Valerean

We babysat Mr. Oliver yesterday so his parents could have a break, which is the joy of being grandparents. The boy is constantly on the move; out of the 39 pictures we took about 90% were blurry. Here's a few that weren't: He's also very curious and lightning-fast. His mother and I figure we have a month or two to childproof both our houses before he starts walking and can get into, well, everything.

The other night I was working late on a particularly difficult scene, and as is now my habit I stopped about an hour in to back up three times (once to my hard drive, once to Dropbox, and once to a memory stick.) It annoyed me to have to do that, as I was just starting to get the scene to work. I even thought "Why am I backing up during writing sessions when I can do it later?" The universe heard me, because five minutes later everything suddenly died, and I was left sitting in complete darkness. I sat and waited for the power to come back on so I could recover my files. But the power didn't come back on, so eventually I had to go to bed. We didn't get service restored for another five hours, as it turns out. When I went to reboot my computer, which is getting a bit old now, I thought of what might happen if the outtage had fried it. I have a backup laptop for work, but I haven't been copying my files to it since last summer. All I had of the last three we...

In case you're still lurking out there, Katherine (she knows about Valerean now), I thought I'd devote today to some old pics of you. You are amazing. You always have been. I have so many good memories, all thanks to you. Being your mother has been this incredible gift, and a huge responsibility. I'm in awe of you, and I want you to stay healthy, and safe, and protect you in every way that I can. I also wanted you to have the freedom to be who you are, and find your passion. I think I've done that. So from the first day of school (remember this?) I made myself let you go out into the world to find your path. Remember that I believe in you. And I love you. Katherine will be graduating from college summa cum laude in the top 5% of her class, by the way. I give her all the credit for that.

Ten Things I Have Learned During the State-Wide Quarantine Diplomacy: I'm taking my time before I e-mail or post to double-check myself and make sure I'm not being too blunt or potentially (and inadvertently) triggering someone else. Also making an effort to include happy thoughts and pics whenever possible in case the person on the other end needs a boost. When I'm in a very bad mood I don't answer e-mails until I get myself out of it. Fan Fic: I've never read much fan fiction, as I can't in good conscience condone it (although I understand why people write it, which is why I'm on the fence about it.) Recently I found myself on a FF site where I read some. A lot of it is clumsy, but there are also some professional-level works out there. The passion of FF writers is what mostly impressed me. I wish they'd try to write in their own worlds. Food: I discovered that cooking with limited supplies calls for a lot of creativity and flexibility, ...

I finished up my latest read, When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O'Neal, which is women's fiction. If you like sister stories that include terrible tragedies that ultimately result in happily ever after endings, this is definitely a book for you. Me, not so much. I've been trying to figure out how to write about what I thought of it, especially as I've been so negative lately about everything I've been reading. I want to be fair, but I also want to be honest. To be fair, it's usually a pleasure to read this author; she's very talented and a wonderful storyteller. To be honest, I had major problems with this book. The story hit on everything I dislike in novels about women and their relationships with other women. To me they're not real at all. I'm not sure if I'm just ruined for this genre by the dysfunctional friendships and relationships I've had with other women, including my own female siblings (too many, I think, to make m...

I got these pics from Oliver's mom: Full-time smiler. Never wants to be strapped in when he can flip and see where he's going. Loves his Dad.

Latest pics from the sandhill crane nest:

As our local farmers are having trouble selling their crops we decided to take a trip to our favorite farmer's market to buy some fresh veggies. First thing we saw when we pulled up were five truckloads of cucumbers like these: I can't even imagine how many tons of food are going to waste right now. To do my part I bought extra while I was there, which I'll share with Oliver's Mom and Katherine. They had such lovely veggies in the market area: And here's my personal haul:

While spring cleaning I unearthed a few treasures that now I've been looking at as inspiration to get back into quilting. Sachet pocket from a writer pal who loves crazy quilting. I'm going to refill it with dried lavender and tuck it in my lingerie drawer so I can see it every day. Crazy quilted postcard, purchased on Etsy years ago just because I liked the colors. Snow, an unfinished art quilt by Yours Truly. Should really finish it one of these days.

The book I'm reading right now, usually while I'm having breakfast. Melancholy, but beautifully written. My next read will be this one by a new-to-me author, which should arrive today: So whatcha reading right now? Let me know in comments.

As we're plodding along toward the end of April I thought I'd take a shot of my progress on the March block of my silk crazy quilt project. I've managed to do a little more stitching on the center patch, but I'm not forcing myself to work on it. I don't want to sew or quilt at all, which feels very weird, but it is what it is. Most nights I just write or journal. Maybe I have two wells: one for writing, and the other for non-writing creative projects. I can always write, and that's also my go-to for when I feel stressed. I've knocked out a lot of work since the pandemic started, and nearly filled up the sojourn journal. But to do other things I draw inspiration from life, I guess, and life has been pretty grim. Or maybe I'm focusing on the wrong things. Maybe in some way we all are. Anyway. I'm going to make an effort to look through some quilting books and mags for inspiration, and hopefully get back to the project in the days to come.

Sorry for subjecting you to another Oliver and Grandmom pic, but I thought I should warn you: If this kid gets any cuter my head will explode.

Last night I was looking for something different to do with chicken, and remembered this Quick Chicken Piccata recipe from my Taste of Home cookbook. It doesn't require a lot of fancy ingredients (basically flour, salt, pepper, butter or margarine, lemon juice and white wine or chicken broth.) To make mine I used the bottled lemon juice I keep for making iced tea, and that worked fine. It's something you can prepare in a skillet in a fairly short amount of time, and have it with pasta, egg noodles, mashed potatoes or steamed veggies; I think it works with all of them. If you click on the link to the recipe there's also a video to show you how to prepare it. My guy is not a fan of chicken, and he liked it a lot, which I consider a glowing endorsement. :)

Author Anne Rice wrote on at least one of her computers with a Sharpie; here's a photo of one from 1998 that eventually went up for auction (I could never find out what it sold for.) In a weird coincidence I actually saw this particular computer monitor in person; it was in a book store devoted to her works in New Orleans that I visited while at RWA National in 2000. I'm not one for vandalizing my computer equipment for the sake of my writing. Also, all computers seem to be black now, so I'd have to use a white marker. I prefer to keep all my scribbles in my novel notebooks so I can go back to them for easy referencing -- and yes, I also index them, copy them, and keep the extra copies on my hard drive. Organization and paranoia, thy name is Lynn. Along with notes and ideas I put together visual prompts for my stories, such as pictures of people. I call these body models, and they're simply photographs I find on the internet who look like my characters do in my h...

So far the garlic is doing well: The cucumbers I planted sprouted, too: I should have some watermelon starting in the next couple of days as well.

Nothing is better than spending a day with a gorgeous guy who loves to crawl around on Grandma's quilts: Here's Mr. Oliver with his beautiful Mama: Most of my shots look like this one -- Oliver wanting to help Grandma with the camera: It was such a great day. I needed one, too.

I'm unplugging to spend the day with this handsome boy. I'll have more pics tomorrow.

Happy Easter from Valerean. Image by Terri Cnudde from Pixabay

I forgot to write a post for today. So instead, some new baby pics (his parents took these): I know all grandmothers feel this way, but man, he's so damn cute.

A UCF article about my daughter featured this photo, which I nicked, of course.

Very pretty this month.

Today I finished Anthill by E.O. Wilson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of twenty books, and a professor at Harvard. If you're a fan of novels about Southerners, nature, and the clash between the two, this is the read for you. Unless you're a woman, did not have the benefit of higher education, and/or expect very intelligent writers to write with empathy and clear insight into a variety of human beings. Then, my friend, you are SOL. This is a coming of age novel about a naturalist, probably based mostly on the author's own life, and a patch of wilderness he becomes determined to protect. The writing is as expected from a Harvard professor: very smart, but approachable. The chapters about the disputed property and what goes on there are stellar and would fit into any nonfiction book about conservation, its importance, and why we all need to preserve unique pockets of nature. I lived for those chapters. Now we get to the rest of the story. As my grandmother would say...

I am not a television watcher, or a movie buff, but I do have a pretty large DVD collection. I like mostly SF and mysteries, and a lot of BBC productions of historical novels (I think I have every version of Jane Eyre ever made.) I put the DVDs on a personal player and listen to them with head phones. There are a few series I never tire of watching, so here are: Ten TV Series That I Watch Over and Over on DVD, and Why Battlestar Galactica (the 2004 remake) -- Very realistic, terribly gritty and always melancholy, the modern remake of this old tv classic SF series has amazing actors, awesome special effects and some of the best world-building I've ever seen. I hate the ending, though. Blindspot -- I'm watching Season Four this week, as it happens, and there's one more to go. The storyline is supremely convoluted, but Jaimie Alexander is superb in her role as a woman who wakes up covered in tattoos and has no idea who she is, or why she was dumped naked in Ti...

Pretty damn fast, as it turns out. Here it is on April 1st, when I planted it: Yesterday: