Byddi Lee's Blog, page 22
January 1, 2016
New Year, New Beginings and Surprise Visitors
I love New Years Day!
It's so ripe with possibility - a whole new year to start over and do things better.
We had a visitor early this morning - A coyote in our driveway at 6.33am captured on our new security camera. See the full clip further down.
This kind of thing excites me, probably because I'm a biology geek.We live close to the hills, and I enjoy lying on a summers night listening to them calling to each other with their high pitched howls. I don't even know why...I just do. I know that some of the neighbors are anxious about it, but there's not a lot we can do about it other than move house.
I chose to view this as a positive sign for the year to come.
In North American Mythology the Coyote is a complex personality. A trickster, yet wise, he symbolizes transformation, and teaches us that we have to answer for our actions. In many stories, he delivers a lesson to us humans in the hopes that we will learn from the errors of our ways and make changes accordingly.
And with all this he brings humor, with which to gain a sense of perspective, so we don't become bogged down in the serious, sadder elements of life.
It's easy to look at our planet and see all the bad things, the evil deeds, the horror in it. It's easy to feel "What's the point in trying to fix the world? What can I do? What can anybody do?"
But during the week I read this report - 11 Reasons Why 2015 Was A Great Year For Humanity.
Read it for yourself - It will do your heart good.
Here are the points that struck me...
Education has reached nearly everyone!
"...we are in a world where nine out of ten children are learning to read and write. The World Bank now says we’re only one generation away from a world where every single person is literate."
This is astounding - it actually made me cry. Education is the road to truth and freedom.
Extreme poverty on Earth is at it's lowest rate ever. This is measured as a percentage, and yes, having 702 million people still living in extreme poverty in still too many, but it's down by 200 million from the previous year, and that fact alone has me choked up. But let's not get complacent... there's more work to do.
Great advances have been made on fighting diseases such as AIDS and Malaria. Polio is on the brink of eradication. That is cause to jump for joy!
There's more in the report but these were the points that sung out to me.
I remembered a piece of writing I did during a time when the news reports of atrocities from around the world were more depressing than usual. That day, I decided to make up my own headlines - pure fantasy, I know, but something to give me hope. I didn't post it because it sounded silly and naive in the face of the awful lives that some people have to endure. But when I read the above article, I realized that we do have cause to celebrate.
So I decided to free the words - let them fly into the universe, like scattering seeds on the earth. Perhaps some will germinate, imagine some of of them taking root, growing, setting more seeds and spreading - love, an invasive plant!
So here it is - picture it as a newspaper article...
People are listening to each other. Communities are communicating. There is a torrent of tolerance and no-one can stop it… At long last, and not before time, Homo sapiens are simply treating each other humanely.
Sunrise on the Mount Whitney Trail
When I was a little girl I'd often complain to my Dad that something, usually to do me with not getting my own way, "Is not fair!"
My Dad would answer, "Life's not fair."
To which I'd reply, "But you can start by making it fair."
I had this idea that if everyone pulled together and tried we could make life fair. Even as a child, I realized that we are all parts of a whole and if we all played our parts with justice, tolerance and respect, it will pave the way to peace (and not just me getting my own way, which admittedly was my goal when I tried that line on my Dad! Which kind of spoils the sentiment a little, but I'm blaming the playful coyote on that one!)
2015 was a great year for me, the Irish Book Tour, Mount Whitney, an Epic Road Trip to Yellowstone, but 2016 already glows with promise. There are fabulous plans in place and I can't wait!
Happy New Year - I hope it's the best one yet for me, you and the whole wide world!
Byddi Lee
It's so ripe with possibility - a whole new year to start over and do things better.
We had a visitor early this morning - A coyote in our driveway at 6.33am captured on our new security camera. See the full clip further down.
This kind of thing excites me, probably because I'm a biology geek.We live close to the hills, and I enjoy lying on a summers night listening to them calling to each other with their high pitched howls. I don't even know why...I just do. I know that some of the neighbors are anxious about it, but there's not a lot we can do about it other than move house.
I chose to view this as a positive sign for the year to come.
In North American Mythology the Coyote is a complex personality. A trickster, yet wise, he symbolizes transformation, and teaches us that we have to answer for our actions. In many stories, he delivers a lesson to us humans in the hopes that we will learn from the errors of our ways and make changes accordingly.
And with all this he brings humor, with which to gain a sense of perspective, so we don't become bogged down in the serious, sadder elements of life.
It's easy to look at our planet and see all the bad things, the evil deeds, the horror in it. It's easy to feel "What's the point in trying to fix the world? What can I do? What can anybody do?"
But during the week I read this report - 11 Reasons Why 2015 Was A Great Year For Humanity.
Read it for yourself - It will do your heart good.
Here are the points that struck me...
Education has reached nearly everyone!
"...we are in a world where nine out of ten children are learning to read and write. The World Bank now says we’re only one generation away from a world where every single person is literate."
This is astounding - it actually made me cry. Education is the road to truth and freedom.
Extreme poverty on Earth is at it's lowest rate ever. This is measured as a percentage, and yes, having 702 million people still living in extreme poverty in still too many, but it's down by 200 million from the previous year, and that fact alone has me choked up. But let's not get complacent... there's more work to do.
Great advances have been made on fighting diseases such as AIDS and Malaria. Polio is on the brink of eradication. That is cause to jump for joy!
There's more in the report but these were the points that sung out to me.
I remembered a piece of writing I did during a time when the news reports of atrocities from around the world were more depressing than usual. That day, I decided to make up my own headlines - pure fantasy, I know, but something to give me hope. I didn't post it because it sounded silly and naive in the face of the awful lives that some people have to endure. But when I read the above article, I realized that we do have cause to celebrate.
So I decided to free the words - let them fly into the universe, like scattering seeds on the earth. Perhaps some will germinate, imagine some of of them taking root, growing, setting more seeds and spreading - love, an invasive plant!
So here it is - picture it as a newspaper article...
World peace has broken out unilaterally across the globe.
Hatred has been halted.
Countries with Naval and Air Forces have united to transport clean water, food and medical supplies to the poorest regions of the planet. Soldiers are exchanging their guns for garden hoes, shovels and guitars. All governments have pledged unequivocally to use technology to cleanse the air, water and land.
Drug lords are getting people high on hope by funding research for cures to all diseases and are helping addicts get clean instead of supplying them with poison.
People with plenty have realized they have much more than they require and are sending their surplus to those in need. Sports stars are playing for fun. Performers are singing for joy.
The world is dancing not demonstrating, designing not destroying, dreaming not dying.
Immigration is no longer an issue…no place is intolerable to live in because we, as a species, have united in curing the problem and stopped fighting over the symptoms.
Greed has turned into giving, without keeping count.
Envy has evaporated and kindness filled its place.
Love has conquered lust.
Pride has capitulated to humility.
Sloth has surrendered to diligence.
Gluttony has given way to moderation.
Wrath is won over by patience and understanding.
People are listening to each other. Communities are communicating. There is a torrent of tolerance and no-one can stop it… At long last, and not before time, Homo sapiens are simply treating each other humanely.
Sunrise on the Mount Whitney TrailWhen I was a little girl I'd often complain to my Dad that something, usually to do me with not getting my own way, "Is not fair!"
My Dad would answer, "Life's not fair."
To which I'd reply, "But you can start by making it fair."
I had this idea that if everyone pulled together and tried we could make life fair. Even as a child, I realized that we are all parts of a whole and if we all played our parts with justice, tolerance and respect, it will pave the way to peace (and not just me getting my own way, which admittedly was my goal when I tried that line on my Dad! Which kind of spoils the sentiment a little, but I'm blaming the playful coyote on that one!)
2015 was a great year for me, the Irish Book Tour, Mount Whitney, an Epic Road Trip to Yellowstone, but 2016 already glows with promise. There are fabulous plans in place and I can't wait!
Happy New Year - I hope it's the best one yet for me, you and the whole wide world!
Byddi Lee
December 25, 2015
Rebooting Christmas
Well, how can I follow last weeks post?
I never imagined that it would have had such an impact on other people. So many people connected with what I said and sent messagse to share their experiences with me, that I was overwhelmed with gratitude and humbled by the strength I saw in people battling through a variety of issues in their own lives.
For me, it was cathartic, as if I'd lanced a festering boil and suddenly the world came back into focus. I'd worried too long about the empty chairs around the table, chairs I'd nearly filled, chairs I never come close to filling, and chairs that had been vacated far too soon.
But I ignored the new faces at the table - I won't do that any more.
I stripped everything about Christmas away this year. I quit comparing myself to others. I stopped comparing this year with previous years from the long distant past. Instead of focusing on the decorations and the glitz of Christmas, I am concentrating on the people in my life and trying to open my heart, to let go of anger and envy, and enjoy the world and the people God has given me.
A Good Friend told me that one of the good thing about Christmas is that it gives us a chance to celebrate in the dark days of winter. Perhaps that's what Christmas truly is about - reaching for the light in the darkest of days.
Christmas, like life, is what you make it.
I promised myself, I will make it better.
I started by going to Mass last night, following the advice of the same Good Friend I mentioned earlier. It was nice and yes the carols brought a lump to my throat but the homily was brilliant and I came away with something Pope Francis had talked about recently that I thought was really beautiful and hopeful. The priest called us to join in the Revolution of Tenderness.
Where do I sign up?
Joy and peace to you all this Christmas.
Byddi
I never imagined that it would have had such an impact on other people. So many people connected with what I said and sent messagse to share their experiences with me, that I was overwhelmed with gratitude and humbled by the strength I saw in people battling through a variety of issues in their own lives.
For me, it was cathartic, as if I'd lanced a festering boil and suddenly the world came back into focus. I'd worried too long about the empty chairs around the table, chairs I'd nearly filled, chairs I never come close to filling, and chairs that had been vacated far too soon.
"That I live and you are gone
There's a grief that can't be spoken
There's a pain goes on and onPhantom faces at the window
Phantom shadows on the floor
Empty chairs at empty tables..."
Read more: Les Miserables - Empty Chairs At Empty Tables Lyrics | MetroLyrics
But I ignored the new faces at the table - I won't do that any more.
I stripped everything about Christmas away this year. I quit comparing myself to others. I stopped comparing this year with previous years from the long distant past. Instead of focusing on the decorations and the glitz of Christmas, I am concentrating on the people in my life and trying to open my heart, to let go of anger and envy, and enjoy the world and the people God has given me.
A Good Friend told me that one of the good thing about Christmas is that it gives us a chance to celebrate in the dark days of winter. Perhaps that's what Christmas truly is about - reaching for the light in the darkest of days.
Christmas, like life, is what you make it.
I promised myself, I will make it better.
I started by going to Mass last night, following the advice of the same Good Friend I mentioned earlier. It was nice and yes the carols brought a lump to my throat but the homily was brilliant and I came away with something Pope Francis had talked about recently that I thought was really beautiful and hopeful. The priest called us to join in the Revolution of Tenderness.
Where do I sign up?
Joy and peace to you all this Christmas.
Byddi
December 18, 2015
Ba Humbug!
In six years of blogging, I've only written two posts about Christmas. One post from 2010 featured our outdoor crib, or creche as they call it in the US (which initially made me kind of nervous. It sounded like the kind of place where people would drop their kids off.) It had gotten damaged in storms in previous years, but last year was a catastrophe! The Holy Family just couldn't bounce back from that, and so we gave up.
It seems we're not the only ones to give up on the Holy Family. It says a lot about a society where Christians have decided to replace the image of the Holy Family on their Christmas cards with images of themselves. So it did make me happy to receive one card with the Baby Jesus on it. My aunts are pretty great about
A) sending me cards (especially when I've stopped sending them) and
B) sending me nativity scenes - my favorite Christmas image.
In my opinion, only Christians have the power to take Christ out of Christmas, and it happens in subtle ways. Presents become more important that prayers, and Santa has become the main man. For example, one of the main items on the news here last night reported on how a school trip to a coffee shop in San Jose to see Santa was cancelled because a person who was Non-Christian objected to the trip. What the heck is Santa doing hanging out in a coffee shop in San Jose anyways?
I urge you to read the news item yourselves, not least because I may misrepresent it because I'm self-admittedly bitter and twisted about Christmas, but I believe that it comes down to this:
1) How educational was the trip? Was it really a great learning experience? Perhaps - if those children don't often experience coffee-shop culture in San Jose!
2) If the mom who opposed it, did so because all religions were not included, then I disagree with her principle. Santa is NOT a religion! He may be derived from a Christian Saint - St. Nicholas, but more often he's a marketing tool for the retail trade (authors included!) If she's speaking culturally, she may have a point, but then wouldn't it be MORE important for her child to take part and learn about other cultures?
3) Is the parent who is staging a walk-out really a good example to her children in this season of goodwill? Is that what Jesus would have wanted?
4) What happened to "They will know we are Christians by our love"? Now it seems to be "They will know we are Christians by the amount of lights we have on our houses, the size of our Christmas trees, the amount of presents we exchange and how much food and drink we can consume."
For people who are not Christian, I don't blame them for not wanting to be wished a Happy Christmas - though I've never actually experienced a Non-Christian object to the well meaning wish. My Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Pagan and atheist friends seem to be happy to receive my Happy Christmas greeting. It's the other Christians who seem to have issue with it!
For me, it sums up how ridiculous the whole Christmas/Holidays debacle now is - especially here in the USA.
The other Christmas blog I wrote was posted in 2011 - It's title was taken from a Gone With The Wind quote that I love - " The best days are when babies come. "
I remember writing that with a heart full of hope that the following Christmas I'd be blogging about Santa coming to my baby.
But Santa didn't come, nor will he ever.
By the end of 2012, I'd learned two things.
I'd never have children and I'd never have the Christmas I'd always dreamed off.
And so I began to hate Christmas...
I hate getting the cards with other people's children on them, reminding me of my repeated failure to have my own. (So forgive me if my comments above have offended you - now hopefully you have a better understanding of where I'm coming from.)
I hate the tree with presents under it for grown-ups, presents we neither wanted nor needed.
I hate buying presents in a society that has an excess of everything, in stark contrast to a world were the majority suffer from not having enough.
I hate unwrapping presents and contributing to waste and landfill.
I hate pretending to be happy at parties.
I hate those "What are you doing for Christmas conversations?" that feel like an admission of more failure as a woman, because I didn't want to spend the whole damn day cooking.
I hate going to Mass because the carols make me cry. (Even though I really love them.)
I hate missing my family back home, but feel they are better off without me dragging them down with my gloom. (Even though my sister is wonderful and really understands me.)
I hate missing my Dad and knowing I'll never laugh with him again.
I hate Santa Claus and his fat jolly ho-fucking-hos!
I hate myself for my whole gratitude fail. My life is great, when I'm not wallowing in self pity.
I hate the look on my Husbands face, because he knows I'm sad, and he feels like he can't make me happy.
But he does make me happy...
In this whole cauldron of hate, he is my flotation device, the person that stops me from giving up and allowing myself to sink into it. He is the person who understands how painful and empty Christmas is for me, and who doesn't judge me for it.
I wrestled with the decision to write this soul-baring post, mostly because discussing infertility is so taboo. To not have children raises so many questions from those who have. I do feel sorry for the mother who inadvertently asks me "How many kids do you have?"
The only reason I don't discuss my infertility more openly is because the world doesn't want to know. I've seen women flinch when I have brought it up (I rarely bring it up with men at all). I've actually heard women gasp (in a "Did she just say that?" sense) when I've talked openly about it. I think it's because they believe it is inappropriate for me to mention that I wanted children I could never have - how dare I bring the conversation down to such a sad level.
Yet, I've sat through many conversations where the opening sentence has been, "If you had children, you'd know...." and bitten my tongue and swallowed back words that I still don't know if I should be writing...even on my own blog, on a subject of my choosing...
Which was?
Oh, yes, Christmas... Wow! Two taboos at once - dissing Christmas and discussing infertility - I really am the Grinch.
This year I'm not putting up decorations or a tree. Our lemon tree looks beautiful at the moment - the lemons look like baubles. So I'm making do with that.
I love the symbolism - life giving you lemons!
Before I sign off, I'd just like to say this Christmas think about the people who don't have it all -
the people who, for whatever reason, don't have their family around the tree on Christmas Day,
the people who feel as if Christmas opens a hole in their heart so big it swallows you up and spits you out
the people who have no homes
the people who have no love
the people who will cry this year
the people who mourn their loved ones
the people at the bottom of a bottle and their loved ones who watch and grieve for them
the people who may know this is their last Christmas (as I write this I remember being with my Daddy facing that realization on 25 December 2007)
the people who have lost hope
the people suffering war
the people who hate (even if only for a little while, as in my case)
Because when we hate, we lose ourselves, and that might be what hurts me most at Christmas.
So I won't wish you a Merry Christmas... I'll wish you hope and happiness for everyday of the year because life is a struggle for everyone at sometime. We just don't always see the hurts of another person. Most days of the year, I try to acknowledge that I'm happy with my life - but today - with Christmas just around the corner, well ... ya know...
Byddi Lee
It seems we're not the only ones to give up on the Holy Family. It says a lot about a society where Christians have decided to replace the image of the Holy Family on their Christmas cards with images of themselves. So it did make me happy to receive one card with the Baby Jesus on it. My aunts are pretty great about
A) sending me cards (especially when I've stopped sending them) and
B) sending me nativity scenes - my favorite Christmas image.
In my opinion, only Christians have the power to take Christ out of Christmas, and it happens in subtle ways. Presents become more important that prayers, and Santa has become the main man. For example, one of the main items on the news here last night reported on how a school trip to a coffee shop in San Jose to see Santa was cancelled because a person who was Non-Christian objected to the trip. What the heck is Santa doing hanging out in a coffee shop in San Jose anyways? I urge you to read the news item yourselves, not least because I may misrepresent it because I'm self-admittedly bitter and twisted about Christmas, but I believe that it comes down to this:
1) How educational was the trip? Was it really a great learning experience? Perhaps - if those children don't often experience coffee-shop culture in San Jose!
2) If the mom who opposed it, did so because all religions were not included, then I disagree with her principle. Santa is NOT a religion! He may be derived from a Christian Saint - St. Nicholas, but more often he's a marketing tool for the retail trade (authors included!) If she's speaking culturally, she may have a point, but then wouldn't it be MORE important for her child to take part and learn about other cultures?
3) Is the parent who is staging a walk-out really a good example to her children in this season of goodwill? Is that what Jesus would have wanted?
4) What happened to "They will know we are Christians by our love"? Now it seems to be "They will know we are Christians by the amount of lights we have on our houses, the size of our Christmas trees, the amount of presents we exchange and how much food and drink we can consume."
For people who are not Christian, I don't blame them for not wanting to be wished a Happy Christmas - though I've never actually experienced a Non-Christian object to the well meaning wish. My Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Pagan and atheist friends seem to be happy to receive my Happy Christmas greeting. It's the other Christians who seem to have issue with it!
For me, it sums up how ridiculous the whole Christmas/Holidays debacle now is - especially here in the USA.
The other Christmas blog I wrote was posted in 2011 - It's title was taken from a Gone With The Wind quote that I love - " The best days are when babies come. "
I remember writing that with a heart full of hope that the following Christmas I'd be blogging about Santa coming to my baby.
But Santa didn't come, nor will he ever.
By the end of 2012, I'd learned two things.
I'd never have children and I'd never have the Christmas I'd always dreamed off.
And so I began to hate Christmas...
I hate getting the cards with other people's children on them, reminding me of my repeated failure to have my own. (So forgive me if my comments above have offended you - now hopefully you have a better understanding of where I'm coming from.)
I hate the tree with presents under it for grown-ups, presents we neither wanted nor needed.
I hate buying presents in a society that has an excess of everything, in stark contrast to a world were the majority suffer from not having enough.
I hate unwrapping presents and contributing to waste and landfill.
I hate pretending to be happy at parties.
I hate those "What are you doing for Christmas conversations?" that feel like an admission of more failure as a woman, because I didn't want to spend the whole damn day cooking.
I hate going to Mass because the carols make me cry. (Even though I really love them.)
I hate missing my family back home, but feel they are better off without me dragging them down with my gloom. (Even though my sister is wonderful and really understands me.)
I hate missing my Dad and knowing I'll never laugh with him again.
I hate Santa Claus and his fat jolly ho-fucking-hos!
I hate myself for my whole gratitude fail. My life is great, when I'm not wallowing in self pity.
I hate the look on my Husbands face, because he knows I'm sad, and he feels like he can't make me happy.
But he does make me happy...
In this whole cauldron of hate, he is my flotation device, the person that stops me from giving up and allowing myself to sink into it. He is the person who understands how painful and empty Christmas is for me, and who doesn't judge me for it.
I wrestled with the decision to write this soul-baring post, mostly because discussing infertility is so taboo. To not have children raises so many questions from those who have. I do feel sorry for the mother who inadvertently asks me "How many kids do you have?"
The only reason I don't discuss my infertility more openly is because the world doesn't want to know. I've seen women flinch when I have brought it up (I rarely bring it up with men at all). I've actually heard women gasp (in a "Did she just say that?" sense) when I've talked openly about it. I think it's because they believe it is inappropriate for me to mention that I wanted children I could never have - how dare I bring the conversation down to such a sad level.
Yet, I've sat through many conversations where the opening sentence has been, "If you had children, you'd know...." and bitten my tongue and swallowed back words that I still don't know if I should be writing...even on my own blog, on a subject of my choosing...
Which was?
Oh, yes, Christmas... Wow! Two taboos at once - dissing Christmas and discussing infertility - I really am the Grinch.
This year I'm not putting up decorations or a tree. Our lemon tree looks beautiful at the moment - the lemons look like baubles. So I'm making do with that.
I love the symbolism - life giving you lemons!
Before I sign off, I'd just like to say this Christmas think about the people who don't have it all -
the people who, for whatever reason, don't have their family around the tree on Christmas Day,
the people who feel as if Christmas opens a hole in their heart so big it swallows you up and spits you out
the people who have no homes
the people who have no love
the people who will cry this year
the people who mourn their loved ones
the people at the bottom of a bottle and their loved ones who watch and grieve for them
the people who may know this is their last Christmas (as I write this I remember being with my Daddy facing that realization on 25 December 2007)
the people who have lost hope
the people suffering war
the people who hate (even if only for a little while, as in my case)
Because when we hate, we lose ourselves, and that might be what hurts me most at Christmas.
So I won't wish you a Merry Christmas... I'll wish you hope and happiness for everyday of the year because life is a struggle for everyone at sometime. We just don't always see the hurts of another person. Most days of the year, I try to acknowledge that I'm happy with my life - but today - with Christmas just around the corner, well ... ya know...
Byddi Lee
December 11, 2015
Oh So Heavenly
The problem with a mini break is the "mini" part! It's been hard to get back to writing this week.
I was lucky enough to take advantage of the early snow in the Sierras this week and had two days skiing in Heavenly Resort at South Lake Tahoe. We got a great deal at the Marriott Grand residence, where they treat you like royalty! We drove up to the front door and gave them our car keys. They unpacked the car and brought our luggage to our room, sent our skis to the gondola for us to pick up the next morning and parked the car for us. We didn't see it again until we checked out 3 days later!
We stayed in a teeny tiny palace - the studio suit was just so cute. It had a better equiped kitchen than I have at home, to the extent that I decided to cook on vacation. My friends know that I hate to cook while on holidays, but this little kitchen was so adorable...
The room was two doors up from a lift which opened in to its own foyer, right across from the gondola! So easy. The complex was huge, so I did have a tendency to get lost, but if I found my way to the gondola, I knew I was near my room. I begged My Husband to let me live there forever, but he said someone had to do the gardening back in San Jose!
We were extremely lucky with the weather. Squeezing in between two big weather events meant we had snow to ski on but not drive in.
One of the things I love most about Heavenly is skiing with a view of Lake Tahoe on one side and a view of the desert landscape of Nevada on the other.
Since it was so early in the season a lot of the runs were closed. The board at the bottom of the lift told this story.
But at the top of the Gondola, the board told us the only thing open on the California side was where we already were.
As a result, we got to see more of the Nevada side. It was possible to ski to the California side, but the return was closed, so we'd have been stuck there. Skiing the Nevada side was no hardship!
It's been nearly two years since we'd skied. I worried that I might have gotten rusty. It was the first time I'd ever used Strava while skiing. It entertained me to see how careful we were on day 1, yet by the end of day 2 we were back to blasting down the slopes over and over again getting faster each time. We literally doubled our distance the second day. We were like big kids, grinning from ear to ear and just having such fun - snow and gradient can do that!
One last observation... the lockers at the top of the gondola.
You can have with a "large" locker or a "jumbo" locker. What's wrong with saying a "big" one and a "small" one? Is "small" so negative a term in marketing that it is being abolished - even in Starbucks you can't get a "small" coffee. You have to ask for a "tall" coffee. I only remember that because it rhymes with small!
Yet the difference in size between these lockers was negligible - I mean if this is large...
are these fractionally bigger ones really jumbo? I couldn't tell the difference...
I suppose medium and small just wouldn't be worth the effort. So nice to know that locker sizes go up to the word equivalent of 11. Marketing - the lies we live by!
Byddi Lee
I was lucky enough to take advantage of the early snow in the Sierras this week and had two days skiing in Heavenly Resort at South Lake Tahoe. We got a great deal at the Marriott Grand residence, where they treat you like royalty! We drove up to the front door and gave them our car keys. They unpacked the car and brought our luggage to our room, sent our skis to the gondola for us to pick up the next morning and parked the car for us. We didn't see it again until we checked out 3 days later!
We stayed in a teeny tiny palace - the studio suit was just so cute. It had a better equiped kitchen than I have at home, to the extent that I decided to cook on vacation. My friends know that I hate to cook while on holidays, but this little kitchen was so adorable... 
The room was two doors up from a lift which opened in to its own foyer, right across from the gondola! So easy. The complex was huge, so I did have a tendency to get lost, but if I found my way to the gondola, I knew I was near my room. I begged My Husband to let me live there forever, but he said someone had to do the gardening back in San Jose!We were extremely lucky with the weather. Squeezing in between two big weather events meant we had snow to ski on but not drive in.
One of the things I love most about Heavenly is skiing with a view of Lake Tahoe on one side and a view of the desert landscape of Nevada on the other.
Since it was so early in the season a lot of the runs were closed. The board at the bottom of the lift told this story.
But at the top of the Gondola, the board told us the only thing open on the California side was where we already were.
As a result, we got to see more of the Nevada side. It was possible to ski to the California side, but the return was closed, so we'd have been stuck there. Skiing the Nevada side was no hardship!
It's been nearly two years since we'd skied. I worried that I might have gotten rusty. It was the first time I'd ever used Strava while skiing. It entertained me to see how careful we were on day 1, yet by the end of day 2 we were back to blasting down the slopes over and over again getting faster each time. We literally doubled our distance the second day. We were like big kids, grinning from ear to ear and just having such fun - snow and gradient can do that!One last observation... the lockers at the top of the gondola.
You can have with a "large" locker or a "jumbo" locker. What's wrong with saying a "big" one and a "small" one? Is "small" so negative a term in marketing that it is being abolished - even in Starbucks you can't get a "small" coffee. You have to ask for a "tall" coffee. I only remember that because it rhymes with small!Yet the difference in size between these lockers was negligible - I mean if this is large...
are these fractionally bigger ones really jumbo? I couldn't tell the difference...
I suppose medium and small just wouldn't be worth the effort. So nice to know that locker sizes go up to the word equivalent of 11. Marketing - the lies we live by!Byddi Lee
December 4, 2015
Moments in a Winter Garden
Warning this post starts off all sweetness and light but has a dark conclusion - read to the end to discover why... or if you have a weak stomach stop at the triple asterisk...
Finally the temperatures have dropped and the rain has arrived here.
I took a short video clip of the rain to capture the movement. It looked like sparkles falling from the sky as the sun was trying to shine at the same time. What has happened to me? What have I become? The California drought has changed me from being someone who hated the rain, to the person who now videos it. It just goes to show, you really need to be careful what you wish for.
Now I've successfully uploaded one video, I may continue to explore this medium in future posts.
It's hard to beat a nice photo though.The leaves have turned a beautiful array of gold through copper.
The amazing Bird-of-Paradise are out in full bloom. I love how the color orange brightens up the winter garden, repeated throughout the garden with more Bird-of-Paradise and oranges in the back ground.
I've had the first oranges of the season - so good!
The lemons are maturing too.
Non-natives, like this lavender, are often confused and put out new buds alongside blooming flowers and seed-heads.
In the native garden, the California Fushia brings a welcome splash of scarlet.
Newly germinated seedlings promise a blaze of orange poppies come the springtime.
On the non-native side, daisies have self-seeded and germinated where I cleared the dead ones out from last year. Such tiny delicate little dicotyledons - it's a wonder that they even survive.
Even though I'm not actually planting vegetables this winter, the onions have taken matters into their own hands. Can you see the little black seed-coat hanging on before the stem straightens and shrugs it off?
The daffodils are up, signalling the end of winter even before I feel like it has fully begun. Oh, the joys of a California garden.
But California gardens come with some downsides too...
***
I had a spectacular Stephen King moment. I was clearing out old zucchini leaves. They were grey and brittle skeletons, nothing like the lush green plant that had fed us all summer. The whole plant came away in a scratchy crackle with one snip at the stem. The root would compost in place over winter. Underneath where the leaves had lain, I saw a tailless lizard with vivid blue specks up either side of his body. It's late for these guys to be out, and so cold I wondered if he'd move at all. I wasn't surprised that he lay there motionless looking up at me. Was he dead? I wondered...
I picked him up gently in my gloved hands. His body, just a few inches long, seemed rigid and quite light. Maybe he was dead. Yes, he should be - he had an arm missing. I set him down.
Then I saw him move. A ripple in his neck and another one under his skin. He was breathing. I peered closer. A little "head" popped out of a hole right where his ear should be (if lizards have ears in the same place as humans!) Another blunt white nub popped out of the hole made by his missing forearm. He was full of wriggling maggots, all trying to escape the home they had made in his body now that some giant monster (me!) had disturbed him.
I watched in horrified fascination as one by one, a half dozen of them squirmed their way to freedom and sought refuge under the nearby stones. I decided not to take a picture - there are some things you just shouldn't share visually.
California gardens - it's all fun and games until somebody gets their ear poked out!
Byddi Lee
Finally the temperatures have dropped and the rain has arrived here.
I took a short video clip of the rain to capture the movement. It looked like sparkles falling from the sky as the sun was trying to shine at the same time. What has happened to me? What have I become? The California drought has changed me from being someone who hated the rain, to the person who now videos it. It just goes to show, you really need to be careful what you wish for.
Now I've successfully uploaded one video, I may continue to explore this medium in future posts.
It's hard to beat a nice photo though.The leaves have turned a beautiful array of gold through copper.
The amazing Bird-of-Paradise are out in full bloom. I love how the color orange brightens up the winter garden, repeated throughout the garden with more Bird-of-Paradise and oranges in the back ground.
I've had the first oranges of the season - so good!
The lemons are maturing too.
Non-natives, like this lavender, are often confused and put out new buds alongside blooming flowers and seed-heads. 
In the native garden, the California Fushia brings a welcome splash of scarlet.
Newly germinated seedlings promise a blaze of orange poppies come the springtime.
On the non-native side, daisies have self-seeded and germinated where I cleared the dead ones out from last year. Such tiny delicate little dicotyledons - it's a wonder that they even survive.
Even though I'm not actually planting vegetables this winter, the onions have taken matters into their own hands. Can you see the little black seed-coat hanging on before the stem straightens and shrugs it off?
The daffodils are up, signalling the end of winter even before I feel like it has fully begun. Oh, the joys of a California garden.
But California gardens come with some downsides too... ***
I had a spectacular Stephen King moment. I was clearing out old zucchini leaves. They were grey and brittle skeletons, nothing like the lush green plant that had fed us all summer. The whole plant came away in a scratchy crackle with one snip at the stem. The root would compost in place over winter. Underneath where the leaves had lain, I saw a tailless lizard with vivid blue specks up either side of his body. It's late for these guys to be out, and so cold I wondered if he'd move at all. I wasn't surprised that he lay there motionless looking up at me. Was he dead? I wondered...
I picked him up gently in my gloved hands. His body, just a few inches long, seemed rigid and quite light. Maybe he was dead. Yes, he should be - he had an arm missing. I set him down.
Then I saw him move. A ripple in his neck and another one under his skin. He was breathing. I peered closer. A little "head" popped out of a hole right where his ear should be (if lizards have ears in the same place as humans!) Another blunt white nub popped out of the hole made by his missing forearm. He was full of wriggling maggots, all trying to escape the home they had made in his body now that some giant monster (me!) had disturbed him.
I watched in horrified fascination as one by one, a half dozen of them squirmed their way to freedom and sought refuge under the nearby stones. I decided not to take a picture - there are some things you just shouldn't share visually.
California gardens - it's all fun and games until somebody gets their ear poked out!
Byddi Lee
November 27, 2015
March to November Short Story Sequel to be released for Christmas
It's Thanksgiving weekend and in keeping with that I'd like to thank all of my readers for their great support of March to November. So many people have contacted me to tell me they loved the book and want a sequel, that it's been hard to ignore.
In fact, so hard to ignore, that I wrote a short story-length sequel called Then Came Christmas , and I'm releasing it for FREE on my website.
Then Came Christmas begins on December 20th, just over six weeks from where the book ends and shows how Tracey and the gang face Christmas in the aftermath of March to November. Each day, I'll put up the story as it unfolds. It ends on Christmas Day.
You can follow it each day, or if you like, you can wait until Christmas Day and read the story in it's entirety.
Please think of it as my Christmas gift to you, the reader. Please share it with your friends too and post the link on your social media. It would be great of you can help me spread the word.
SPOILER ALERT - It does give away the ending of March to November , but can be a "stand alone" story as well.
It's a good time to get a copy of March to November for your friends for Christmas so that they can join in the short story release too.
This weekend Amazon are doing a discount of 30% on print books. March to November is also on sale on Kindle for $0.99 until the end of the month too.
So let the countdown to Then Came Christmas begin!
And thanks again.
Byddi
In fact, so hard to ignore, that I wrote a short story-length sequel called Then Came Christmas , and I'm releasing it for FREE on my website.
Then Came Christmas begins on December 20th, just over six weeks from where the book ends and shows how Tracey and the gang face Christmas in the aftermath of March to November. Each day, I'll put up the story as it unfolds. It ends on Christmas Day.
You can follow it each day, or if you like, you can wait until Christmas Day and read the story in it's entirety.
Please think of it as my Christmas gift to you, the reader. Please share it with your friends too and post the link on your social media. It would be great of you can help me spread the word.
SPOILER ALERT - It does give away the ending of March to November , but can be a "stand alone" story as well.
It's a good time to get a copy of March to November for your friends for Christmas so that they can join in the short story release too.
This weekend Amazon are doing a discount of 30% on print books. March to November is also on sale on Kindle for $0.99 until the end of the month too.
So let the countdown to Then Came Christmas begin!
And thanks again.
Byddi
November 20, 2015
Time traveling as well as actually traveling - Arctic Trip 2007
After I'd posted the picture of the polar bear sign a few weeks back in Animal Road Signs Snap, a few people were asking me to write more about the Arctic Trip so here it is.
The photo's were taken in Spitsbergen, an island in the Svalbard Archipelago, north of Norway and 660 nautical miles (758 miles) from the North Pole.
This trip took place in July 2007. Some things may have changed, but I'll include links to websites which look pretty up-to-date to me.
When we first looked at doing this 10-day trip, it was so expensive we nearly considered not doing it at all. But we wanted to see polar bears, and since we were planning to move to California the following summer, we wanted to stay in Europe. At first we'd looked at a tour from Explorer.co.uk, but there were two things we didn't like - 1) the cost and 2) the itinerary was back to front for us. It began with a cruise and ended with a camping trip.
We wanted to get the camping out of the way first. I wanted the experiences that portion of the trip offered, the glacier hiking, and the kayaking, but I didn't relish lying awake in the freezing cold for two nights and then being wrecked for the rest of the trip. We'd camped in Donegal that Easter and it had been pretty Baltic! How much worse would the North Pole be? (And, yes, I know we weren't actually at the North Pole but close enough for me.)
Then we took note of the tour companies Explorer were using and decided to approach them ourselves, camping first, ending with the cruise. It became much more affordable. Saying that, it was, and still is, the most expensive vacation we've ever been on, if you consider cost per per day. Worth every penny though - the memories are still so vivid and so unique.
We booked the cheapest combination of flights to get there. It took nearly 24 hours to fly from Belfast (where we lived at the time) to Manchester to Oslo to Tromso to Longyearbyen, one of four settlements on the island. We could have flown to New Zealand in the same time.
You couldn't tell it was 3 am when we landed at the airport in Longyearbyen since the sun was still high in the sky.
Spitsbergen at 3am
What was the interior designer thinking when he installed orange curtains in the budget hostel we stayed in that first night? Seriously - sunlight, all night, through these! Good job we'd to get up for an 8am start, so we'd only to stay in that crazy bright room for a few hours. If you go, take eye masks!
There are no roads out of Longyearbyen - the roads just vanish at the edge of town. To get to the other settlement you go by sea or skidoo in the winter.
Surprisingly the camping was really comfortable. We went with a company called Svalbard Wildlife Services on a three day wilderness camp. They were amazing the guide was brilliant - friendly, knowledgeable and an amazing cook. Our group was small too, just me, My Husband and two others, nice women from Switzerland.
It's the most remote place I've ever been to, I think.
We lucked out with the weather. It stayed in the low to mid sixties and because it didn't get dark at night it didn't cool down much either. We had good sleeping bags and down jackets. Being cold was never an issue...in fact it had been colder to camp in Ireland in April!
We had an armed guide at all times. I hoped we didn't see a polar bear while camping as the guide would need to shoot it. The campsite was surrounded by tripwires that would ignite flares, as much to wake up the guide with his guns as to scare of the bears. You don't mess with polar bears.
You had to use this gate to enter and leave the campsite so you didn't trigger the flares. I worried that if you were going off to have a pee during the night you might trip over the wire, but it didn't get dark so it wasn't an issue. You still needed to bring a buddy in case a polar bear did catch you with your pants down!
Solid human waste was an interesting problem. It had to be taken off the site with you, so you pooped in a bag, tied a knot in it and kept the bags a a bucket until it was time to take the ship back.
Our campsite was at the base of a glacier and we went glacier hiking on it with crampons. I was nervous about falling down the crevasses. We were all roped together, but I was the smallest one in the group and where the others just stepped across I had to take a run and jump!
The ice formations were amazing.
I had the chance to geek out on the amazing rock collection in the terminal moraine deposited by the Glacier - Sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic all in one spot. I wish I'd studied geology ...
And check out erosion in action - the rock has fractures along seams where water seeped in then froze and expanded.
There was something to amaze me around every corner. Herds of Svalbard Reindeer, sort, stocky little chappies, their rotund bodies adapted to conserve heat.
The Arctic cousin of the Irish bog cotton, fluffier to insulate the precious seeds better.
The next day we went kayaking.
We were lucky to catch this glacier calving on camera, and luckier still not to be too close to it!
The scenery was truly spectacular.
Even though we didn't have the fancy camera we have now, it was impossible to take a bad photo.
This ringed seal seemed to be quite happy to pose for us. I suppose he was just glad we weren't polar bears!
Camping done, we transferred back to Lonyearbyen and stayed the night in a nice hotel before setting off for our cruise with Spitsbergen Travel. The ship was small. It had been a research vessel but we did have a cabin with a window...
...that had a metal hatch to close over it - great at keeping out the light and we had our first dark night since arriving there. Though the engine room must have been right in our closet (I joke - we didn't have a closet - two bunks and shower room!)
We cruised north out of Longyearbyen and stopped at Russian mining settlement. It was pretty bleak.
But someone seemed to be happy about finding coal!
It was nice to see that technology was making some inroads to these remote spots
Maybe you had to call to be let in the door, because that handle look pretty secure!
If you ignored the frigid temperatures, sometimes the colors along the coastal waters looked quite inviting.
We set ashore each day for guided hikes and nature walks, most times using these wee boats.
From the shore the scenery dwarfed the ship we though of as home.
The captain promised us lots of wildlife viewing, and we began to think the animals were on the payroll.
There were three languages used on board, Norwegian naturally, German and English. If the crew spotted some wildlife, they would announce the best place to go on the ship to view it. There were about 150 passengers all hustling for the best photo spot. Invariably animals would pop up when we'd be in the dining room (maybe because we spent so much time in the dining room!) and there'd be a stampede (of humans not animals!) for the doors
Sometimes the announcement would begin in English, "Ladies and Gentlemen, a polar bear has been spotted off the starboard side." etc. (or maybe it was Klingons?) People who understood English, (and knew where starboard was) would head off. Then the language would change and others would move too. We soon figured out, no matter what language they started with, just follow someone who looked like they understood.Waiting for your own language would mean missing the front row!
Right in the middle is a polar bear eating a seal - I kid you not...
Blurry - sorry - how I wished we'd our Nikkon D5000 in those days!
The icebergs were such strange colors - Had the captain ever heard of the Titanic I wondered?
We drank champagne was we crossed the 80°N parallel (not sure why, but I wasn't going to question anyone giving me free Champagne - especially in a place where a coffee cost $20!) We came upon Moffen Island and saw the Walruses, animals I half suspected were not real, seeming more like mythical creatures and ranked a rather ugly, cumbersome version of the unicorn. But there they were...sorry again about the picture quality.
This was our turn around point.
Each night we'd have to tear ourselves away from the scenery, staying up into the wee hours of the morning, our brains unwilling to accept that fact, seeing sunlight as we did. These pictures were taken between 3 and 4 am...
And this picture reminded me of the island described in C.S Lewis' Narian Tale , The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - the one the made everyone really gloomy...
We had just headed down to the rattle and hum of our cabin when there was another animal announcement at 4am - polar bears again!
This mother was suckling her baby. And how cute is this pose!
This is a whale - I promise!
We stopped at the research station. It claims to have the most northern post office in the world...I wonder if this is where Santa posts his letters! I just had to send a post card to my Mum.
Some insane people were having a swim...totally not tempted!
Even if it looked as beautiful as this.
Spitsbergen was a magical place. I'm glad we figured out a way to make it work. I'd always wanted to see polars bears in the wild and it was definitely one huge series of ticks off the bucket list.
Byddi Lee
P.S. Some of these scenery shots look amazing if you click on them and view then full screen - go on - I dare you :-)
The photo's were taken in Spitsbergen, an island in the Svalbard Archipelago, north of Norway and 660 nautical miles (758 miles) from the North Pole.
This trip took place in July 2007. Some things may have changed, but I'll include links to websites which look pretty up-to-date to me.
When we first looked at doing this 10-day trip, it was so expensive we nearly considered not doing it at all. But we wanted to see polar bears, and since we were planning to move to California the following summer, we wanted to stay in Europe. At first we'd looked at a tour from Explorer.co.uk, but there were two things we didn't like - 1) the cost and 2) the itinerary was back to front for us. It began with a cruise and ended with a camping trip.
We wanted to get the camping out of the way first. I wanted the experiences that portion of the trip offered, the glacier hiking, and the kayaking, but I didn't relish lying awake in the freezing cold for two nights and then being wrecked for the rest of the trip. We'd camped in Donegal that Easter and it had been pretty Baltic! How much worse would the North Pole be? (And, yes, I know we weren't actually at the North Pole but close enough for me.)
Then we took note of the tour companies Explorer were using and decided to approach them ourselves, camping first, ending with the cruise. It became much more affordable. Saying that, it was, and still is, the most expensive vacation we've ever been on, if you consider cost per per day. Worth every penny though - the memories are still so vivid and so unique.
We booked the cheapest combination of flights to get there. It took nearly 24 hours to fly from Belfast (where we lived at the time) to Manchester to Oslo to Tromso to Longyearbyen, one of four settlements on the island. We could have flown to New Zealand in the same time.
You couldn't tell it was 3 am when we landed at the airport in Longyearbyen since the sun was still high in the sky.
Spitsbergen at 3am
What was the interior designer thinking when he installed orange curtains in the budget hostel we stayed in that first night? Seriously - sunlight, all night, through these! Good job we'd to get up for an 8am start, so we'd only to stay in that crazy bright room for a few hours. If you go, take eye masks!
There are no roads out of Longyearbyen - the roads just vanish at the edge of town. To get to the other settlement you go by sea or skidoo in the winter.
Surprisingly the camping was really comfortable. We went with a company called Svalbard Wildlife Services on a three day wilderness camp. They were amazing the guide was brilliant - friendly, knowledgeable and an amazing cook. Our group was small too, just me, My Husband and two others, nice women from Switzerland.It's the most remote place I've ever been to, I think.
We lucked out with the weather. It stayed in the low to mid sixties and because it didn't get dark at night it didn't cool down much either. We had good sleeping bags and down jackets. Being cold was never an issue...in fact it had been colder to camp in Ireland in April!
We had an armed guide at all times. I hoped we didn't see a polar bear while camping as the guide would need to shoot it. The campsite was surrounded by tripwires that would ignite flares, as much to wake up the guide with his guns as to scare of the bears. You don't mess with polar bears.
You had to use this gate to enter and leave the campsite so you didn't trigger the flares. I worried that if you were going off to have a pee during the night you might trip over the wire, but it didn't get dark so it wasn't an issue. You still needed to bring a buddy in case a polar bear did catch you with your pants down! Solid human waste was an interesting problem. It had to be taken off the site with you, so you pooped in a bag, tied a knot in it and kept the bags a a bucket until it was time to take the ship back.
Our campsite was at the base of a glacier and we went glacier hiking on it with crampons. I was nervous about falling down the crevasses. We were all roped together, but I was the smallest one in the group and where the others just stepped across I had to take a run and jump!
The ice formations were amazing.
I had the chance to geek out on the amazing rock collection in the terminal moraine deposited by the Glacier - Sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic all in one spot. I wish I'd studied geology ...
And check out erosion in action - the rock has fractures along seams where water seeped in then froze and expanded.
There was something to amaze me around every corner. Herds of Svalbard Reindeer, sort, stocky little chappies, their rotund bodies adapted to conserve heat. 
The Arctic cousin of the Irish bog cotton, fluffier to insulate the precious seeds better.
The next day we went kayaking.
We were lucky to catch this glacier calving on camera, and luckier still not to be too close to it!
The scenery was truly spectacular.
Even though we didn't have the fancy camera we have now, it was impossible to take a bad photo.
This ringed seal seemed to be quite happy to pose for us. I suppose he was just glad we weren't polar bears!
Camping done, we transferred back to Lonyearbyen and stayed the night in a nice hotel before setting off for our cruise with Spitsbergen Travel. The ship was small. It had been a research vessel but we did have a cabin with a window...
...that had a metal hatch to close over it - great at keeping out the light and we had our first dark night since arriving there. Though the engine room must have been right in our closet (I joke - we didn't have a closet - two bunks and shower room!)We cruised north out of Longyearbyen and stopped at Russian mining settlement. It was pretty bleak.
But someone seemed to be happy about finding coal!
It was nice to see that technology was making some inroads to these remote spots
Maybe you had to call to be let in the door, because that handle look pretty secure!If you ignored the frigid temperatures, sometimes the colors along the coastal waters looked quite inviting.
We set ashore each day for guided hikes and nature walks, most times using these wee boats.
From the shore the scenery dwarfed the ship we though of as home.
The captain promised us lots of wildlife viewing, and we began to think the animals were on the payroll.There were three languages used on board, Norwegian naturally, German and English. If the crew spotted some wildlife, they would announce the best place to go on the ship to view it. There were about 150 passengers all hustling for the best photo spot. Invariably animals would pop up when we'd be in the dining room (maybe because we spent so much time in the dining room!) and there'd be a stampede (of humans not animals!) for the doors
Sometimes the announcement would begin in English, "Ladies and Gentlemen, a polar bear has been spotted off the starboard side." etc. (or maybe it was Klingons?) People who understood English, (and knew where starboard was) would head off. Then the language would change and others would move too. We soon figured out, no matter what language they started with, just follow someone who looked like they understood.Waiting for your own language would mean missing the front row!
Right in the middle is a polar bear eating a seal - I kid you not...
Blurry - sorry - how I wished we'd our Nikkon D5000 in those days!
The icebergs were such strange colors - Had the captain ever heard of the Titanic I wondered?
We drank champagne was we crossed the 80°N parallel (not sure why, but I wasn't going to question anyone giving me free Champagne - especially in a place where a coffee cost $20!) We came upon Moffen Island and saw the Walruses, animals I half suspected were not real, seeming more like mythical creatures and ranked a rather ugly, cumbersome version of the unicorn. But there they were...sorry again about the picture quality.
This was our turn around point.Each night we'd have to tear ourselves away from the scenery, staying up into the wee hours of the morning, our brains unwilling to accept that fact, seeing sunlight as we did. These pictures were taken between 3 and 4 am...
And this picture reminded me of the island described in C.S Lewis' Narian Tale , The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - the one the made everyone really gloomy...
We had just headed down to the rattle and hum of our cabin when there was another animal announcement at 4am - polar bears again!
This mother was suckling her baby. And how cute is this pose!
This is a whale - I promise!
We stopped at the research station. It claims to have the most northern post office in the world...I wonder if this is where Santa posts his letters! I just had to send a post card to my Mum.
Some insane people were having a swim...totally not tempted!
Even if it looked as beautiful as this.
Spitsbergen was a magical place. I'm glad we figured out a way to make it work. I'd always wanted to see polars bears in the wild and it was definitely one huge series of ticks off the bucket list.
Byddi Lee
P.S. Some of these scenery shots look amazing if you click on them and view then full screen - go on - I dare you :-)
November 13, 2015
What The Judge Said...
One of the problems of being a self published author is convincing the world that your book is a professional product, that the writing is good, the story well structured and that standards are high, guaranteeing a quality experience for the reader.
Many people think that traditional publishers are one way of ensuring a good read but fail to realize that these big publishing houses focus more on marketability, sometimes pushing out sub-standard work by big names, knowing that they will sell anyway, and are less concerned with launching new, unknown authors with a better book but questionable sales potential.
The book world is full of this bias. For example, it is extremely difficult for a self-published author to get a review in The News York Times, or a mention on Oprah's book list - in fact, it is impossible. There's just no getting around the line often in bold type on websites that states "Self-published books not accepted."
It's an unfair world. That's just a fact and no amount of bemoaning it will change it. I also understand why this is the case. The quality issue - we need some way to set a standard for self published books.
With this in mind, I entered March to November in the Writer's Digest Self-published Book Awards.
Before we get too excited I will say upfront that, no - it didn't win! But every entry is sent a judge's appraisal. As I opened my email, my heart was thumping in my throat. These guys would be honest, no need to to suck up to me, no need to be gentle - They would call a spade a spade.
The email begins with an explanation of the grading system from 1-5.
These judges would crucify me. I gulped, put on my big girl head and read on.
And to my astonishment...well, read the scores for yourself...
And this is the Judges full comentary
"Congratulations on writing and publishing your book! The packaging is extremely professional. The title and front cover design made me curious as to what this book was about. The back cover copy is well written although it’s a little hard to read against the brick backdrop design. You have an intriguing story to tell and I enjoyed your writing style. Your novel should have a wide appeal among readers of fiction. Great job with pacing: you focus on showing us the story in action and dialogue and yet manage to include a great deal of vivid details and description. The structure of your chapters is excellent: each one left me wanting to keep reading to the next. Great job with grammar and proofreading. The formatting of the interior of the book is excellent. You have a great web site to market this book. I loved seeing the photographs of the book’s locations, and I enjoyed reading and looking at the excellent photos on your blog. I would definitely think about continuing to build and promote your blog and possibly turning it into a book someday. An excellent entry and I look forward to reading more of your work in the future!"
Judge, 23rd Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards.
So I'm off now to go do my happy dance, for it seems that scientists can write!
Byddi Lee
Many people think that traditional publishers are one way of ensuring a good read but fail to realize that these big publishing houses focus more on marketability, sometimes pushing out sub-standard work by big names, knowing that they will sell anyway, and are less concerned with launching new, unknown authors with a better book but questionable sales potential.
The book world is full of this bias. For example, it is extremely difficult for a self-published author to get a review in The News York Times, or a mention on Oprah's book list - in fact, it is impossible. There's just no getting around the line often in bold type on websites that states "Self-published books not accepted."
It's an unfair world. That's just a fact and no amount of bemoaning it will change it. I also understand why this is the case. The quality issue - we need some way to set a standard for self published books.
With this in mind, I entered March to November in the Writer's Digest Self-published Book Awards.
Before we get too excited I will say upfront that, no - it didn't win! But every entry is sent a judge's appraisal. As I opened my email, my heart was thumping in my throat. These guys would be honest, no need to to suck up to me, no need to be gentle - They would call a spade a spade.The email begins with an explanation of the grading system from 1-5.
"Books are evaluated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 meaning “needs improvement” and 5 meaning “outstanding”. This scale is strictly to provide a point of reference, it is not a cumulative score and does not reflect ranking..."As I read through the grading system, I was praying for at least 3's. All my writing insecurities rushed in on me - I was a scientist. Who was I fooling? I hated English Lit in school. I cannot figure out Shakespeare. I got bored with Joyce (there - I said it!) And, yes, I over-use exclamation marks!
These judges would crucify me. I gulped, put on my big girl head and read on.
And to my astonishment...well, read the scores for yourself...
Structure, Organization, and Pacing: 5
Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar: 5
Production Quality and Cover Design: 4
Plot and Story Appeal: 5
Character Appeal and Development: 5
Voice and Writing Style: 5
And this is the Judges full comentary
"Congratulations on writing and publishing your book! The packaging is extremely professional. The title and front cover design made me curious as to what this book was about. The back cover copy is well written although it’s a little hard to read against the brick backdrop design. You have an intriguing story to tell and I enjoyed your writing style. Your novel should have a wide appeal among readers of fiction. Great job with pacing: you focus on showing us the story in action and dialogue and yet manage to include a great deal of vivid details and description. The structure of your chapters is excellent: each one left me wanting to keep reading to the next. Great job with grammar and proofreading. The formatting of the interior of the book is excellent. You have a great web site to market this book. I loved seeing the photographs of the book’s locations, and I enjoyed reading and looking at the excellent photos on your blog. I would definitely think about continuing to build and promote your blog and possibly turning it into a book someday. An excellent entry and I look forward to reading more of your work in the future!"
Judge, 23rd Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards.
So I'm off now to go do my happy dance, for it seems that scientists can write!
Byddi Lee
November 6, 2015
A Plethora of Pomegranates
When you have a garden, you often experience either feast or famine conditions. The year we first moved in I pruned the pomegranate tree away back. Admittedly, I didn't really know what I was doing but I'd been been told by a reliable source (Google!) what to do and how to do it. Maybe I pruned it a bit too much, because the following year it only produced 3 fruits. Albeit 3 massive fruits the size of my head!
In the years that followed, I've laid off the pruning and only cut back where the tree grows across the path. Every year, we get a tonne of enormous pomegranates from a tree that never gets watered. That's not just drought tolerant - it's downright drought friendly!
Pomegranate and Butternut Squash harvestSo what can be done with all these beautiful fruits? Well a lot of them I give away to my friends. Pomegranates take a horrendously long time to process! The biggest ones can take me 20 minutes each to just peel and extract all the arils - the fleshy eats that you eat.
So at the weekend I set aside an hour and tried to get through as many pomegranates as I could. My Husband was convinced that there must be a more efficient way, so he spend a bit of time on YouTube researching de-seeding pomegranates. To begin with, I believed this time would have been better spent just helping me seed the damn things but, low and behold, when he tried to test out a few methods he came across, we discovered that he is super fast at seeding pomegranates. Not all of the methods proved useful, and even those that did, only for some of the time. If the fruit had grown in a perfectly symmetrical way, great - but most don't, so he was soon down in the trenches with me picking out arils one at a time with his fingers. He was still faster - processing 5 fruits for every 3 that I did - I rejoiced! No excuse for not asking him for help in this chore ever again.
So working together, we got a big bowl of seeds and put them through the juicer, careful not to spill any. Every seed is precious! (Is that from the Catechism or Monty Python?)
It took us over an hour to make enough for two glasses of pomegranate juice, from picking the fruit to drinking it.
It tastes so good even if it does looks like blood. Quite apt, since it was Halloween. In fact, the whole kitchen looked like a crime scene, juice on the floor, countertops and even splattered up the walls. CSI eat your heart out!
We were a mess too. Our fingers were stained purpley-grey and we laughed at the splotches of juice smeared across each others faces. No point is cleaning up until we'd finished the whole basket. A couple of hours later we had enough juice to freeze and even a little to experiment with.
I decided to try Pomegranate Scones .
This recipe is adapted from one I use from Delia Smith. (The same basic recipe is on the back of the packet of self raising flour too.) And yes, I can use grams or cups - I'm bilingual that way!
Ingredients 40g butter (I use Kerry Gold - Irish butter is the best)
225g self-raising flour
1½ level tablespoons caster sugar
110ml pomegranate juice, plus a little more (if needed)
Juice of one lemon (My addition - I think it helps with raising the dough)
One beaten egg
1/2 cup of dried cranberries (you can substitute with walnuts, raisin, chopped figs, choc-chips etc)
A little extra flour for rolling out
Pre-heat the oven to 220°C, gas mark 7
Equipment: A baking sheet with a non-stick liner, and a 5cm plain (or fluted) cutter
Method Rub the butter into the sieved flour using your fingertipsStir in the sugar and dried cranberries followed by a pinch of salt. Pour the lemon juice into the pomegranate juice to mix it Use a knife to mix in the pomegranate/lemon juice Knead the mixture with your hands to a soft dough (add more juice if it feels dry)Roll out dough to a thickness of 3cm Without twisting the cutter, cut out the scones and put them on baking sheetbrush some beaten egg over the top Bake near top of oven for 12-15 minutes
I loved that the dough was pink!
When they’re done they will have risen and turned a golden brown, but there will still be pinkish purplish hues coming through - perfect for Halloween or even Valentines day - especially if you were to use a heart shaped cookie cutter.
Full disclosure - I'm not great at baking, but I am a top notch experimenter! And sometimes it works out - I should have a separate blog for all the ones that don't...
These scones were so delicious that I didn't even have to put butter and jam on them, but peach and lavender jam would have been wow with them - If I'd had any left from last year.
Leave a comment and let me know if you do try any of the recipes or have any other interesting tweaks for them.
Byddi Lee
In the years that followed, I've laid off the pruning and only cut back where the tree grows across the path. Every year, we get a tonne of enormous pomegranates from a tree that never gets watered. That's not just drought tolerant - it's downright drought friendly!
Pomegranate and Butternut Squash harvestSo what can be done with all these beautiful fruits? Well a lot of them I give away to my friends. Pomegranates take a horrendously long time to process! The biggest ones can take me 20 minutes each to just peel and extract all the arils - the fleshy eats that you eat. So at the weekend I set aside an hour and tried to get through as many pomegranates as I could. My Husband was convinced that there must be a more efficient way, so he spend a bit of time on YouTube researching de-seeding pomegranates. To begin with, I believed this time would have been better spent just helping me seed the damn things but, low and behold, when he tried to test out a few methods he came across, we discovered that he is super fast at seeding pomegranates. Not all of the methods proved useful, and even those that did, only for some of the time. If the fruit had grown in a perfectly symmetrical way, great - but most don't, so he was soon down in the trenches with me picking out arils one at a time with his fingers. He was still faster - processing 5 fruits for every 3 that I did - I rejoiced! No excuse for not asking him for help in this chore ever again.
So working together, we got a big bowl of seeds and put them through the juicer, careful not to spill any. Every seed is precious! (Is that from the Catechism or Monty Python?)It took us over an hour to make enough for two glasses of pomegranate juice, from picking the fruit to drinking it.
It tastes so good even if it does looks like blood. Quite apt, since it was Halloween. In fact, the whole kitchen looked like a crime scene, juice on the floor, countertops and even splattered up the walls. CSI eat your heart out!We were a mess too. Our fingers were stained purpley-grey and we laughed at the splotches of juice smeared across each others faces. No point is cleaning up until we'd finished the whole basket. A couple of hours later we had enough juice to freeze and even a little to experiment with.
I decided to try Pomegranate Scones .
This recipe is adapted from one I use from Delia Smith. (The same basic recipe is on the back of the packet of self raising flour too.) And yes, I can use grams or cups - I'm bilingual that way!
Ingredients 40g butter (I use Kerry Gold - Irish butter is the best)
225g self-raising flour
1½ level tablespoons caster sugar
110ml pomegranate juice, plus a little more (if needed)
Juice of one lemon (My addition - I think it helps with raising the dough)
One beaten egg
1/2 cup of dried cranberries (you can substitute with walnuts, raisin, chopped figs, choc-chips etc)
A little extra flour for rolling out
Pre-heat the oven to 220°C, gas mark 7
Equipment: A baking sheet with a non-stick liner, and a 5cm plain (or fluted) cutter
Method Rub the butter into the sieved flour using your fingertipsStir in the sugar and dried cranberries followed by a pinch of salt. Pour the lemon juice into the pomegranate juice to mix it Use a knife to mix in the pomegranate/lemon juice Knead the mixture with your hands to a soft dough (add more juice if it feels dry)Roll out dough to a thickness of 3cm Without twisting the cutter, cut out the scones and put them on baking sheetbrush some beaten egg over the top Bake near top of oven for 12-15 minutes
I loved that the dough was pink!When they’re done they will have risen and turned a golden brown, but there will still be pinkish purplish hues coming through - perfect for Halloween or even Valentines day - especially if you were to use a heart shaped cookie cutter.
Full disclosure - I'm not great at baking, but I am a top notch experimenter! And sometimes it works out - I should have a separate blog for all the ones that don't...
These scones were so delicious that I didn't even have to put butter and jam on them, but peach and lavender jam would have been wow with them - If I'd had any left from last year.
Leave a comment and let me know if you do try any of the recipes or have any other interesting tweaks for them.
Byddi Lee
October 30, 2015
All Kinds of Specials
Today's post has not one, not two, but three special announcements to do with books... but first of all Happy Halloween!
1st Special Announcement
Halloween is a really special time in my book March to November. To avoid spoilers I won't tell you why, but I have the book on special offer on Kindle from now until November 2nd, the day the book finishes, so please, use the link below and go have a look for yourself. You can also gift kindle books to your friends - a great time to stock up for the holiday season.
And when they check the price after the November 2nd and it's gone back up they'll think you are really generous!
2nd Special Announcement
Inspired by a request last month to post an author-signed copy of March to November as a birthday gift, I came up with the idea of doing that for Christmas/Holiday gifts. If you contact me via my website contact page or email address,we can decide what will be written inside the book. I'll sign it and ship it anywhere in the USA for only $15, that's FREE SHIPPING for the month of November, a saving of 25%. And I'll be doing all the running around and posting of your pressys! One less thing for you to do in the run up to Christmas...
3rd Special Announcement
I've just published a new book! It's not a novel - I'm still working on the next one. To buy one just click on the picture.
It's a Hiker's Journal - a book where you do the writing. It's the perfect way to plan and record your hiking adventures. It has a combination of structured prompts, freestyle notes and additional unlined pages are perfect for sketching that idyllic view. There's a place for emergency contacts and medical information. The check-list at the beginning will help you efficiently pack everything you need for each trip. There is a section to record that inspiring social media post as the muse strikes, so you won’t forget it by the time you reach cell phone coverage. It has a space to jot down the filename of your favorite photo, so you can easily find it later.
This journal also functions as a training tool to track your progress as your hikes increase in difficulty.
Its compact, 5 x 8 inch size makes it easy to carry along. The bright orange edging on the cover makes it easy to find in a pack and helps prevent it being left behind when you move on. There are 25 hikes per book. It's a handy resource for Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and hiking clubs for all age groups.
Create a timeless memoir of your adventure, so you never forget a moment and it makes a great present for the hikers in your life too.
So now you've bought all those books, I have one last request -
When you've read the book please give it an honest review on Amazon. Reviews on Amazon are really important to the authors "find-ability" especially for us independently-published authors who don't have the heft of the big publishing houses behind them. Getting exposure is a daily grind for us. It's rumored that if you can get more than 100 reviews on Amazon that they will start to promote your book by suggesting it to other readers. That's my goal. Right now I have 47 reviews on the US site and 18 on the UK site. Unfortunately they won't amalgamate them, so I'm working on drumming up more...
However, I refuse, point blank, to pay for reviews. The internet is full of such offers and while it's tempting, right now Amazon is cracking down on that and rightly so. Besides, I want honest reviews - If I get 5 stars, I want to know they are real. If I get only 1 or 2 stars I'm a big enough girl to know that not everyone is going to like every book out there (though I dread the day that happens!)
So please consider posting your review - it doesn't have to be long - one line will do, and we authors really do appreciate it.
Byddi Lee
1st Special Announcement
Halloween is a really special time in my book March to November. To avoid spoilers I won't tell you why, but I have the book on special offer on Kindle from now until November 2nd, the day the book finishes, so please, use the link below and go have a look for yourself. You can also gift kindle books to your friends - a great time to stock up for the holiday season.
And when they check the price after the November 2nd and it's gone back up they'll think you are really generous!
2nd Special Announcement
Inspired by a request last month to post an author-signed copy of March to November as a birthday gift, I came up with the idea of doing that for Christmas/Holiday gifts. If you contact me via my website contact page or email address,we can decide what will be written inside the book. I'll sign it and ship it anywhere in the USA for only $15, that's FREE SHIPPING for the month of November, a saving of 25%. And I'll be doing all the running around and posting of your pressys! One less thing for you to do in the run up to Christmas...
3rd Special Announcement
I've just published a new book! It's not a novel - I'm still working on the next one. To buy one just click on the picture.
It's a Hiker's Journal - a book where you do the writing. It's the perfect way to plan and record your hiking adventures. It has a combination of structured prompts, freestyle notes and additional unlined pages are perfect for sketching that idyllic view. There's a place for emergency contacts and medical information. The check-list at the beginning will help you efficiently pack everything you need for each trip. There is a section to record that inspiring social media post as the muse strikes, so you won’t forget it by the time you reach cell phone coverage. It has a space to jot down the filename of your favorite photo, so you can easily find it later. This journal also functions as a training tool to track your progress as your hikes increase in difficulty.
Its compact, 5 x 8 inch size makes it easy to carry along. The bright orange edging on the cover makes it easy to find in a pack and helps prevent it being left behind when you move on. There are 25 hikes per book. It's a handy resource for Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and hiking clubs for all age groups.
Create a timeless memoir of your adventure, so you never forget a moment and it makes a great present for the hikers in your life too.
So now you've bought all those books, I have one last request -
When you've read the book please give it an honest review on Amazon. Reviews on Amazon are really important to the authors "find-ability" especially for us independently-published authors who don't have the heft of the big publishing houses behind them. Getting exposure is a daily grind for us. It's rumored that if you can get more than 100 reviews on Amazon that they will start to promote your book by suggesting it to other readers. That's my goal. Right now I have 47 reviews on the US site and 18 on the UK site. Unfortunately they won't amalgamate them, so I'm working on drumming up more...
However, I refuse, point blank, to pay for reviews. The internet is full of such offers and while it's tempting, right now Amazon is cracking down on that and rightly so. Besides, I want honest reviews - If I get 5 stars, I want to know they are real. If I get only 1 or 2 stars I'm a big enough girl to know that not everyone is going to like every book out there (though I dread the day that happens!)
So please consider posting your review - it doesn't have to be long - one line will do, and we authors really do appreciate it.
Byddi Lee
