Wondrous Winter

  

As Autumn winds to an end, and the longest night of the year betides, 

so the Heavens herald yet another season,

even as the planets align, and ever the stars guard and guide.

Jupiter - Saturn - Venus

Wishing a wondrous Winter to all!

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Quite a harrowing year for our pumpkins.

But they shone through absolutely beautifully...

as Jack-o'-lanterns

AND

as holiday pies!

Wishing a Happy Thanksgiving to everybody!

Hallowe'en On Its Way

 

 

As the Scarecrow watches

And the Moon and planets blaze

Darkness keeps Falling

Hallowe'en is on its way!

Pumpkins Fall

For the past couple of Autumns, I have been working on a story about a young farmer who defends her crop of pumpkins from a mysterious bandit.

My own crop of pumpkins fell victim to a bandit this past Summer. Some out-of-control yahoo driver crashed through our fence and ran right over our garden beds. The driver proceeded to creep backward and forward, backward and forward, almost as if targeting each blooming plant, before smashing back through and tearing away into the street and out through the neighbourhood full of children. The culprit has yet to be located

We lost tomatoes, peppers, a few planters, a trellis, and some timbers, among other garden items.

I feared our pumpkins plants were ruined. (One early-developing fruit--which was growing quite nicely and promising to be a beauty--was horribly squashed!)

Nevertheless, the vines survived. The plants endured, stressed and stunted as they were, going on to yield a decent little crop of small to medium-sized pumpkins.

We are so proud of those strong, resilient pumpkin plants.

When I start back on my story this weekend, I will be sure to incorporate the harrowing episode in its pages.

 

(I still have to fix the fence.)

Back To School

Here I am, focusing on the moment amidst a mad rush of preparing for the new school year, helping my wife get her new classroom ready for Back-To-School night.

 

 Here's the final sketch--a scene to help her students to strive for the mountaintops.

 

Little Free LIbrary Impact

A nice story for these troubled days.

 

Via Wyoming State Library social media:

https://bookriot.com/wind-river-reservation-little-free-library/ 

Reminds me that I have to get building my own Little Free Library.

There'll never be enough.

Working for the Summer

I have so much work to complete over the Summer break.

But my wife conscripted me to help in her summer school SPED class for a few days.

 

Here's me wiped out for the afternoon:

...even as Summer seems to be fading away already.

Good Ol' Rocky

 

 What a good dog, too!

 

 

Thank you, Rocky.

The End at the end

I've seen lots of fellow writers lately showing off the words "The End," indicating that they have at last finished a piece of writing.

 I've never written "The End" after finishing a manuscript. Never. 

Always seemed an unnecessary couple of words.

Yet, I've never had a piece of writing, when I looked back over it after any prolonged absence, that I did not want to have another go at editing.

Maybe that's one of my problems: that every work I've ever written is still a work in progress--that they all remain unended.

I'm approaching the finish on a work.

I wonder if writing "The End" at the end will help make it seem more like the end of the end.

 

 

 

Good Ol' Fawset

 What a good dog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Thank you, Fawset.

 

 

 

 

Young Authors Always Inspire

My writing has been slow going lately. I've had a whole lot happening at home and work the last couple months, even as I keep grinding away at a few frustrating pieces that should have been finished by now.

Nevertheless, Young Authors season has returned, and I have once again taken up the task of coordinating the district program.

And, once again, I am astonished as ever to witness the pure joy of writing evident in the work of every young author. And the talent! There's a non-fiction story from a young second grader about her experiences with neurofibromatosis that is pretty much publishable as is. Talk about inspiring. 

So, as I struggle onwards with mine own efforts, I take heart. Our students, who compose the next generation of writers, keep emerging and keep advancing. And I am honoured to keep helping them share their work. And I am inspired to keep working to share mine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inauguration Day

Being a Teacher Librarian in a public school, I must maintain an apolitical social profile.

Nevertheless, anyone who knows me knows precisely how I feel about today.