Tag: photos

Complete! and sort of Circular


As noted previously, during the Beryl power outage, I began rereading romantic suspense novels by Mary Stewart that I’ve been reading since the dawn of time when I was a teenager. After I finished the lot of them, I wondered how many I might be missing, so I looked up her complete list of works. There are the King Arthur books I’ve never read, and some children’s books, but turns out I actually own all of her romantic suspense novels. I shared photos of all the covers in previous posts, up to these two. Even though I’d reread both since 2020, I read them again.


They have two of my favorite male characters, and many of their qualities inspired male characters I’ve written (humor, sensitivity, kindness, strength, intelligence).

I did find in my search a novella and a short story that were published under the guidance of Mary Stewart’s niece, Jennifer Ogden. I’d read neither of these and ordered this edition immediately, which I’ve finished reading today (after an eye exam and a long nap so my eyes could return to their undilated state).

The Wind Off the Small Isles and “The Lost One.” In The Wind Off the Small Isles, Stewart included an Easter egg via a reference to a character in her novel This Rough Magic, an actor named Sir Julian Gale. There’s also an excerpt from that novel at the end of the collection.

This Rough Magic ranks in my top-favorite Stewart novels because it draws from Shakespeare’s The Tempest in its plot. Thanks to the play and Stewart’s novel, my interest was piqued by the 1982 film Tempest. Like Mary Stewart’s novel, the film borrows a lot from Shakespeare’s play. The film is unseen by most people I know–unless I’ve made them watch it with me. (Of course, I own the DVD–do you know me?) Tim and Jim still quote from it.

Tempest was directed by Paul Mazursky and stars the late John Cassavetes (who has long served as a physical model, along with a few of his qualities as a film director/producer of independent films, for one of my secondary characters in the Neverending Saga); Cassavetes’s wife Gena Rowlands; and introducing the young Sam Robards (son of Jason Robards and Lauren Bacall) and future brat-packer Molly Ringwald. This was also the film in which I was introduced to the brilliant actor Raul Julia.

My Muses and inspirations can be found among many people, novels, films, music, and art.

ETA: Beautiful Gena Rowlands died on August 14, age 94. I will think of her reunited with her husband, the two of them making beautifully crafted films together for always. Thank you, John and Gena, for being muses to me.

In the box


Yesterday, I finished reading Louisa Morgan’s The Great Witch of Brittany, recommended to me by my friend Princess Patti. It’s the most recently written (2022) of a series that includes:
A Secret History of Witches (2017)
The Witch’s Kind (2019)
The Age of Witches (2020)

I haven’t read the others (yet), but I don’t think reading out of order will be a problem because this one provides a lot of context for the others. I always enjoy an author who has a compelling gift for world building and story telling. The Great Witch of the title is Ursule, a member of a Romani family that includes a line of witches. From childhood to matriarchy, the many-layered Ursule is an “outsider,” which is both curse and blessing–it puts her in danger, but it also leads her to discover her gifts.

Ursule is strong, brave, and almost always compassionate (and experiences a lot of heartbreak). For most of her life, she has one solid and trusted friend, a raven named Drom. Of course that appealed to me, corvid admirer that I am. Drom has his own way of communicating (though he actually does speak a two-word phrase, he’s not a talking animal). He’s guide, friend, protector, and supporter, and he has a sense of humor.

After I finished the book, I kept thinking about Drom, which led me to get out the box that holds my various animal decks and flip through them to admire the ravens and crows. The crow and raven cards pictured here are from Animal Spirits.

I either have to stop collecting animal decks, or I’ll need a bigger box.

Tiny Tuesday!

I just finished reading this novel from Ann Patchett, Tom Lake (which was really good and made me cry at the end), and in the process of reading, I discovered a small bookmark I’d forgotten (to add to the Sunday Sundries bookmarks I’ve already shared).

Lisa in Iowa (aka “Nurse Lisa”)’s two dogs (gone years ago to the Rainbow Bridge), featured front and back, from a holiday photo shoot. They were such good girls and provided a lot of stories and photos back in the day on LiveJournal.

Sophie

 

Phoebe

Sunday Sundries

On the first Sunday Sundries post, when I asked for suggestions for future entries, this, from A Blue Sky Boy: Open your box of Crayola crayons and pick a colour at random (without replacement so you can’t repeat it). Discuss the color!

First, I want to share the joy of a 1991 Crayola™ tin which “features some of the most famous colors in crayon history.”

The moment you open the tin, you’re greeted by that waxy smell that’ll take you right back to your first days holding your first fat crayon in your little kid fingers.

This tin has a bonus box of eight crayons.


The back of the box explains how colors in this box were retired to make way for new colors.

(The new colors were dandelion, wild strawberry, vivid tangerine, fuchsia, teal blue, royal purple, jungle green, and cerulean.)

Here is the full array of the 64 colors in the 1991 box.

This is the crayon I chose from them all.

Green is, always has been, my favorite color. The color of mountain hillsides. The color of the woods I walked in as a child. Green was the grass beneath my bare feet when I ran through the sprinkler. Green was Mr. Green Jeans, Dino the dinosaur, and Kermit. Green was the color of my first love’s eyes. Green is ocean water. Green is new, fresh, rebirth, spring. Green is limes and sour apples and many of my favorite vegetables. Green is a last name. A movement. Green is so many of my favorite stones and crystals. Green is grasshoppers, caterpillars, toads and frogs, nearly transparent insect wings. Green is my first two cars that came to me through my first marriage. Green put the initial in the rainbow’s name, Roy G. Biv.

Green is life.

This and that…


Here’s a new-to-me deck that I’m very much looking forward to exploring: Colette Baron-Reid’s The Spirit Animal Oracle. The illustrations by Jena DellaGrottaglia are superb, so you may see a lot of these on here for the art alone. I like oracle decks in general a little more than tarot. The guidebook for this one is detailed but without giving overlong explanations.

I was eager to pull a card at random. Then I had to laugh.

I write a character who often reminds others, “Two things can be true at once,” (as related to things that may seem to be in opposition). He’s just about to get a taste of his own medicine in that regard in the scene I’ve been working on. I guess Dolphin is letting me know I’m supposed to be writing–but hey, Dolphin, this AND that are true: I need to be writing, and I needed you to remind me.

What, after all, is friendlier than a nudge from a dolphin? Sometimes, it even saves lives.

Tiny Tuesday!

When Tom and I took a walk through the neighborhood last week–on Day 6, when we talked to some actual utility workers in person–I found this dart without a point on the ground and picked it up. As far as Googled photos goes, I think this is a safety dart that’s part of a child’s toy set. I’ve tried in vain to develop a poem out of it, but the Muse is silent on the matter.

I even took out my 300 More Writing Prompts book in case it suggested something I could connect to the dart. No luck. However, I responded to the below prompt, a response I’ll keep private. Feel free to use your imagination as to how you’d answer this question for yourself:

You just won $100,000,000 in the lottery, what does your first day being a multi-millionaire look like?

Sunday Sundries


The wind didn’t turn our patio table over. Tom removed the umbrella and put it in the Lean To, then turned over the patio so Beryl wouldn’t flip and possibly break it. We’ll be spending time cleaning up all the different patios and sidewalks over the next week or so. Tom’s work schedule should get back to normal. Houston will hopefully start also being more normal, and OH HOW I HOPE EVERYONE SOON HAS POWER. The temps will be higher in the coming week than they have been.


As for me, I’m still working to manage my anxiety, and along with hopefully getting back to my own characters and world of the imagination, I intend to continue reading Mary Stewart, though not one or more a day as I have been. I’ll try to savor them. I might even finish up with my two absolute favorites (not pictured here) that were in my original Coping Skills Toolbox, meaning I’ve already reread them once since 2020. But they are my favorites, so…

Beryl: Day 7


Sunday, and larger trucks from GMB, the West Virginia company, began pulling into our neighborhood in the morning. We could hear them behind us and all around us. Then we saw this:


Notice that cherry picker on the other side of our back fence? Notice that now-brown tree limb that was tangled in our lines has fallen to the ground and the power lines are beginning to look normal?


Tom dragged that bad boy across the backyard, through the gate, and to the debris pile on our curb.


To keep myself from going crazy hoping and waiting and wishing for electricity, I kept reading my Mary Stewart book.

Finally, our power was restored at around 2:20 PM. I finished my book and, along with Tom, spent the day trying to get our house in some kind of order. The return of electricity comes with a dash of paranoia. Other customers have had power restored over the past few days only to lose it anywhere from two to 24 hours later. It’s hard to feel secure.

In addition, it’s thundering. It’s going to be a while before thunder stops sounding more ominous than normal. To help keep my anxiety in check, other than reading and cleaning, I began updating and revising this website throughout the day. If you’re reading this, you know I’ve tried to add something to all the days. I’ll try to compose a Sunday Sundries post after the fact, along with a Mindful Monday post, and that should give me some record of how this week has been.

Mostly, it’s been a long seven days… Thank you to people from all over the country who’ve texted, messaged, and called us. It really helps to know friends and family are thinking of us and wishing us well. I’ll also be replying to the comments left here while I wasn’t able to be online.

Beryl: Day 6

[Original post on this date: Back in May when we lost power, it was restored on the sixth day. I remember hoping we’d never be without power for six days again.

Be careful what you wish for, right? Because we have no power and it’s just about to become seven days. ]


Another strong contender for a Mary Stewart favorite, this book has so many things I love that I even forced Tom to sit and listen to me elaborate on them. It also has one of the most touching epilogues I’ve ever read in a novel.

A circus in Vienna, a horse with a great backstory, and a strong leading man with a smart, interesting wife. I remember Greg and I once discussing how easy it would be to rewrite this using the Internet in place of the movie reel that kicks things off.

The novel is much more appealing than everyone’s debris piles. Tom and I took a walk around the neighborhood today and he got some photos with his phone that will probably end up on this website one day. His photos are ALSO better than debris piles.

One street over, we saw some power guys from a company in West Virginia that travels throughout the country to help with disaster recovery. When we talked to them, they’d already checked out the tangled tree at our fence line and it was on their list. This is the first contact we’ve had with anyone about repairs. We’re reluctant to feel hopeful, though, because some repair dates in our area are as far out as the nineteenth.