Filling blanks.

Song of the day: “I’m in love” by Maria Mena. Gawd, I have this song so often…but then, it is pretty darn adorable, so who gives a fig.

On the most part the past few days have been all about the garden. Digging, sowing, planting, seriously, it was…hmmm, time consuming. The day before yesterday the sun was out, the sky was clear and working outside was rather pleasant, even. Actually managed to work up a sweat, which felt sorta alien after a rather chilly winter.

Did manage to turn five patches of earth during the course of those days, and planted a variety of veggies. Spinach, onion (yes, there’re a lot of those, we’re all onion fiends) peppers, cucumbers, green beans and…well, there were more, but I’m not going to bore you with it, so don’t you worry. Hah.

There were several sand load trips, a couple of rock loads and of course hauling all of it out and about. There was the exercises for our tenant, and yesterday we took her down to the pool again, where she was able to sit in the sun…well, not sun, seeing as there was a cloud cover overhead, but it was wonderfully warm nonetheless.

I wish that today the weather was still splendid, but even though the temperature isn’t all that bad, it just doesn’t compare. The clouds and pressing atmosphere leave me feeling rather lethargic and that I seriously dislike. It makes every single task a drag, and my eyes just refuse to open properly, like I said, a drag.

The dogs like it as little as I do, seeing as they’re testy and there already have been three fights between the lot of them. Rather annoying that, seeing as we, of course, needed to jump into the fray time and again. Normally they don’t fight all that much, but on days like these, there is a strange tension in the air.

There was a variety of computer efficiency days: One day we managed an eighteen page edit, the other only six, and yesterday we managed twelve. I still can’t figure out why one day we manage to make such progress and then next hardly any at all. Rather frustrating, actually.

Soon, within the next couple of day, the new, official book trailer for the W.I. Investigations will be out and I’ve got to say I’m pretty impressed by the end result. You’re going to have to let me know what you think when you see it, if you like it, but I love the preview, and I’m pretty sure you will too.

And, I’m going to leave it at this, because I feel like I’m just filling blank spaces, being unable to come up with anything that is remotely interesting…see how good that is working? Hah.

I’ve gotta go.

Well...I've no idea how to title today.

Song of the day: “Blame it on me” by Maria Mena. Hmmm. Love the song, but I would have enjoyed something a little more cheery today. Ah well, can’t have everything, I guess.

Well, I have no clue as to where my last sum up ended so…hmmm, yeah, well, let’s do yesterday then, seeing as it’s as good a spot as any.
The weather was absolutely splendid, so no complaints there. It was a perfect day to spend outside working in the sunshine and fresh breeze. The day started that way too, so I was out of my cabin like a shot just as soon as my alarm went off.

The dogs loved the day, naturally, they would be lying about in the sunshine, stretching out in a patch of grass, or sand, or in Knight II’s case…a patch of recently planted flowers, aaargh! I finally decided to take grandpa’s advice and chained him on the old pool terrace while I headed out into the yard.

Oh wait; first, there was the practice session with our tenant, which went rather well, and then unloading the car from the new batch of sand. The load is starting to look pretty impressive by now, and soon we’ll be able to pour some serious concrete, yay.

It was planting day again, of course. These days that appears to be practically all I’m doing, but what the heck, it needs to be done, and on the overall it isn’t that bad a job. Makes you feel rather basic, I guess. Sorta like working the rice fields, or something. Heck, I would have thought that bending over for hours on end would be a problem for my back, but I managed quite well in the end.

I planted lettuce, by the way, iceberg, taken from our very own seedbed, which is producing a tad more than expected, considering big brother made a slight miscalculation about the amount of seeds he used.
It doesn’t really matter, of course, considering that whatever tiny plant we don’t plant in the yard make for excellent sandwich material…which was what we used a couple of handfuls for yesterday, hah. It was delicious too: grilled pita bread, covered with grilled cheese, red pepper, onion, tomato, canned asparagus and the fresh lettuce drenched in a home made yogurt sauce. Gawd, I ate until I almost burst, hah.

But anyway, besides planting a large amount of iceberg, I also watered the new seedlings and such, because, let’s face it, they needed it, even after all the rain we’ve been having this winter. That sun and breeze suck the earth dry pretty fast, especially the upper layer.
By the time I was done with this particular chore, little sister had arrived and continued on with the paving of the path to the guest quarters. So marvelous to have her doing that particular chore now, I was already dreading it (I dislike paving) and more than happy to leave it to her when she offered to learn on this path. It’s looking good, and I am going to post some pictures soon, that’s a promise.

So, while she was working on the path with little brother, and big brother and grandpa worked on putting water hoses on the terraces, I spend the remainder of the afternoon leveling the terrace beside little sister’s path. I would have enjoyed turning the earth there too, but considering I had agreed to stop outside work earlier today, so I could start on the read through edit for the third W.I. earlier, I left that to little brother and sister who actually managed the task before nightfall.

Big brother were already well into the edit by then, when suddenly we remembered that we had agreed to get another sand load, which meant that we had to get the heck out of there before the night actually fell. We just barely managed to get the load, arriving home for a late dinner (grandpa offered to unload) and getting back in time to do more editing.

It went rather well, actually. In total we managed to edit eighteen pages through the course of yesterday, and that’s pretty darn awesome in my book. Hah. Enjoyed it too. In my memory the writing is always horrid, due to the hassles of the last edit, but while doing the read through I discover every time that the editing horrors do have a purpose since it reads well after that.

There was our habitual scavenge hunt afterwards, which lasted so bloody long that by the time we finally got back home ‘round two in the morning, I was cross eyed with exhaustion again.
Decided to make it an early night, and promptly ended up going to bed late, as is my habit. Hah.

Which brings us to today: I woke to the alarm, only to go through the morning rituals to find out at the shrilling of the alarm (going off for REAL) that I’d dreamed the first one and woke up an hour early, aaaaargh! Jeez. How stupid is that, do you suppose?…no don’t answer that; it was stupid so let’s leave it at that, hah. Of course, by the time I realized my error, it was already too late to go back to bed, which leaves me feeling a tad vague today. *sigh*

There was laundry, just the way there always is in the morning. Here I was, almost fully through the piles, only to find myself with more fully loaded lines than there should be. Afterwards I baked two thin apple pies; we’ve having a visitor today, and she does love sweets. Considering the apples we bough last week were starting to look a little iffy, I figured I might as well use them, rather than let them lie about until we can dump them in the bio-container in the back of the house. Ended up making an apple, pear, apricot, walnut, almond and orange pie that worked out really well once I served it with a freshly whipped cream. Gawd, I might need to have another piece, because my taste buds just fountained. Hah.

Which brings us to the less pleasant event of the day: I was down in the yard planting another twenty pepper plants and flowers, when little brother came down, all concerned about his Prince Charles Cocker, who was feeling poorly.
Since the poor boy was actually in pain, we decided to take him to the vet, where he still is right now. Preliminary exam showed that he has some arthritis in his back, effectively causing a mild hernia in his spine, and, the reason for him still being there, a slight bent in his big intestine, that wasn’t supposed to be there. Considering that he also had a slight fever the docs wanted to do a sonogram, rather than just the X-ray they’d already done, and we’ll be able to pick him up later tonight.

And that is where I am right now, I guess. Upon coming home, I baked some red beets with rice for my supper, no one had felt like making a meal, apparently, and said my goodbyes to our visitor, who, after going to the local art market with mom, our tenant and the younger sibs, is going home. Ah well, can’t be helped, I supposed.

Snake! Yikes.

Song of the day: The boy does nothing” by Alesha Dixon, followed by “Hit the road Jack” by...I don’t know who. Hmmm. Maybe I should look it up some time.

But anyway, what happened yesterday…well, it was mum’s birthday, of course, so there was lots of pie. Mango, peach, forest fruit, raspberry and pineapple on extra creamy yoghurt, and actual cream, it was friggin’ delicious.

There was sunshine, wind too, but sunshine nonetheless. It was rather wonderful being outside, so basically I spent most of it in the yard. I dug in the dirt, sowed some seeds and hauled bricks down to the old pool, which reminds me; there’s a slight change regarding the first project we’re working on this spring. Remember that greenhouse I’ve been drooling about for more than six months?

Well yeah, the way we figured there was this big concrete structure right in the center of the garden: The old pool. We were actually standing beside it, contemplating the previously picked location for the greenhouse when suddenly I saw this flash of a nice rectangular shape in the shallow end of the pool; a perfect little greenhouse with in front of it big square containers constructed out of natural rock walls, no higher than our knees. Yep, I could see it, and with a sideways glance I noticed that big brother was eyeballing the pool and, as it turned out, thinking the same thing I did.

So, seeing as the old pool will never again hold water without a complete overhaul, and what with the new smaller pool doing the job of cooling us really well, the location will be perfect for the greenhouse…which meant that there was work to do.

Big brother and grandpa got to work on a wooden stairs so we can move in and out of the old pool without having to climb the bare walls all the time, so basically I was walking up and down the mountain, getting supplies and such. And then in the last few hours of daylight watering the plants and checking to see the progress everything is making.

All in all, beets are coming up, lettuce and…well, anyway, it was a busy day and today was more of the same. I actually woke up early, ‘cause, let’s face it, the weather was once again splendid, albeit windy and I couldn’t wait to get started.
There were the usual stuff such as the dogs, laundry and then breakfast, but then, once our tenant was ready, big brother and I brought her down to the old pool terrace, so she could be in the hubbub of things, rather than alone in her bungalow. She was all excited too, claiming that it felt like she was going out on a trip, or something.

Good thing she felt that way, ‘cause it was a bloody long day.
First thing up was I, turning earth in the lowest part of the yard. Not an easy task what with eucalypti roots all over the place, rocks and whatnot, but I did finally find my swing as I dug out two patches, one for spinach and the other for lettuce, cucumber, garlic and eggplant…in case you’re wondering, we’re experimenting with a chaotic garden. Taking our cue from nature, so to speak, we are just putting stuff together and are more than a little curious as to how things are going to look in the near future. Life’s an adventure, if you let it.

In that regard (it being an adventure, that is) my imagination was running off with me again today. Yep, once again I was managing to freak myself out while working on the yard this morning, the sun pounding down and the wind trying very hard to cool me off.
Seriously, I don’t know where it came from, but while digging, I got this rather freaky what-if (a residue from my childhood, no doubt) scenario spinning through my mind: What if a snake jumped from the tree/bush or grass, coming for me? which totally freaked me out while I bravely tried to tell myself that I would of course wield my shovel like some sort of sword and slice up the evil fiend. Hah.

Sometimes I think my own imagination is my worst enemy, ‘cause I literally had goosebumps all over as I set my jaw and continued work while keeping a hawk’s eye on my surroundings.
Which brings us to today’s excitement: I was blithely digging up dirt, turning the green under ground and happily chopping my way through a couple of yards when suddenly a snake (gawd, I almost had a heart attack) slithered right at me through a clump of clay that I’d just dropped into the ditch I’d been turning over. How freaky is that, I ask you?

I jumped and then, instinctually, without even thinking about it, brought the (sharp) shovel down and decimated the thing in three smart chomps with this (embarrassingly) girlish squeal. I mean, for gawd’s sake; from the way that shovel came down on what turned out to be a teeny fifteen inch snake, you’d think I didn’t even flinch. But I did and then stood there, bouncing around, squealing “eeewww, eeeewwww, eeeewwweeee!” for all of ten seconds, before I got a hold of myself and shook my head at the twitching remains.

I have a serious dislike for snakes, in case you’re wondering, but even I know that it was a totally unnecessary and extreme reaction to such a tiny creature. Still, I can’t feel bad. Nature’s a bitch, and in the end it came down to survival of the fittest. Today I was fittest, hah. If the event occurs again, I do hope I am a little more stoic; really, the girly squeals have got to go. *snort*

Today’s shovel work, sowing and planting was followed by tackling the side of the old pool, where I needed to remove old tiling, while the younger sibs were working on the path that leads to the guestrooms…the path when downhill TOO the room, now they’re working on getting it downhill FROM it…much more efficient that way, hah.

Then there was more hauling and walking up and down the mountain, ‘cause our tenant had to be wheeled back up to her cabin. We still had to go out to the hardware store, now that we need water tubing for the yard, along with work boots for me since my old ones are starting to fall apart…quite literally. Got a two inch hole on the left side, the seem is unraveling on the right one and…well, the rest is starting to go too.

Since we were out anyway, big brother and I took the opportunity to get sand as well, loaded up the car to full capacity and then decided to do a quick run up the rocky incline, just for the fun of it before we headed back home with the arrival of the evening.

And now I’ve got to work on putting “W.I. Investigations/The Martyr” on Kindle, ‘cause we’ve been postponing it way too long and I really should just DO IT, and get it over with for once and for all. Grrrr.

Gotta go, I still have to check out the back cover information, and maybe even rewrite it…again, because I just can’t make up my mind which will work best. Ah, the annoying part of self-publishing, so many choices to make, and so little guidance in the matter.

Old-fashioned. *sigh*

Song of the day: “I’m Staying” by Krezip, followed by: “It’s only pain” by Katie Melua and: “Did it again” by Shakira. I don’t know what the heck is going on, but my head’s rambling today and won’t settle for a single song, and that while we’re only halfway through the day in the first place.

The dogs are restless too, by the way; they started in early with a choir of howls and yapping, driving me out of bed…half an hour late, ‘cause I’d forgotten to set my alarm, darn it. And that while it was such a splendidly sunny morning. Seriously it was shining down so bright I had to go out my cabin with my sunglasses on for crying out loud. (That’s the spirit. Hah)

Regretfully it didn’t last ‘cause the rain just chased me inside and that while I…hmmm. I’m getting ahead of myself aren’t I? Drat. I hate it when that happens.
Okay…let’s skip grocery shopping day entirely, ‘cause let’s face it, seven hours and fourteen stores (it seemed like an eternity) is just no fun to write about, aaaargh!!!
The day was wonderful, though. A whole day of full sunshine…which could have been spent doing something really useful like turning earth in the lower garden, but what the heck…and the temperature so pleasant that I could actually wear only a long sleeved T over my skirt.

Did see Tarantino’s “Inglorious Basterds” that evening, and it wasn’t as nice as I’d hoped and not as bad as I’d feared. All the fun parts had already been put in the trailers, so there really weren’t a lot of pleasant surprises in the end. A pity.

But anyway, Friday is hereby skipped; let’s get to Saturday: For some reason aaargh day was even more tiring than usual, ‘cause getting my engines revved yesterday was a downright pain in the butt. There were actually times when I would find myself staring off into space, which got to be a tad annoying when Knight II almost bowled right over me. Gawd, he’s such a lug…and a clumsy one at that. Though the weather wasn’t rainy, it was rather chilly. Considering we spent most of the day turning earth and putting in the potatoes we bought.

Did quite a patch too, making me wonder how it’s going to work in the near future when the potatoes start to grow properly. For insects (and personal taste) we decided to put in onions too, randomly putting them through the patch to provide for an interesting mix.
The six zucchini I bought went into the ground as well, figuring that if we do a few plants, rather than seeds, we’ll get some treats earlier on at least. Hah.

So yeah, now we’ve got four patches going in the lower garden, with plenty of space yet for what we still intend to do in the near future. I was rather cold and tired at the end of the day, which was spent turning earth with big brother and our friend Dani in the morning, and then, by the time the afternoon arrived with the younger sibs, who are slowly learning to like outside work…I think.

The sun peeked in every now and then, but on the overall the last few hours of the day were getting gloomy, making me more than a little grumpy when it was finally time to head inside to start with the read-through edit of “W.I. Investigations: The White Doves” and passed the halfway through mark without any hassle…albeit a tad late due to aaargh day and yesterday’s tiredness, darn it.

Only managed eight pages, seeing as we stopped at eleven in the evening so we could look at the second DVD “The Proposal” with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds…which was a downright wonderful film in my opinion. Seriously, it was a good old-fashioned downright adorable story with likeable characters, nothing too complicated (not empty, the way so many movies are these days) in the plot while still being entertaining and…well, wholesome. I don’t get today’s “dislike” against supposed clichés which “have to be avoided at all costs” in movies for some asinine reason. I mean, come one, clichés became clichés because they are just cute and WORK.

I can hardly remember when I last saw a movie that made me go wonderfully mushy inside like “the Proposal”…hmmm. Music and Lyrics, probably. Return to Me, definitely. Two Weeks Notice, a little. While you were sleeping, *sigh*. If the Shoe Fits…ah, I miss the good old days when it was still allowed to do clichés, really I do. Whether it is best friends getting together, or the evil witch/bastard being turned likeable by the soothing secretary…Like I said, nothing feels better than the “aaaaawwww” smile followed by going mushy inside.

There really are days when I just NEED something like last night’s movie that makes me think, yeah, that’s it. Simple just works best…it does, of course, help that I tend to enjoy Sandra Bullock’s work and that I am seriously pondering a rather adolescent celebrity crush on totally edible Ryan Reynolds. *Sighs some more*. Yep, I just might go for it: It’s been years since I’ve had a proper celebrity crush. Last real one was definitely Brad Pitt in his “Interview with a Vampire” days…gawd, I miss those days. I’m getting old; that’s like…OMG, way too long ago.

But back to Ryan…I mean, really, the kid does the soulful puppy look rather well and that gangly (now seriously buffed up, btw) let-me-be-your-best-friend vibe just begs for…ehm, something totally inappropriate. Hah.

Enough about movies…I guess I got a little sidetracked, what with still turning mushy inside every time I think of the flick.
For the past few days my dreams have been rather in-tune with daily life, I’ve found. Apparently sowing, planting and turning earth during the day is not enough for me, since I’m doing all of it during the night as well, hah. Heck, just last night I woke up from planting huge tomato plants, only to find my butt hanging out of bed, the blankets on the floor, and Knight II stretched out on three fourths of the bed. Aaaargh. Had to smack him on the butt four times before he move enough for me to get back on the bed and realign my spine properly. Hah.

And, considering I need to start on supper (our tenant’s eating with us today) and making cheesecake for mom’s birthday tomorrow, I’ve got to leave it at this and get my butt to the kitchen.