Invasive species
Apr. 23rd, 2025 08:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jhetleyTwo mourning doves under the feeder now. I expect endless coo-ah noise. Doves, mockingbirds, and the cardinals have extended their range in recent decades, disturbing the peace.
It's no better to be safe than sorry
Apr. 23rd, 2025 08:18 amrolanniWhat went before ONE: I've shifted some furniture, and I think we're good for tomorrow. There's plenty of room to get the old machines OUT, and the new machines are smaller, ergo.
My one -- well, two -- remaining worries are (1) timing (no phone call from Home Despot yet) and (2) where am I going to put the cats while this is going on? Rookie has an Unhealthy Interest in the front door, so I don't quite trust them all to just run downstairs like sensible cats...
I guess I could try to toss them into my bathroom, though catching Tali isn't by any means easy...
What went before TWO: In case anybody cares, kinematic equations are those equations that can be used to predict unknown information regarding an object's motion. If you know three of four variables, then the fourth can be calculated.
The four variables are: displacement, time, acceleration, velocity.
My head now hurts, but the worst part is that I'm pretty sure I don't have enough of a grasp to actually use this information for what I thought I wanted to use it for.
When they tell writers to "Write what you know"? What that means is that you'll spend a lot of time reading about Z until you know (enough about) Z to write about it.
What went before THREE: Tomorrow! I can look for the delivery of my washer and dryer between the hours of 7:30 and 11:30!
Sigh.
In other news, the lawn guy -- that is to say, One. Single. Guy. with a blower on his back, has been doing Spring Cleanup at my place since 1:00. I'm getting a *little* tired of the noise, though honestly it was perfect for doing ASL. I can't imagine where the lawn guy's head is. He is wearing earphones, but The Long Back Yard really IS long, and four hours is a LONG time to vacuum leaves.
Well. I have Imposed Structure on the WIP. I was going to read through it to make sure it made sense this way, but, um. Maybe tomorrow. While I'm getting up early and waiting for the delivery guys. And, hey. An "early" delivery means I can start in washing clothes before moonrise.
For lunch, I made some kind of bean stew that turned out really well, which is good, because I have a lot left over.
EDITED TO ADD: And help has arrived for my Lone Lawn Guy in the shape of another guy and a truck with a serious vacuum, which is sucking up the Big Pile of Leaves in the driveway.
Wednesday. Sun coming up bright and ambitious.
The Wait for the Washer hasn't quite started, but I thought, just in case I happen to be first on the list, that I should be awake. So! Kettle's on for tea, and Classic Rewind is on for music.
As soon as I have my tea, I'm hitting the comfy chair -- no better not. Better find something to eat. Anyway, first thing up, after caffeine and breakfast is a review of the WIP in its adjusted shape.
I've unplugged the resident washer and dryer, but the delivery crew better -- ah, "Werewolves of London" on the radio -- have a wrench, 'cause there's No Way I'm getting the hoses off of the washer.
That's all I've got this early.
Here -- have a picture of the Long Back Yard.
...I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's and his hair was perfect...
EDITED TO ADD: This Just In! Delivery now scheduled between 9:30 and 1:30. So clearly, I'm not the first on the list. Also? Plot Twist! I need to have an adult present to sign. I wonder if the next door neighbor's home.
Today's blog post brought to you by Ah-Ha, "Take On Me" (I have always loved this video, but then, I tend to like stories about people Becoming...)
Days of future past
Apr. 23rd, 2025 06:56 amjhetleyAir temperature 44 F, wind west about 5 mph, cloudy. Squirrels still gnawing away at the acorns paving our front yard. Hope the oak isn't as bountiful next fall -- that area is going to be dangerous when the mowers start to run. Projectiles.
Annual Earth Day Post
Apr. 22nd, 2025 10:23 amcatherineldfSo I used to call this “The Greening of Our Lives” when I started it, but there is no more “our” so I think I’ll drop that part. And I haven’t done one of these for the past couple of years because, honestly, it was too depressing. But you can click through on the hashtags if you want to see what we did before this point.
Between April of 2024 and today, I’ve:
Between April of 2024 and today, I’ve:
- Had a new heat pump dryer and high efficiency washer installed (just yesterday!). Energy + water savings + reduced gas use
- Had new window treatments installed to help block drafts and increase natural light (also to make me feel less like Miss Havisham)
- Continued to work from home so less driving time.
- Got an induction hot plate and cookware set (Costco, for the win!) to reduce amount of cooking on gas stove.
- Upgraded my convection oven so I use the gas oven less.
- Had an home energy audit done and got a low flow shower head and some insulation on the basement pipes.
- Started container gardening
- Doubled down on the pollinator plants and reducing the grass. Continue to avoid pesticides and herbicides.
- Switched to buying more used/refurbished electronics
- Continued involvement with Buy Nothing Club
- Switched Queen of Swords Press to recycled/recyclable mailers from Eco Enclose and recycled paper shopping bags from Nashville Wraps.
- Switched QoSP newsletter to Buttondown, a platform that doesn’t use AI (so far) and reinvests part of the proceeds in environmental projects.
- Continued with Windsource, continue to avoid AI use wherever possible, recycling, composting, reusing, etc.
- Support local and international green projects.
Well, how did I get here?
Apr. 22nd, 2025 09:16 amrolanniWhat went before ONE: Aaaand, back. Home Despot only had part of what I wanted, but I did not go to Augusta. Instead I went to the new Reny's, which is awesome. I bought a plastic folding table for less than $10, which I can sit out on the deck with my chair and have a place to put my tea or my glass of wine, or even my sandwich. I bought olives and soup, and a pair of summer-weight Carhartt utility jeans. But that's not the Exciting Part.
The Exciting Part is that Reny's Heard Me and now has a Reny's Passport! You have to visit all nineteen Reny's in Maine, and get your passport stamped at each one, then submit it for a chance at the Grand Prize! They'll even return your passport after the contest is over.
I got my passport stamped at Waterville today -- only 18 more to go!
What went before TWO: And, I now need a Big Umbrella, because the little open-sided tent took two of us to put up -- and it wasn't easy, even with. So! I have something to shop for at the next Reny's on my list.
What went before THREE: I just spent some time breaking down a few of Winter's Boxes and getting them into the open recycling bin for delivery to the curb tomorrow. I do not think there is a movie on my schedule this evening. I have an Idea about What Happens Next in the WIP.
Time to fix lunch, eh?
What went before FOUR: Writing consisted of Staring into Space, and trying to figure out how to get lightly through a convoluted piece of business without boring myself to death. I think I've got it. Of course, I thought that earlier, too.
And, that? Is the afternoon/early evening report.
Everybody stay safe; I'll see you tomorrow.
Tuesday. Damp, but they say no rain. Trash and recycling, including the boxes I broke down yesterday, are at the curb.
Today's music is one of my favorites, "Once in a Lifetime," Talking Heads. One of the two major songs that Agent of Change was written to. There was a mini-commentary from one of the band members before Mr. Hunter put on the music, speaking to why this song was Talking Heads first Number One. Said bandmate's opinion was it had been the line, "How did I get here?" that sold it to the millions, and he may be right. All I know is that the line that sold it to me, for Val Con, was "My god. What have I done?" And -- bonus -- the muttering at the end about "and now a twister comes..."
I see the signs of a feline decorating aesthetic on and around my desk. Why, yes, that pen does look better under the adding machine; and the Kleenex box on the floor, angled against the wheels of my chair. Why didn't I think of this?
Breakfast coming up soon -- pb&j on a whole wheat English muffin. I have leftover pork, so I guess that's lunch in some form.
Today is partially about Moving Things for the Grand Arrival of the Washer and Dryer, tomorrow at an as-yet undetermined time. Also, I want to get some writing done.
I don't know if it works this way for anybody else, and, indeed, it only works this way for me some of the time -- but I have to hit a certain Mass of Narrative before I understand the structure that has to be imposed in order to have All of This, err, make sense. I know they tell you in English/Writing class that structure is one of the first things you determine. Bear in mind that, in class, they also tell you that you have to know the POV's motivation before writing Word One. Yes, if I roll my eyes any harder they will roll right out of my head, thank you.
So! Breakfast for me, coming right up.
What's coming right up for you?
Today's blog title brought to you, naturally, from The Talking Heads, "Once in a Lifetime"
EDITED TO ADD, because someone did ask: The other song Agent of Change was written to is was also from The Talking Heads, and it is, of course, "Life During Wartime," which is basically the plot of Agent of Change...
Regarding Earth Day
Apr. 22nd, 2025 06:58 amjhetleyWe still have stashed away, a bumper sticker from the first iteration that proclaims:
"The Pollution You Breathe May Be Your Own"
Remains true.
"The Pollution You Breathe May Be Your Own"
Remains true.
Gradual greening
Apr. 22nd, 2025 06:50 amjhetleyAir temperature 41 F, wind south 9 mph gusting to 18, fog at the airport station but cloudy here. Roads are wet, cars don't have wipers going. Should be able to forage later.
Each Book Has Its Own Process
Apr. 21st, 2025 10:29 pmjreynoldswardAfter twenty-five or so books, you would think I’d have this whole novel-writing process down solid. Have a viable strategy, be organized, go about the development of constructing characters and plot in a somewhat coherent manner.
Ha! (she laughs bitterly)
Every book is its own process. Sometimes I’m lucky enough to have a series that uses the same methodology for each book, but that isn’t always the case.
That happened with my first two series, the Netwalk Sequence and Goddess’s Honor. Granted, they were early works, but as I progressed through both series, I ended up changing things around. What became key for both of those series was a very detailed scene matrix where I literally identified where every major character was in each scene and what their motives were within that scene. I did the basic outline by hand before writing, then went back and analyzed each scene as part of my revisions.
I had several reasons for organizing myself in that manner. First, as it turned out, I was alternating writing books in both series so that I had two books coming out a year, one book in one series, the other in the other one. Second, I had multiple character viewpoints, so I wanted to ensure that the voices in the book were balanced. Third, those characters were scattered across the continent (and across the ocean) in Goddess’s Honor, while characters were on Earth/the Moon/space stations in the Netwalk Sequence. Fourth, we were in the process of a long distance move to a second home.
Well, lessons learned.
First, I vowed that I was NOT going to have four POVs in future work because it just got too complicated and, I fear, weakened the impact of the story, though—looking back, those multiple POVs were necessary. At least for those particular story arcs.
Second, I decided that I was not going to switch between series, but would write a series all at once, then release the volumes close together. I cheated a little bit doing this with the assorted Martiniere sub-series because I also ended up writing a couple of unrelated books as well as a couple of novellas during that time. But—Kindle Vella had just started up and I had appropriate ideas that would be good for that market. An allowable reason.
Writing a series all at once helped me deal with problems in book continuity within a series, though those darn characters kept twisting things between the beginning of the first book and the last part of the last book (glaring at The Cost of Power, which really tried my patience with last-minute discoveries, such as the linkage between the Martinieres and the Carolingian Mythos. When Durendal appears in the last third of the third volume of Power, Redemption, I wanted to scream. Then I took a deep breath and revised everything).
I also came up with a new strategy involving Scrivener and Word which dealt with some of the travel issues. Years ago, I wrote in WordPerfect and took advantage of its master document formatting setup, which allowed me to draft chapters as separate files, then link them so that I could call them up in one big document. My Word drafting was all one document which…got annoying when I needed to refer back to earlier sections for continuity’s sake.
I was already starting to consolidate my research notes and my character notes in Scrivener. Then it dawned on me—why not draft a chapter in Word, then paste it into Scrivener? I already was keeping Scriv open to access my outline and character notes. Putting the book into Scriv chapter-by-chapter allowed me to a.) appropriately version the story, and b.) made drafting continuity a lot easier.
Solved that problem, but—then it became an issue of story organizing.
I am sometimes a hard-core plotter, and sometimes…not. For the last batch of books, I started writing chapter-by-chapter synopses. As continuity tweaked things, I’d edit the chapter synopses in Scriv with dates and notes in bold. Well, it worked—for those books.
Then I started drafting the current work-in-progress, Vision of Alliance, the first book of Goddess’s Vision. This series, a sequel series to Goddess’s Honor in what I’m now calling the world of the Seven Crowned Gods, has been my bane for over five years now. I started working on the Martinieres to avoid it because while I knew I wanted to write what happens next, I just couldn’t find the opening. Shades of the first series, because it took me years to find the opening for Pledges of Honor, the original first book of Goddess’s Honor (the official first book, Beyond Honor and Other Stories, is made up of stories I wrote later).
When I finished The Cost of Power trilogy, I flailed around trying to poke at other ideas. Nope. None of them wanted to do anything. It was time to start work on Goddess’s Vision. The Martinieres were done unless I wanted to write the next generation and…I couldn’t do that, either.
Very well. Goddess’s Vision it was. But I couldn’t come up with ideas for more than one book. Well, I figured it would come. Time to start writing.
I got to about the fourth chapter, then had to take time off for business stuff. When I came back to the story, I read what I had written and…dear God, it was packed full of telling. I was skipping over far too much in the story and…I made myself go back and rewrite. Drafted several chapters and---oopsie, guess what. Glossed over story stuff once again. So now I’m juggling several chapters-to-be-written as well as revising already-written chapters to reflect the breaking out of important scenes.
At least I’m at the experience level where I recognized a developing problem before I got too far along.
All of this is new ground for me, because the only other time I had to tear apart a draft like this was with the first Netwalk book. And that came about because an editor saw problems in a second draft. Again, darn good thing I saw the problem developing before I got too much further along.
At this point, though, I’m definitely not worried about having enough material for a trilogy. I even know what the resolution is going to look like. It’s just…getting there.
Each book has its own process, and am I ever being reminded of that.
#
Hey, everyone! Just a reminder that your humble writer here appreciates comments, book purchases (one of these days I'll figure out Linktree and have a single place you can go to find all of my work besides Amazon and Smashwords), or Ko-fi donations.
The not-lost art of eloquence
Apr. 21st, 2025 05:48 pmswan_towerI think I've suddenly become an evangelist for figures of speech.
During a recent poetry challenge in the Codex Writers' Group, someone recommended two books on the topic: The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase by Mark Forsyth, and Figures of Speech: 60 Ways to Turn a Phrase by Arthur Quinn. I found both delightfully readable, in their different stylistic ways, and also they convinced me of what Forsyth argues early on, which is that it's a shame we've almost completely stopped teaching these things. We haven't stopped using them; we're just doing so more randomly, on instinct, without knowing what tools are in our hands.
What do I mean when I say "figures of speech"? The list is eighty-seven miles long, and even people who study this topic don't always agree on which term applies where. But I like Quinn's attempt at a general definition, which is simply "an intended deviation from ordinary usage." A few types are commonly recognized, like alliteration or metaphor; a few others I recall cropping up in my English classes, like synecdoche (using part of a thing to refer to a whole: "get your ass over here" presumably summons the whole body, not just the posterior). One or two I actually learned in Latin class instead -- that being a language that can go to town on chiasmus (mirrored structure) because it doesn't rely on word order to make sense of a sentence. ("Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country": English can do it, too, just a bit more loosely.) Others were wholly new to me -- but only in the sense that I didn't know there was a name for that, not that I'd never heard it in action. Things like anadiplosis (repeating the end of one clause at the beginning of the next: "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.") or anastrophe (placing an adjective after the noun it modifies: "the hero victorious" or "treason, pure and simple")*.
*Before you comment to say I'm using any of these terms wrong, refer to the above comment about specialists disagreeing. That anastrophe might be hyperbaton instead, or maybe anastrophe refers to more than just that one type of rearranging, or or or. Whatever.
Quinn's book is the older one (written in the early '80s), and something like two-thirds of his examples are from Shakespeare or the Bible. On this front I have to applaud Forsyth more energetically, because he proves his point about how these things aren't irrelevant to modern English by quoting examples from sources like Katy Perry or Sting. (The chorus of "Hot n Cold" demonstrates antithesis; the verses of "Every Breath You Take" are periodic sentences, i.e. they build tension by stringing you out for a long time before delivering the necessary grammatical closure.) And when you get down to it, a ton of what the internet has done to the English language actually falls into some of these categories; the intentionally wrong grammar of "I can haz cheeseburger" is enallage at work -- not that most of us would call it that.
But Quinn delivers an excellent argument for why it's worth taking some time to study these things. He doesn't think there's much value in memorizing a long list of technical terms or arguing over whether a certain line qualifies as an example -- which, of course, is how this stuff often used to be taught, back when it was. Instead he says, "The figures have done their work when they have made richer the choices [the writer] perceives." And that's why I've kind of turned into an evangelist for this idea: as I read both books, I kept on recognizing what they were describing in my own writing, or in the memorable lines of others, and it heightened my awareness of how I can use these tools more deliberately. Both authors point out that sentiments which might seem commonplace if phrased directly acquire impact when phrased more artfully; "there's no there there" is catchier than "Nothing ever happens there," and "Bond. James Bond." took a name Fleming selected to be as dull as possible and made it iconic. And it brought home to me why there's a type of free verse I find completely uninteresting, because it uses none of these things: the author has a thought, says it, and is done, without any intended deviations from ordinary usage apart from some line breaks. At that point, the poem lives or dies entirely on the power of its idea, and most of the ones I bounce off aren't saying anything particularly profound.
So, yeah. I'm kinda burbling about a new obsession here, and no doubt several of you are giving me a sideways look of "ummm, okay then." But if you find this at all interesting, then I recommend both books as entertaining and accessible entry points to the wild jungle of two thousand years of people disagreeing over their terms.
(originally posted at Swan Tower: https://is.gd/08rQSn)
During a recent poetry challenge in the Codex Writers' Group, someone recommended two books on the topic: The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase by Mark Forsyth, and Figures of Speech: 60 Ways to Turn a Phrase by Arthur Quinn. I found both delightfully readable, in their different stylistic ways, and also they convinced me of what Forsyth argues early on, which is that it's a shame we've almost completely stopped teaching these things. We haven't stopped using them; we're just doing so more randomly, on instinct, without knowing what tools are in our hands.
What do I mean when I say "figures of speech"? The list is eighty-seven miles long, and even people who study this topic don't always agree on which term applies where. But I like Quinn's attempt at a general definition, which is simply "an intended deviation from ordinary usage." A few types are commonly recognized, like alliteration or metaphor; a few others I recall cropping up in my English classes, like synecdoche (using part of a thing to refer to a whole: "get your ass over here" presumably summons the whole body, not just the posterior). One or two I actually learned in Latin class instead -- that being a language that can go to town on chiasmus (mirrored structure) because it doesn't rely on word order to make sense of a sentence. ("Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country": English can do it, too, just a bit more loosely.) Others were wholly new to me -- but only in the sense that I didn't know there was a name for that, not that I'd never heard it in action. Things like anadiplosis (repeating the end of one clause at the beginning of the next: "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.") or anastrophe (placing an adjective after the noun it modifies: "the hero victorious" or "treason, pure and simple")*.
*Before you comment to say I'm using any of these terms wrong, refer to the above comment about specialists disagreeing. That anastrophe might be hyperbaton instead, or maybe anastrophe refers to more than just that one type of rearranging, or or or. Whatever.
Quinn's book is the older one (written in the early '80s), and something like two-thirds of his examples are from Shakespeare or the Bible. On this front I have to applaud Forsyth more energetically, because he proves his point about how these things aren't irrelevant to modern English by quoting examples from sources like Katy Perry or Sting. (The chorus of "Hot n Cold" demonstrates antithesis; the verses of "Every Breath You Take" are periodic sentences, i.e. they build tension by stringing you out for a long time before delivering the necessary grammatical closure.) And when you get down to it, a ton of what the internet has done to the English language actually falls into some of these categories; the intentionally wrong grammar of "I can haz cheeseburger" is enallage at work -- not that most of us would call it that.
But Quinn delivers an excellent argument for why it's worth taking some time to study these things. He doesn't think there's much value in memorizing a long list of technical terms or arguing over whether a certain line qualifies as an example -- which, of course, is how this stuff often used to be taught, back when it was. Instead he says, "The figures have done their work when they have made richer the choices [the writer] perceives." And that's why I've kind of turned into an evangelist for this idea: as I read both books, I kept on recognizing what they were describing in my own writing, or in the memorable lines of others, and it heightened my awareness of how I can use these tools more deliberately. Both authors point out that sentiments which might seem commonplace if phrased directly acquire impact when phrased more artfully; "there's no there there" is catchier than "Nothing ever happens there," and "Bond. James Bond." took a name Fleming selected to be as dull as possible and made it iconic. And it brought home to me why there's a type of free verse I find completely uninteresting, because it uses none of these things: the author has a thought, says it, and is done, without any intended deviations from ordinary usage apart from some line breaks. At that point, the poem lives or dies entirely on the power of its idea, and most of the ones I bounce off aren't saying anything particularly profound.
So, yeah. I'm kinda burbling about a new obsession here, and no doubt several of you are giving me a sideways look of "ummm, okay then." But if you find this at all interesting, then I recommend both books as entertaining and accessible entry points to the wild jungle of two thousand years of people disagreeing over their terms.
(originally posted at Swan Tower: https://is.gd/08rQSn)
Morning Music
Apr. 21st, 2025 12:43 pmrolanniWhat went before ONE: So, one of the joys of writing in Archers Beach was being able to set things not only in a real place (for those coming in late, Archers Beach is built on the map of Old Orchard Beach), but in real time.
For instance, "The Night Don't Seem So Lonely." The White Way did burn on the night of the moon landing, and though the fire burned hot and strong and long, they didn't lose anybody, not even a mule. The firemen did have a bad minute, though, when they sighted the two kids up on top of the Jack 'n Jill, with the flames licking up all around them. They couldn't get the trucks close enough to deploy the ladders, so they dragged in the hoses, and they soaked the scaffolding and yelled at the kids to climb down, grabbed 'em when they got close enough and ran with them down to the beach.
A writer reading that piece of history might well ask herself, But, what were they DOING up on top of that ride that night, after the park had closed?
And that's where stories come from.
What went before TWO: No Actual Words written today, but I have been doing a lot of cleaning up and putting away and ... stuff, which says to me that I'm thinking. Tomorrow morning, I need to go to Home Despot, and if they don't have what I want, I will make the pilgrimage to the Capital City to visit Lowes. If Home Despot does have what I want, then I will perhaps visit the new Reny's before I come home and see if I've worked out enough story stuff to write.
I got desperately lost in the ASL homework today, and had to do some research before I could go back to class. This may have been me, or it may be that Dr. Bill got bored and decided to throw everybody off the pier and see who sinks and who swims.
WHOA!
Ahem. Tali was having the Zoomies. She got up to speed, took to the air at the edge of my office, was in full flight as she passed my shoulder, hit the top of the desk, slid OFF the desk, and zoomed out again. The rest of the cats are sitting in high places. With reason, I see.
On that note -- everybody stay safe.
I'll see you tomorrow.
Monday. Sunny. Not quite as warm as predicted.
Breakfast was Kodiak chocolate chip oatmeal and a cup of Irish Breakfast. Second cup of tea just up -- Twinings Focus, which Steve had laid in quite a few boxes, and it's not gonna drink itself. Lunch is too far away to think about.
Boy, Alan Hunter's on a roll on Classic Rewind this morning. "Welcome to the Jungle" (not a favorite song, but I love the line, "You can have anything you want, as long as you don't take it from me"), "Swingtown," "Betty Lou's Getting Married," "Beast of Burden" (one of the many songs Steve and I would sing together, and sit in the car until it was over), "Don't Let Him Go," "Midnight Blue," "New Girl Now..."
Firefly's in the living room, listening up close and personal, the other three are in my office, helping me type this note.
So, this morning, I need to go to Home Despot, and may also go elsewhere, depending on mood, and if I really want to go to a movie tonight.
Thanks to all who took the time to review recently. MUCH appreciated. If you have been considering leaving a review, but are embarrassed because you're not Totally Up To Date -- reviews on Old Books Count, too! If you love a particular book --- review it! Does no harm; may do some good. And I point out that this is not just the case for our/my books. If you loved a book, tell the world! and make a writer's day.
Before I finish my tea, do my duty to the cats and -- ooh, "Heartless" on the radio, now -- get on the road, I do wish to note that Cael the Wolf *knows* how to talk to a cat: Cael dropped to one knee, and bowed his head, squinting his eyes in a cat smile. "My lady," he said softly, "you honor me with your radiant presence."
Ghost moon over walk
Apr. 21st, 2025 10:30 amjhetleyOne of the many forsythia bushes on my morning's route *may* have its first blossoms opening. Yellow spots among the brownish gray. Our personal forsythia doesn't look like it will put out much color -- buds look like leaves, not flowers. No cat friends, no mockingbirds mocking.
Patriots Day (observed)
Apr. 21st, 2025 06:46 amjhetleyAir temperature 35 F, wind west about 6 mph, sunny. Marathon Day in Boston, along with a ball game. I will react to current trends the way I usually do, by taking a walk. Maybe some more yard work, if my aged body will support such toil.
About that wind . . .
Apr. 20th, 2025 10:13 pmjhetleyMaine utilities had over 13,000 power outages this afternoon. This is just wind-related, no snow or ice or flooding.