Song of the day: “A little time” by the Beautiful South. It might have something to do with the fact that it was the first song that went on on iTunes this morning, but still…had it before, will have it again, undoubtedly.
Grocery shopping day has arrived, much to my regret: the weather is downright beautiful and today would have been a splendid one to spend outside in the yard, working on turning more earth for seeding and planting, but no. The fridge is empty, the freezer is nearing that particular state and the cupboards are just collecting dust after two weeks and two days.
This means that aaargh day is here…again. Darn it!
But let’s not think of it yet, and talk about yesterday…which was decidedly boring, now that I think about it. The day had started out sunny, and reasonably doable temperature-wise so just as soon as the inside chores, such as laundry and some minor cleaning were done, it was time to head out into the yard.
For the next few hours I planted thyme, rosemary and garlic through the lower yard, placing an eclectic mix with the new planted trees to provide moisture holding cover by the roots, along with spicy aromas that should have some effect on parasites (or at least, that is the present theory, hah), along with chamomile seeds, by the way, just because…well, because I like chamomile. Hah.
By the time I was done, the wind had come in, along with clouds that fogged up the sky and brought the temperatures down to uncomfortable. A pity too, ‘cause we barely had time to sow some peppers and tomatoes before a soft drizzle started up.
While big brother and grandpa finished up sawing the wood for the bungalow fences, and attached them while the younger sibs and I worked on getting the grocery shopping list completed. Ten shops on the lists until now, aaaaargh.
Okay, ignoring it again.
After that list, I settled down to deal with my messages online and then get to the daily read-through edit. Managed 14 pages, yay, so we’ve crossed the 1/3 stage. On to half. Hah.
Chaos’ stitches went out the other day, and his face looks great. Hardly any scarring, and what little there is, makes him look like a pirate, hah. Went through the procedure like the darling that he is: on his back, paws in the air and his eyes blissfully closed as he purred like a kitten for all the attention. Hah. Eejit.
Our tenant is doing well. Those trips up the stairs (whenever she came for a visit, going home involved mounting stairs) made walking a lot easier for her. Proud as ever, she is. Why even yesterday we went for a nice little stroll on the old horse paddock. She walked all the way to the sand bags (approx. 30 yards) and back, chattering pleasantly and barely even winded when we got back. We were both pleasantly surprised.
So that brings us to today. It’s only noon now, so there is very little to tell, really. I woke up sometime during the night, there was this hard rumble, really loud, which I thought to be an earthquake (it does happen every once in a while) and then woke several other times without good reason. I didn’t mind though, waking up to the sun shining straight in my face when it was time to rise. It was downright beautiful and I hurried through the morning rituals to go down into the yard. Yesterday we’d put some seeds to soak in water, and I needed to put them in the pots I’d already filled with dirt.
This means that now we have melons on the way too…and not just any melons, nope. My favorite. Hah. Since I was down anyway, and since grandpa was still out (meaning that there was no fresh bread for breakfast yet) I took the opportunity to go through the yard and see how everything weathered the night’s storm.
Shallots are shooting up, the tomatoes are starting to bloom and the first buds of the fruit trees are opening up to the early morning sunshine. It was downright gorgeous.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Planting.
Song of the day:...some sort of classic tune that has no lyrics and which I don’t know the composer of, darn it; it just keeps going through my head. Not Vivaldi’s four seasons, though. Hah.
It’s been a busy couple of days, and since the weather was downright splendid, it wasn’t a strange thing at all. Tuesday the sun was out, the wind was up from the North and the temperatures were chilly…but the sun was out so who gives a fig! Yay. I really hurried through the morning rituals, especially since I’d overslept (something is up with my alarm, it’s making funny noises, or none at all) got a massive load of laundry done and headed out into the yard.
Seriously, getting down to the lower terraces, which are really in the lee of the mountain wind, it took me less than half an hour to start divesting layers…all six of them, until I ended up with only a long sleeved T that did just fine while we started digging out the edge of the terrace.
The dogs really do not appreciate yard work, I tell ya; they would love nothing better than being right beside us, digging up dirt with extreme enthusiasm, if we let them. Since it would rather beat the purpose of getting a veggie garden going, we resorted to locking them up into the courtyard on center garden instead, which causes a bit of resentment at times. Poor doggies; here us mean humans are keeping them from wrecking young plants by barging through them every five seconds. Hah.
Over the years, erosion has been sending down mud and dirt, which means that there was a lot of stuff to dig out before we reached the sand/rock bottom. We’re going to put down the aqua duct soon, and that’s where it’ll be. We had fully planned to do other tasks in the upper yard, but the sunshine was really too good to pass up on, so we decided to get six trees and put them in the ground before going up.
Of course, by the time we were done putting them in, we figured we might as well finish them all off, and had the younger sibs take them down from grandpas place. It was actually a wonderful afternoon, all in all, and we did manage to get all the plants in. There was a discussion between all, where we went over our options, and in the end we all decided to just take the full risk, rather than just “trying it out”; big brother and I went out to the nursery to get another handful of trees for the yard.
Got a pear, peach, plum and several more citruses, which we put into the ground today…yeah, I know, getting ahead of myself there. Can’t help it really, I’m a teeny bit cross-eyed and bedtime is lurking about the corner and me wants it…bad! Hah.
But anyway, since we were out to get the trees anyway, big brother and I decided to make another rock haul trip while we were out anyway, and managed to pile in a small load. We were running a bit behind, though, and we didn’t get home until after eight, which meant that we had to hurry through dinner and get our butts behind the computer for the read-through edit of “W.I. The White Doves” fast. Ten pages got done, like today (…okay, getting ahead again, sorry) before time was up and we had to leave again for the scavenge.
For some reason we stumbled on the cops, Guardias in this case, who demanded to know what we were doing in the area. It was kind of humorous, really, seeing as fully unintended big brother and I ended up chorusing our responses to the questions asked.
Let me give a demonstration of the conversation, which was in Spanish, I might add.
Me: “Ola!”
Guardia: “Do you live here?”
Me (big brother too): “Nooooh” rather startled too, since we were in an industrial area and it took a moment for the old noggin’ to translate the question. It almost sounded rehearsed.
Guardia: “Where do you live?”
Me (big brother too): Up the mountain, over there-ish,” pointing vaguely north while mentioning the area. The copper’s interest dropped a notch with the realization that we were annoying foreigners who didn’t “do” the language. Hah.
Guardia: “What are you carrying?” while aiming his flashlight in my face and then at the back of the car. It takes us another moment for us to translate the words.
Me (big brother too): “Wood…metal…ehm, oh yeah, garbage.” All in Spanish, remember. I could almost hear the interest drop another ten degrees. He flicked off the light, muttered an, “Okay, fine. Go!”
Which earned him a chorused, “Oh, good. Gracias,” before I drove off, and cast big brother a questioning glance. So weird, felt rather surreal.
Well, with that eventful trip behind us, I crashed for the night, actually managed six hours and a half and woke to another semi-sunny day that was spent putting in the new trees and some strawberries. We also managed to find sweet Italian peppers, our favorite melon seeds and chamomile. All should be going in the ground soon. Hah.
Every available spot is no harboring a fruit tree, leaving lots of room for further vegetable patch. I’ve gotta admit that the lower garden is really starting to look interesting. I’m most curious as to what is going work well ‘round here, and what not.
Our friend came for a nice visit today, and enjoyed basking in the sun while were chatting and putting in trees and such.
Considering we were done planting the trees before the day was through, the younger siblings and I hauled rocks down to where the outside kitchen is going to be, and while the continued doing so, I started chopping out a gutter of rock for the foundation of the concrete floor we need to pour first.
Since big brother was repairing his office chair, little brother and I headed out with the car for another batch of rocks, and loaded up fully in the last beams of daylight that were getting obstructed by clouds again. It looks like there is more rain coming, which means that, grocery shopping will be done either tomorrow, or the day after. If the weather is remotely good, it will be on Friday, but if we can’t do anything outside tomorrow, well, then we might as well get to it.
This evening was spent on the W.I.s again…I really need to get back in swing with the edit, and doing that read-through is essential in many ways. I forgot to do this blog this afternoon, so I really had to squeeze it in at the ending, so hopefully it’s remotely legible.
Well, I’ve got to hit the sheets before the floor hits me, so I’m outta here.
It’s been a busy couple of days, and since the weather was downright splendid, it wasn’t a strange thing at all. Tuesday the sun was out, the wind was up from the North and the temperatures were chilly…but the sun was out so who gives a fig! Yay. I really hurried through the morning rituals, especially since I’d overslept (something is up with my alarm, it’s making funny noises, or none at all) got a massive load of laundry done and headed out into the yard.
Seriously, getting down to the lower terraces, which are really in the lee of the mountain wind, it took me less than half an hour to start divesting layers…all six of them, until I ended up with only a long sleeved T that did just fine while we started digging out the edge of the terrace.
The dogs really do not appreciate yard work, I tell ya; they would love nothing better than being right beside us, digging up dirt with extreme enthusiasm, if we let them. Since it would rather beat the purpose of getting a veggie garden going, we resorted to locking them up into the courtyard on center garden instead, which causes a bit of resentment at times. Poor doggies; here us mean humans are keeping them from wrecking young plants by barging through them every five seconds. Hah.
Over the years, erosion has been sending down mud and dirt, which means that there was a lot of stuff to dig out before we reached the sand/rock bottom. We’re going to put down the aqua duct soon, and that’s where it’ll be. We had fully planned to do other tasks in the upper yard, but the sunshine was really too good to pass up on, so we decided to get six trees and put them in the ground before going up.
Of course, by the time we were done putting them in, we figured we might as well finish them all off, and had the younger sibs take them down from grandpas place. It was actually a wonderful afternoon, all in all, and we did manage to get all the plants in. There was a discussion between all, where we went over our options, and in the end we all decided to just take the full risk, rather than just “trying it out”; big brother and I went out to the nursery to get another handful of trees for the yard.
Got a pear, peach, plum and several more citruses, which we put into the ground today…yeah, I know, getting ahead of myself there. Can’t help it really, I’m a teeny bit cross-eyed and bedtime is lurking about the corner and me wants it…bad! Hah.
But anyway, since we were out to get the trees anyway, big brother and I decided to make another rock haul trip while we were out anyway, and managed to pile in a small load. We were running a bit behind, though, and we didn’t get home until after eight, which meant that we had to hurry through dinner and get our butts behind the computer for the read-through edit of “W.I. The White Doves” fast. Ten pages got done, like today (…okay, getting ahead again, sorry) before time was up and we had to leave again for the scavenge.
For some reason we stumbled on the cops, Guardias in this case, who demanded to know what we were doing in the area. It was kind of humorous, really, seeing as fully unintended big brother and I ended up chorusing our responses to the questions asked.
Let me give a demonstration of the conversation, which was in Spanish, I might add.
Me: “Ola!”
Guardia: “Do you live here?”
Me (big brother too): “Nooooh” rather startled too, since we were in an industrial area and it took a moment for the old noggin’ to translate the question. It almost sounded rehearsed.
Guardia: “Where do you live?”
Me (big brother too): Up the mountain, over there-ish,” pointing vaguely north while mentioning the area. The copper’s interest dropped a notch with the realization that we were annoying foreigners who didn’t “do” the language. Hah.
Guardia: “What are you carrying?” while aiming his flashlight in my face and then at the back of the car. It takes us another moment for us to translate the words.
Me (big brother too): “Wood…metal…ehm, oh yeah, garbage.” All in Spanish, remember. I could almost hear the interest drop another ten degrees. He flicked off the light, muttered an, “Okay, fine. Go!”
Which earned him a chorused, “Oh, good. Gracias,” before I drove off, and cast big brother a questioning glance. So weird, felt rather surreal.
Well, with that eventful trip behind us, I crashed for the night, actually managed six hours and a half and woke to another semi-sunny day that was spent putting in the new trees and some strawberries. We also managed to find sweet Italian peppers, our favorite melon seeds and chamomile. All should be going in the ground soon. Hah.
Every available spot is no harboring a fruit tree, leaving lots of room for further vegetable patch. I’ve gotta admit that the lower garden is really starting to look interesting. I’m most curious as to what is going work well ‘round here, and what not.
Our friend came for a nice visit today, and enjoyed basking in the sun while were chatting and putting in trees and such.
Considering we were done planting the trees before the day was through, the younger siblings and I hauled rocks down to where the outside kitchen is going to be, and while the continued doing so, I started chopping out a gutter of rock for the foundation of the concrete floor we need to pour first.
Since big brother was repairing his office chair, little brother and I headed out with the car for another batch of rocks, and loaded up fully in the last beams of daylight that were getting obstructed by clouds again. It looks like there is more rain coming, which means that, grocery shopping will be done either tomorrow, or the day after. If the weather is remotely good, it will be on Friday, but if we can’t do anything outside tomorrow, well, then we might as well get to it.
This evening was spent on the W.I.s again…I really need to get back in swing with the edit, and doing that read-through is essential in many ways. I forgot to do this blog this afternoon, so I really had to squeeze it in at the ending, so hopefully it’s remotely legible.
Well, I’ve got to hit the sheets before the floor hits me, so I’m outta here.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Done! Yay!!!
Song of the day: “Ain’t love a kick in the head” by Westlife...I know, I know, officially it’s from Sinatra but I like the snappier version. Hah.
Okay, I’m on a caffeine high, considering today was a long one, and I’ve still got some hours to go. Phew. I might need to have another coffee soon, ‘cause I feel like I’m running on fumes at the moment. Hah. No matter, though. It’s not as if I need to do any new writing.
Oh My Gawd, I totally forgot I haven’t said anything yet, but yeah, finished the book…or at least the writing. Yay. (Half-hearted yay, I admit.) Okay, let me do that right: “A Taste Of Life” (the extended version, or best described as a full length novel) is, as of Saturday night, officially FINISHED! Woohoo, yippee, yadayadayada, or as Amy Lane would say Squeeeee!…you get the idea. Hah.
It took me three months, almost to the dot (minus two days) to get down 80.000 words, crammed together in a full length, single title that can be described as a vampire-ish romance, of what is rapidly becoming my “life” series. The first one is done, five others are in the process of getting there. *sigh*
Just as soon as the dust has settled, so to speak, it’s time shift gears and start on the dreaded edit, which is something that I positively hate. So, I don’t know how long that is going to take, since I have no idea what all I wrote in the past three months, but it’ll be an adventure to find out…I think…how much needs to be altered, and how much is actually negligible. I’ve never before tried this particular technique, you know, writing stuff down as they come, and religiously refusing to read back of what has been put down the previous days. It’ll undoubtedly lead to lots of repetitions, but considering I always add new stuff in the edit, I’m going to need the word count of every repetition I remove.
I already had a sneak peek, considering big brother was leafing through the story, and sat there staring at the words with a sort of stunned “oh, right, I did write that down. When was it, oh yeah, three or four weeks…weird.” It is…weird, I mean. Nothing is weirder than reading back the words you wrote and having only a faint memory of writing them.
Ah well, yesterday was another “drowner”…literally. According to the news there were places where in just a few hours 90 the square meter dropped, which, I presume, is a lot. Hah. Seriously, though, I can honestly say that it was ridiculous wet again, and that meant it was another inside day for everyone involved.
Inside days count as domestic days, resulting in cleaning, but before I got to it, I decided to take the opportunity for a proper workout. It was rather wonderful, I’ll admit; going through all the old movement, punching, kneeing and kicking that boxing ball. I ended up exercising for a solid hour and a half (got to pay for it dearly today, mind you) and worked up a real sweat that earned me a really hot shower afterwards. *sigh*
Our tenant spent the last couple of days at our place, of course, seeing as she could use some company. While everyone was busy throughout the house, cleaning, vacuuming and dusting, she enjoyed being in the bustle of things, while she read her book.
There’s a lots of laundry, but it isn’t drying, of course. Annoying that. And, since I was inside anyway I took the chance to cook some dinner. Red beets/potato mash, seasoned with the wild onions from our yard. Yep, caught us by surprise too, but apparently they’re all over the place and they’re yummy. We’re definitely going to see about growing them deliberately this year, ‘cause they sure are a nice surprise. Taste like they’re a mix between good ol’ fashioned onion and leek.
But anyway, at the end of the day there was a semi-dry moment, which we used to head on out to get another load of rocks. It took a while, considering there was just the two of us, but we did manage a full car in the end. Afterwards we got behind the computers and sat down for a read through of W.I. Investigations/The White Doves, because we want to make sure that all the Is are dotted properly before we put it on there. Managed 18 pages, which we’re basically seeing as a way of “getting in the mood” for the big edit, before the end of the evening. By the time I got to my cabin I was seeing double again. Hah.
Be that as it may, today’s weather was a lot better. No real rain, so we used it brutally to do all the things we couldn’t do on the rainy ones: checking the progress of the plants (green beans are coming up) pouring concrete, yay! Seriously, while big brother and grandpa started on putting the fence on top of the new rock wall that surrounds grandpa’s place I started mixing concrete. Pouring it between the barrier that grandpa and big brother placed there, and then, by the time the younger siblings arrived, I passed the shovel over to little brother.
Knight II was making a nuisance of himself the whole day, snarling at the other dogs and everything, so when he refused to settle down I ended up putting him in the car, where he spent the majority of the afternoon snoozing on the front seat. It does amaze me how he manages to fold himself into such small places. Hah.
While he made the remainder of the cement I hauled a few big rocks and then tackled the tree trunks that needed to be stripped of their bark. It wasn’t as hard as I imagined it would be; grandpa showed me an old technique of a sharpened shovel, and with it I managed the task quite easily. Though, admittedly my sore arms (the workout! Gawd, there wasn’t a single muscle in my body that I didn’t “feel” today) weren’t in agreement with the easy part.
Once again, having finished with the concrete, little brother took over from me with the last three trunks, so I could join the younger sibs in working on a small section of wall, by the gate. What with windy days, we’re going to need a spot where the gate can be attached to something solid (to keep it from blowing shut, duh) ergo, a new short piece of wall…more thought of due to the wheelbarrow of concrete that was leftover after pouring. Hah.
The afternoon, when a soft drizzle started and we had just barely finished, big brother and I went for another rock-gathering trip (small rocks this time) just to finish up for the day. Got a wonderful stash going there, allowing for lots of work on the walls in the future…still so many to built, and so little time to do it in. Hah.
One of our lovebirds went and keeled over yesterday morning. I don’t what the heck is going on, but now the small pets appear to be dropping around us. First, Simmy, and now the yellow lovebird; so strange.
Well, time to get to work on the W.I. White Doves. I wonder how long I’ll manage to keep it up today.
Okay, I’m on a caffeine high, considering today was a long one, and I’ve still got some hours to go. Phew. I might need to have another coffee soon, ‘cause I feel like I’m running on fumes at the moment. Hah. No matter, though. It’s not as if I need to do any new writing.
Oh My Gawd, I totally forgot I haven’t said anything yet, but yeah, finished the book…or at least the writing. Yay. (Half-hearted yay, I admit.) Okay, let me do that right: “A Taste Of Life” (the extended version, or best described as a full length novel) is, as of Saturday night, officially FINISHED! Woohoo, yippee, yadayadayada, or as Amy Lane would say Squeeeee!…you get the idea. Hah.
It took me three months, almost to the dot (minus two days) to get down 80.000 words, crammed together in a full length, single title that can be described as a vampire-ish romance, of what is rapidly becoming my “life” series. The first one is done, five others are in the process of getting there. *sigh*
Just as soon as the dust has settled, so to speak, it’s time shift gears and start on the dreaded edit, which is something that I positively hate. So, I don’t know how long that is going to take, since I have no idea what all I wrote in the past three months, but it’ll be an adventure to find out…I think…how much needs to be altered, and how much is actually negligible. I’ve never before tried this particular technique, you know, writing stuff down as they come, and religiously refusing to read back of what has been put down the previous days. It’ll undoubtedly lead to lots of repetitions, but considering I always add new stuff in the edit, I’m going to need the word count of every repetition I remove.
I already had a sneak peek, considering big brother was leafing through the story, and sat there staring at the words with a sort of stunned “oh, right, I did write that down. When was it, oh yeah, three or four weeks…weird.” It is…weird, I mean. Nothing is weirder than reading back the words you wrote and having only a faint memory of writing them.
Ah well, yesterday was another “drowner”…literally. According to the news there were places where in just a few hours 90 the square meter dropped, which, I presume, is a lot. Hah. Seriously, though, I can honestly say that it was ridiculous wet again, and that meant it was another inside day for everyone involved.
Inside days count as domestic days, resulting in cleaning, but before I got to it, I decided to take the opportunity for a proper workout. It was rather wonderful, I’ll admit; going through all the old movement, punching, kneeing and kicking that boxing ball. I ended up exercising for a solid hour and a half (got to pay for it dearly today, mind you) and worked up a real sweat that earned me a really hot shower afterwards. *sigh*
Our tenant spent the last couple of days at our place, of course, seeing as she could use some company. While everyone was busy throughout the house, cleaning, vacuuming and dusting, she enjoyed being in the bustle of things, while she read her book.
There’s a lots of laundry, but it isn’t drying, of course. Annoying that. And, since I was inside anyway I took the chance to cook some dinner. Red beets/potato mash, seasoned with the wild onions from our yard. Yep, caught us by surprise too, but apparently they’re all over the place and they’re yummy. We’re definitely going to see about growing them deliberately this year, ‘cause they sure are a nice surprise. Taste like they’re a mix between good ol’ fashioned onion and leek.
But anyway, at the end of the day there was a semi-dry moment, which we used to head on out to get another load of rocks. It took a while, considering there was just the two of us, but we did manage a full car in the end. Afterwards we got behind the computers and sat down for a read through of W.I. Investigations/The White Doves, because we want to make sure that all the Is are dotted properly before we put it on there. Managed 18 pages, which we’re basically seeing as a way of “getting in the mood” for the big edit, before the end of the evening. By the time I got to my cabin I was seeing double again. Hah.
Be that as it may, today’s weather was a lot better. No real rain, so we used it brutally to do all the things we couldn’t do on the rainy ones: checking the progress of the plants (green beans are coming up) pouring concrete, yay! Seriously, while big brother and grandpa started on putting the fence on top of the new rock wall that surrounds grandpa’s place I started mixing concrete. Pouring it between the barrier that grandpa and big brother placed there, and then, by the time the younger siblings arrived, I passed the shovel over to little brother.
Knight II was making a nuisance of himself the whole day, snarling at the other dogs and everything, so when he refused to settle down I ended up putting him in the car, where he spent the majority of the afternoon snoozing on the front seat. It does amaze me how he manages to fold himself into such small places. Hah.
While he made the remainder of the cement I hauled a few big rocks and then tackled the tree trunks that needed to be stripped of their bark. It wasn’t as hard as I imagined it would be; grandpa showed me an old technique of a sharpened shovel, and with it I managed the task quite easily. Though, admittedly my sore arms (the workout! Gawd, there wasn’t a single muscle in my body that I didn’t “feel” today) weren’t in agreement with the easy part.
Once again, having finished with the concrete, little brother took over from me with the last three trunks, so I could join the younger sibs in working on a small section of wall, by the gate. What with windy days, we’re going to need a spot where the gate can be attached to something solid (to keep it from blowing shut, duh) ergo, a new short piece of wall…more thought of due to the wheelbarrow of concrete that was leftover after pouring. Hah.
The afternoon, when a soft drizzle started and we had just barely finished, big brother and I went for another rock-gathering trip (small rocks this time) just to finish up for the day. Got a wonderful stash going there, allowing for lots of work on the walls in the future…still so many to built, and so little time to do it in. Hah.
One of our lovebirds went and keeled over yesterday morning. I don’t what the heck is going on, but now the small pets appear to be dropping around us. First, Simmy, and now the yellow lovebird; so strange.
Well, time to get to work on the W.I. White Doves. I wonder how long I’ll manage to keep it up today.
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