it here.
Tea – Find it here.
Poppycock – Find it here.

These Simple Gifts are suitable for any occasion, not just Christmas. So once you are in gift making mode, make lots.

Only five more sleeps until Christmas Day. Are you ready for the celebration? Have you ever wanted to design your own wine label? Have you ever wanted to host a wine-labelling party?

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Fetching Christmas

This is a very old book. It was written for children aged 4 to 8. It has been enjoyed by this adult for many years.

The story begins with Tante (Auntie in German) getting ready for Christmas. First she cleans her little cottage. Then she takes her axe “from its peg in the barn” and she saddles up her donkey. Together they go off to the forest to “fetch Christmas”.  After that, a number of other things happen, but I have always liked the fetching Christmas part.

Last Saturday (while hubby attended a Christmas choir), I fetched Christmas with Ryan and Liz, my son and d-i-l. We didn’t have a donkey so we drove in their 4×4 truck over the snowy roads into the forest. We didn’t take an axe. Instead, my son brought a small saw.

We met up with five of their friends and walked the trails until we each found the perfect Christmas tree. Ryan and Liz chose a spruce. I chose a Jack Pine.

Back home, Ryan set up the tree and I decorated it.

In Tante’s story, she sets up her tree, bakes cookies and hangs them on the tree, along with some shiny apples. Then she invites all the village children to her cottage to celebrate and eat cookies. After that, everyone goes home and Tante falls asleep.

During the night, Christkindel shows up and the spiders meet him outside the cottage. They were all swept out with Tante’s earlier cleaning and they really want to see the Christmas tree. So Christkindel lets them inside for a peek.

In their excitement to look at the tree, they crawl all over it and leave behind a lot of sticky spider webs. When Christkindel returns to check on the spiders, he sees the mess and decides to fix it by changing the webs into strands of silver and gold, thus inventing tinsel, and making Tante quite happy to see this when she wakes the next morning.

Liz’s mom made these Christmas spiders.

This is an ornament Ryan made when he was in grade four. It consists of a pine cone, an acorn, some fabric, a feather and a bunch of creativity.  It reminds me of Tante.

How do you fetch Christmas?

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Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards

Last January, I entered the 23rd Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards and I recently received news from the contest.

I didn’t  win, or even place, but—

I was encouraged by the comments I received from this judge:

“I’ll get my one gripe regarding Suzanne Stengl’s otherwise brilliant On the Way to a Wedding out of the way fast, and that’s that the plot itself will be familiar territory to romance/“chick lit” readers: a young woman, unsure about her approaching marriage, meets someone she might like better. Not an original concept, but in this author’s capable hands, it comes to life in a way that still feels fresh.

Though this may seem like faint praise, this book had me at the exceptionally well-written cover copy. An art form unto itself, only someone who’s spent years writing it can really appreciate when it’s done well, and in this case it’s only one of the very, very good first impressions this book makes. The cover is very good, entirely genre-appropriate, and the interior design is spare and readable, devoid of gimmickry, and in general presented in as professional a fashion as would be expected of the biggest publishing houses.

The writing, which has clearly benefited from a solid edit, is better than good enough, and the author has an ear for naturalistic dialogue that never gets too cutesy or too formal. The characters are likeable—just flawed enough to feel real, but never cartoony. The choice to open from the point of view of the male character was a bold one for the genre and Suzanne Stengl pulls it off well, showing a sort of authorial courage backed up by real talent.”

—Judge, 23rd Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards.

available on Amazon

And now back to my writing desk. I’ve decided to turn ON THE WAY TO A WEDDING into a series. The next book will be released on October 1, 2016.

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