In-between

Song of the day: “Let the sunshine” by Labrinth. I only recently discovered this one, and downloaded it the other day. Now it’s been in my head most of the day. Hah. I like it, not so much the chorus, but the other pieces are beautifully done.

What do you think of the new Blog appearance? Nice and tight, right? I’m still not completely happy with it, but I’m going to see how I like it a little while from now. Heck, I just might decide to change it again sometime soon. Hah.

So yeah, not much to write about, seeing as I’m busy writing, duh. Well, yesterday was a crappy day, all things concerned. My focus was, like, all over the place, and that drove me absolutely bonkers, screwing up the writing even more. In the end I had to satisfy myself with no more than three pages to add to the total, while I spent some serious hours behind the computer, darn it. Don’t you just hate being stuck having to write an in-between scene? I hate it. I’ll have two scenes, one done, and the other just chomping at the bit to come out, but absolutely no idea how to get from one to the next, which means I have to wing it, and find a way to keep it remotely interesting. Of course the characters ended up arguing, which had me in a carpy mood most of the day, because I got stuck in that mood, and couldn’t find the time to start on the next scene.
Luckily, today it went much better. Had focus and did four pages with little trouble. It did help that I had managed to finish the in-between yesterday, because for that very reason I could write a rather splendid fight scene today. Hah. I won’t know if it is any good until edit time arrives, but I had fun with it at least, and that is massively importantly too.

But anyway, that was the good thing of the past couple of days. For the rest things were just as normal…or at least the way normal is at the moment, eh? I am still missing the projects of building and such but on the other hand, I was missing the writing too while I was doing the projects, so what the hey. It’s change, and change is always a good thing. If you don’t change, you get stagnant, and if you get stagnant, well…you’ll have to (be more rigorous) throw everything around for a bit to get out of it, I guess. Hah.

There is of course gardening most any day, meaning we watered, weeded and harvested…quite a bit in fact, seeing as there wasn’t a lot up in the storage for the dog food. So I yanked out some misbehaving Cauliflower plants, plucked Kale leaves, gathered a couple of handfuls of purslane (which is doing splendid this year, btw) and added a couple of overgrown zucchini. Which meant that I had more than enough for yesterday and today…not that we didn’t pluck zucchini today, but what the heck, you get my meaning, right?

What else? Well, there was this cool bar stool which we repaired and should bring up some money at next week’s market. It’s an incredibly cute piece of furniture, and now that it’s fixed I would almost keep it myself, if I had a spot to put it, that is. Stupid cabin is so full, I can barely turn around as it is.

Cooking. Well, there were two sessions, yesterday it involved reheating leftovers with freshly baked cauliflower added to the mix. I love cauliflower. Today’s foray in to cooking involved mushrooms, loads of mushrooms in a white sauce (with a bit of cheese) fresh herbs and onions, only to top of a light crust of pastry dough. Gawd, it was marvelous, and tenant really, really loved it.
Of course there were normal chores, the dogs stuff, including killing loads, and loads of ticks. I’m seriously pondering giving them all a chemical dip, but then I know that it only works for about a week and then they’re back with a vengeance. Also, a lot of our darlings are getting on in years, and that stuff is really, really bad for them. *sigh* It’s a pickle,

Exercise-wise jogging is the only thing I managed to fit in last night, along with some light weightlifting. I had planned to get my exercise today by chopping wood down by the bus, but with the first whack I wrecked the ax, wedging it about an inch into the wood, and cracking the full length handle. Either the sun wrecked the wooden handle, or I’m getting to be too strong…what with Spanish weather, I’m going to guess it’s the first thing. Hah.

Nata is still going. There seems to be a little bit of an improvement in his walking now that he’s getting his pill, but there are still times when I think it is just cruel to let him struggle on like this when it is so very clear that his body is at its end. So selfish of me to not want to go out and have it end, but he’s still eating, wants to be petted, wags his tail and tries his very best to follow where he can. We’ll just have to look at it from day to day and then see.

There was the dog feeding, the dog food preparing and, well, I think that covers everything a bit. It is now almost midnight and I’ve still got some messages to deal with and some chatting to do. I’m outta here.

Voyourism? Gawd, I hope not

Song of the day: …I don’t know the title, or the singer even, I just know that it is friggin’ annoying and every time I hear it I want to throw an axe at the radio. I do know that the singer is whining about “give me a higher love” and seriously, I want to give it to him, badly, just so he’ll shut up. *sigh* Yes, I might be in a bit of a combatant mood today. Hah.

By the way. Did you notice my new pic on the right? Whatcha think? Doesn’t that look like a proper snapshot of a hobby farmer in Spain? Hah.

I blame part of that on the fact that last night, working late on the computer I wrote the first sex scene of the new book and though I know it’s good, and it will fit with the genre, I am not happy with it. I kinda liked writing the last one without such explicit detail, at the moment I almost feel as if I were some sort of voyeur of my characters doing something extremely private (or at least it should be), and it is not a pleasant feeling. I’m going to have to see what I’m going to do about that in the near future, seeing as I like the story so far too much to let this stop me.

I’m liking the characters a lot, which means that I need to show them some respect, while still laying out their lives and their troubles. Up ‘till now I have managed to get “the big problem” into the plot, “the want to, but can’t have it” torment, the fear of loss, the “enemy” the “friend” and the fatherly figure who wants to see the happily ever after. All in all, except for the individual details of the future scenes, the story is there, which is definitely the most important thing.

But enough writing stuff. I made good progress and the story is now up to 76 pages, well into the 25K words. Yay. Halfway point, here I come.

Right, let’s get to the normal stuff such as…well the boring stuff. Laundry dog feeding, dog food making and all that stuff. Seeing as I’m late again (I know, the story of my life, right?) I might as well skip those.

Yesterday was definitely a cooking day. Started out early by baking pancakes for breakfast (even tenant came down for that) and doing our Spanish while I was at it. Then, I made dough, because I wanted to make apple pie too, and while we finished up the Spanish reading, we peeled apples which tenant cut into small pieces.
While the pies baked I started writing, only stopping occasionally to chat with tenant, and then to help her by setting out the veggies she could cut for our supper. Luckily she likes being useful, otherwise I fear that that particular task would bore her out of her mind.
Only stopped writing when my battery ran out, and a small pause in-between somewhere, where I spent some time on the rowing machine. What with all the inactivity (physically) during the writing doing some rowing definitely helps.

Managed to also cut tenant’s hair in between, which was something she’d been asking me to do for more than a week now, so I really couldn’t postpone it any longer. Such a pity that she constantly wants her beautifully white hair cut off. I like it way better when she’s got some length in it, but she finds it bothersome and prefers it cut close to her head. *sigh*

Later, after doing the yard, harvested some veggies, and going up to cut a bunch of veggies for the dog food, I did some weight lifting, since that is what works best. Endurance with weights, it’s the best. We almost went for a jog as well, but the time simply wasn’t there. Besides, I had to finish writing the scene, so it was best that we didn’t go anyway.

The dreaded decision is drawing close again, by the way. Nata (Golden retriever) is walking badly now, barely managing to keep up, and devastated when we forget him, of have to leave him somewhere where he can’t get hurt, so, despite the fact that we’re now giving him pain killers against his painful arthritis, making stuff a little easier for him, we are now looking at the quality of his life on a day to day basis. I don’t think it will be much longer…*sigh*

A bit of good news. I heard from “my” soldier on the front, and he is incredibly busy, but well. A relief that, seeing as I hadn’t heard from him in a while and I was starting to get worried. So all’s well on that front. Yay.

As for today: there was more writing, of course, some gardening, cooking and then we had to rush on up to head on out with grandpa who had to pick up his improved teeth (or at least that’s what we’re hoping for) in town. Also went past that friend with the store again, and yes, we got another big load of bread for the doggies.

Which brings us to now, doesn’t it. It’s almost midnight, I will try to do some more writing, and then, finally, blissfully, I will seek up my bed and go horizontal for a few hours. Jeez, it’s been a long day. *sigh*

Past midnight.

Song of the day: “We’re gonna win” by Bryan Adams. That’s been a while. More than a year, I think.

I am totally late. It’s now (while I start) 11:35, so I doubt I’m going to make it in time with the blog. *sigh* I can’t help it, I promise. I just had to go for a jog, and that took a while. I think the run went better than the last time, more relaxed and a little faster at the same time, which is good, since I hate the jog speed. Grrr.
The moon was out, so it didn’t matter we were on the late side heading out. It was actually kind of magical, the full moon lighting the way as if there were lights on. Seriously, I could chase my own shadow. Hah.

Two days of writing behind me. Am up to page sixty five, thank you very much. The romance is starting to build seriously now, the characters becoming aware that there is more than just “like” and all that. I love this part in writing romance stories, that first moment of awareness, you know, of, “oh my gawd, what is this thing I’m feeling here?” Don’t you just love the falling for moment? *sigh*

Cooking was a hasty affair, both yesterday and today. Yesterday because we had to go out to town for a donation again. Nothing for the market this time, but that grocery store friend again who donated a few boxes of old bread and veggies for the dogs. Yay. It took some time, the loading and then unloading at home, because there was lots of stuff that wasn’t useful for anything other than the compost heap, which isn’t bad either since we’re going to need lots of that for next year’s veggie garden. Hah.

There was watering of the yard, harvesting stuff, of course preparing dog food and feeding it. All very glamorous, I know. *snort* Luckily I like it, so it doesn’t matter if it is or not. Nothing like living life with all its step by step aspects.

Tenant spent the afternoon with us today, by the way. She seemed a little less out of it, being there, if you know my meaning. She finished her Angelique novel, which she apparently didn’t like all that much. Hah. She always reads the bodice rippers with complete concentration, and yet when I ask her what she thinks, she’ll say she doesn’t like it at all.

Worked some more by the igloo. Hauled stuff up to load into the Land Rover and drive off to the local land fill. Never realized we had that much stuff stored, but so far we’ve filled up two cars with it.

Didn’t get around to making apple pie, darn it. I had so looked forward to it last night, but there just wasn’t time today. Grrr. Maybe tomorrow. Tenant has agreed to come down earlier so she can get an early start on cutting apples for it.

Oh, gross something. This afternoon I flushed my toilet and saw black clumps floating in it. Turns out it were ants. I have a friggin’ ant farm in my flusher. Yep. I kid you not. Freaked me out, I tell ya. You wouldn’t believe the amount of ants we’re having on the property this year, they’re absolutely everywhere.

We have decided to give Nata (golden) the same medication as Gada and Tridatu, and it appears to make him feel better. He’s a little more active, and when he gets it, he actually manages to climb the mountain now.

And this is it for me today. I need some shuteye and it is now almost twelve thirty so I gotta go.

Liking where it's going

Song of the day: “Sitting down here” by Lene Marlin. It flitted in and out of my mind most of the day, and though it is an oldie (comparatively) it’s still a good song.

I’m a bit behind again. (I know. What else is new, right?) Which is not surprising since I insisted on a nice jog tonight. The temps were so wonderful that I just couldn’t resist. So we (big brother, cousin Ed and me) packed up Niobe and Knight II, and headed for our usual spot. Did only a mile, or so, but it was enough. The running wasn’t anything to write home about, but the movement was rather nice.

And before that (might as well go backwards today), well, there was the dog veggies to cut for their breakfast tomorrow morning, preceded by eating the last bit of supper down by the basin terrace where we’d gathered after watering the yard. Luckily that was fast, since we didn’t really have time to eat before it. Had a few slices of zucchini with herbs and melted cheese (grilled it in the oven), and just headed out.

Spent the majority of the afternoon writing on the book, which went remarkably well. For some reason my focus was there, despite distractions, and got down a solid five pages, yay! Getting there, getting there. I also like where it’s getting so far, so that’s a good thing. The characters are interesting, they’re constantly surprising me with their responses, and there’re some new characters that appear to be working out rather well too.

Cutting off our Spanish reading session, was working at the igloo and sorting through the mess lying about there. There are spare mattresses, dog pillows, blankets. You name it, it’s there, and we had to go through it to decide what we were going to toss, and what we had to pile up to keep. Seeing as we’re going to have a visitor in September, we had to empty the igloo (aka guestroom) and have been postponing the sorting process ever since. It took almost an hour, but we made a good dent in it at least.

Fed the dogs, of course, did laundry, and skipped a dip in the pool because it wasn’t all that hot today, Yay! Seriously, the temps have gone down and now is definitely the Spanish weather I love round these parts. Cool winds, bright sunshine, dry air rather than the hazy mess the last few days. Love it.

Was on time waking up, and had a rather good night despite Sitabah waking me several times vomited. Silly dog decided to eat grass last night again, so I got to enjoy the consequences during the night. *sigh*

Yesterday.
Didn’t actually manage a second writing session in the evening, but since I did three pages that afternoon I wasn’t too upset about it. Instead I spent some time online looking at British real estate for the book. I needed to look at some styles and find that going to real estate agents is always the easiest ways to find typical descriptions.

After cutting dog veggies, big brother and I went to the igloo to get two mattresses up. The dogs killed his, you see, so we had to replace it with a smaller one and a piece to fill up the empty spot. Worked out well, big brother cut it up, and I sewed up the cover afterward. Took only half an hour that, but then we had to go to his room to drag his two hundred pound old mattress out . Oh. My. Gawd! Seriously, almost thought that we weren’t going to manage it. But finally we did, of course, and got the thing folded enough to tie it up and carry it up so we can bring it to the land fill one of these days.

Prior to that was yard work, of course, including yanking weeds, watering and harvesting. Zucchinis are still going strong and the green house tomatoes have reached their end. We’re going to have to start yanking the diseased plants out soon.

Cooked supper, which consisted of potato veggie salad that went down well. I still love anything potato, darn it. Seriously, I wouldn’t know what to do if they weren’t there anymore.

Another writing session preceded that where I only managed a few pages, which was frustrating beyond imagining. I hate it when that happens. Did finish a scene, however, so it really doesn’t matter in the end.

Did do a bit of Spanish before that, so that was good at least. Unloaded the car in the morning, before breakfast, of course, seeing as the sibs had to load up for their market day…same goes for cousin Ed, who spent most of the day preparing her own market.

I wasn’t in the best of moods, due to Sitabah, who drove me bonkers in the morning. She’s scaled the fence, and then stood barking on the roof as if she couldn’t get off…until I got out of bed and called out for her to get her butt inside before I got out there and throttled her for waking me up. Hah.

Am not happy with tenant at the moment, by the way. She’s still floating in her head somewhere and is letting her motivation for getting better escape completely. She’s doing less and less, and is then surprised when she finds stuff she’d gotten better at difficult to do again. I know that it is none of my business, and that it is her life, but there are times that it is more than a little frustrating. It is hard to see several years of hard work disappear because she has decided she’s too old for all the hassles. Makes me want to scream. *sigh*

And that’s it for today. I’m sure I’m missing something vital, but who gives a heck. There’s almost two pages going on, so…gotta go.