Category Archives: Musings

Dusting Off

Dusting off this old blog, hoping to turn a leaf and start posting at least once in a while! It has been years since my last post. Which was right before the 2016 election, the results of which sent me into a tailspin. Then my father died, then my mother was sick and needed caregiving, then some family relatives issues/trauma, then I started a business selling vintage online, tried to write a novel, got too busy to work steadily on it, then my husband retired, which made my homelife busier, then my mom died, then Covid, which made my business busier, and whew, so much time has passed.

So now, 2024, staring at another stressful election year, I’m still doing the business, husband still retired, still cooking, gardening, fixing up our old house, paying the bills and doing taxes, still playing/visiting/talking with kids and grandkids (lots of both) and vowing to be steadier with writing.

I’ve returned to participating in the Codex Weekend Warrior for the past three years, and submitted a few flash stories. I’ve consistently attended Rainforest Writers Retreat every year, even during Covid (we did it online), so at least I can say I’ve been writing during the winters.

I’m trying to look at my life as four buckets. One bucket for writing work. One for house/garden/cooking. One for spouse/family/friends. And one for my business/tax prep/financial misc. I’ve been using a bullet journal for the past year to help me focus and I’d like to try to use this blog to record my progress – or my thoughts – or something, just to get myself back into the habit!

Here is another photo from this year’s retreat!

A Sweet Distraction

So I was going to write about the great writer’s weekend I just went on, but when I came home I saw my limes were ripe!

 

Now the reason this is so exciting is that I have been nurturing these limes for almost two years!

Seattle is not the ideal climate, of course, but I love the smell of citrus blossoming. So in May of 2015, I bought a baby lime tree. It blossomed indoors (ah, heaven), then a few teeny tiny bumps replaced the blossoms. I put it on the deck for the summer. It thrived, grew big, but those few limes were miniscule and hard. Back indoors for the winter. It bloomed again (swoon) and a few more baby limes popped out. Last year’s were growing still, but sloowwllyy. This summer they all got bigger but I hesitated to pick them. They still felt like rocks. Back inside two weekends ago when the hurricane was threatening. This morning I saw gorgeous, just turning yellow, perfectly ripe beauties. 2 years, $20, a couple of priceless fragrant days and 8 perfect limes.

Planning to make some limeade & vodka & sit near the new blossoms on my sweet distracting little tree.