Vicki Lane's Blog, page 537
March 25, 2011
Silly Cat Games
Eddie seeks her here...
He seeks her there...
But he can't find Miss Susie Hutchins...
Anywhere.
March 24, 2011
Do You Procrastinate?
A new day dawned and at last it was time to finish the job I began I-don't-know-how-many months ago. I painted one cupboard interior back then but there were two left undone. 
Really, the paint is redder than these pictures show. Really.
Outdoors is all new and fresh looking and, inside, it's time to put away the blues and yellows that followed Christmas....
And move into Spring pastels.
Bring out the Easter knick-knacks and change the pillow covers to the green ones...
Toss the blue kitchen rugs in the washer and put down green ones ... All just in time for predicted freezing temperatures on Thursdaynight.But it felt good to have finished those other cupboards. Who knows, maybe I'll actually get around to painting the bedroom ... I only bought the paint two years ago...
Do you have any long-neglected projects that you're thinking about doing this spring?
March 23, 2011
An Age Old Question...
Reginald Roger DuCockis - the Buff Orpington rooster
Notice the characteristic beard and earmuffs on this Ameruacana hen...
A handsome fella...
Until the garden is planted, we're letting the chickens enjoy roaming. They return to the hen house at night.
Two Gold Laced Wyandottes
The two Wyandottes seem to range the farthest...
The cattle are enjoying the new green grass...
The white Ameruacana ponders . . .
Why does a chicken cross the road?
To be with her friends and to do a little exploring is evidently the answer.
March 22, 2011
The Blue Sword
The back cover of Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword compares this wonderful YA (young adult) fantasy to Islandia,The Sheikh, Gunga Din, and The Lord of the Rings. I have to agree but I'd add, as well, the Narnia books and Dune.
Also from the back cover: "This is the story of Corlath, golden-eyed king of the Free Hillfolk, son of the sons of the Lady Aerin.And this is the story of Harry Crewe, the Outlander orphan girl who became Harimad-sol, King's Rider, and bearer of the Blue Sword Gonturin, the sword Lady Aerin carried, the sword only a woman may wield for it will turn in the hand of a man.
And this is a story of the kelar of the Hillfolk, the magic in the blood, and how it may wake, even in Outlander veins... "
May I just add that there are also horses of amazing beauty, tall horses over sixteen hands with long clean legs and tails that nearly reach the ground? Horses ridden without bridle or stirrups, such is their bond with their rider.Oh, my! I loved this book but how I wish I'd read it when I was about eleven or twelve and horse-crazy. (Not that the book was available then -- it was published in 1983 and was a Newbery Honor Book that year.)
I 'm making a note to give The Blue Sword to my great nieces. So nice to have the Hero be a girl. And I'm going to get hold of the prequel (The Hero and the Crown) and the rest of McKinley's fourteen books...
Many thanks to Vicki Van Valkenburgh for suggesting that I might enjoy this lovely book--I did, I did!
March 21, 2011
FAQ - Why Do You Write? (And a spring slideshow)
Q: Why do you write?
(Well, this isn't actually frequently asked but an audience member asked it of the panel I was on last Thursday. The two other writers - a retired professor of creative writing and a young man not long out of a MFA program -- both answered that they wrote because they had to -- that it was a consuming passion. Boy, did I feel like a Philistine -- albeit an honest Philistine - when I answered.)
A: I write for the money. The money I receive for my books isn't great -- it wouldn't support a family -- but it's useful and it allows me to justify the hours and hours I spend working on my novels. Would I spend a year, churning out 400 plus pages if I didn't get paid for it?
No, I don't think so. I'd scratch that creative itch with photography or quilting or painting or gardening. And blogging, of course. Oh, I'd eventually try my hand at poetry or a play or some shorter fiction -- but as I spent the first fifty-something years of my life not writing anything more than the occasional letter, I can't say that I HAVE to write.
Obviously, I don't have the passion -- just perseverance.
CLICK ON SLIDE TO BIGGIFY AND READ CAPTIONS.
March 20, 2011
Vernacular Virginia Church
This beautiful little church building caught my eye during my travels and I pulled off the highway to have a look at it.
The Cove Presbyterian Church of Coveville, Virginia has been holding services on this site since 1769. The original sanctuary was a log building which was replaced in 1809 by a brick structure...
...which was destroyed by a tornado in 1880 and rebuilt the same year. 
The church has a nice website which includes a history of the early days.
Such a beautiful little building!
I'm safely home now and shall get back to blog visiting and marking Spring's arrival in my own neck of the woods.
March 19, 2011
Vernal Equinox - The Wheel Turns Again
Alas, I'm on the road today -- not at home to salute the sun at the vernal equinox.
This shot from our house is from a previous year.
March 18, 2011
Colonel Laurence Allen's House - repost
January, 1863.
Fifty armed and desperate men from the community of Shelton Laurel (also known as Sodom) enter the town of Marshall in search of the essential salt which they, as suspected Unionists, had not been allowed to buy. They ransack stores and plunder homes -- even pounding up the stairs of Col. Allen's house to rip blankets from the beds of his sick children.
Retaliation is swift; a few days later a troop of Confederate soldiers makes its way to Shelton Laurel in search of the raiders. The result is the Shelton Laurel Massacre, in which 13 men and boys (some as young as 13 and 14; most, if not all, non-participants in the raid) are rounded up and executed. Women, some elderly, are tied to trees and whipped when they will not say where their men are; an infant is laid in the snow in an attempt to force the wretched mother to name the raiders and their hiding places.
Civil war -- brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor. The families of the victims of the massacre knew the killers. And for years, bitter resentment simmered, breaking out now and then in private vengeance. Over a hundred years after the Civil War and the Shelton Laurel Massacre, our county still was known to many as "Bloody Madison."
Do the old feuds and hatreds remain? Probably not -- though I wouldn't presume to say for sure. But the old house endures, new furbished and landscaped, a private home adorning our little town and inflaming the imagination of at least one novelist.
March 17, 2011
March 16, 2011
Down the Road
I'm heading out early this morning for Charlottesville, Virginia and the VABook! Festival. I'll be at the Charlottesville Barnes and Noble at 4, attend some of the festival events on Friday, and then go spend some time with my sister-in-law Fay and her family.I'll put up a couple of re-posts and get back to business as usual as soon as possible...
