J singing his “spider on the floor” song.
This time last year I was gearing up for
Nanowrimo. And truthfully, it is pulling me in. I really want to do it again to see if I had it in me to write another novel. Even if the first one isn’t finished. But, I just don’t think I have enough time. Last year I wrote for two hours every evening and once in a while during the day too. I don’t have enough free hands this year, but after two solid nights where Apple has gone to bed by 7:30 like her brother and stayed there until morning (well, staying in her bed as opposed to my arms, she still wakes up to eat) I have started to think it might be possible.
On the other hand maybe I should just go for the NaBloPoMo. It would give me a challenge to work towards and get me through November.
I still have a whole day and a bit to decide, will see how today goes for me to see what I will do.
Here is our cottage. There are two levels, both exactly the same with different furniture. I know it doesn’t look like much, but it is wonderful. Last year we stayed downstairs where the porch has a front door, a little nerve wracking when you have toddlers that can reach the lock on the door. This year we stayed upstairs where you can only exit through the kitchen at the back. We found things with both that we liked. We prefer upstairs because you can sit up on the stools at the table and watch the world go by. We enjoyed downstairs because it had much nicer furntiure and no stairs. We booked in for upstairs again next year because, well, the porch won out.
This is one of the views I had from the porch. There are actually two houses here, the white one on the left and a dark brown one hidden in the trees on the right. As I sat with my coffee the first morning all of a sudden I could see my characters in my
novel living in these cottages. I started working on the
rewrite of my novel back in March but, I just couldn’t get unstuck from where my characters were and how fast I wrote it. I needed inspiration, but was getting nothing sitting here in suburbia. Within a day, I had a whole rewrite going in my head. And since Hubby decided we didn’t need to bring out laptop because wireless was scarce last year. I had nothing but paper towel to write on. So off I went to the bookstore to purchase a journal. For three mornings I saw my characters and their stories intertwining. Some of the novel has changed a bit, but that is good because it wasn’t working for me the way it was.
Not only did my writing get inspired but so did my photography. I didn’t take as many photos as I wanted to, because carrying around my camera bag with my belly was a little more difficult than I first thought it was going to be. And Hubby was so inspired by my inspiration that he bought me another lens for my camera. I feel so blessed because our trip was gift enough, but he knows how much I love taking photos and how often I use my camera that he figured it would be best to make the purchase down there where our dollar was almost the same, there is no sales tax and the actual merchandise is a third less than up here. It may just become an annual event. And Bob at the photo studio was fantastic. Nobody sells DSLR’s and accessories anywhere near the beach. Everyone told us to go to NYC, which would have been great if we hadn’t been at the beach for a week. But, Bob has a supplier that could UPS me a lens overnight. It ended up that I missed the first truck, but got to extend our beach time on Saturday while we waited for the lens to come in. I didn’t get to take any photos with it at the beach, but I have been playing with it since we got home and am in love with it.
All that inspiration has already led me back to my sewing here at home. I just didn’t feel any creativity prior to vacation but it is back and I am so thankful. I don’t like feeling like I have lost everything all at once. I knew our trip was going to be tough, travelling at eight months pregnant is not ideal, but it was so worth it. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
The melt started on Monday. I could see a tiny patch of grass along the side fence. I awoke to large patches of grass yesterday. And today with the rain, this is all that is left! Can you believe it?? Three days, that is all it took for the snow to melt, even without the sun. I can only imagine what it would have been like if the sun had been out and shining.
The grass really suffered this winter with the dogs. I think it was because of our late start to winter, but a little tender lovin’ care and some good old fashion fertilizer will get it back into shape in no time. In the corner, there was a Japanese willow, the neighbourhood rabbit thought it would make a good snack, so it looks like I will have to replant that one. It was gorgeous too. The new leaves would come in pink, then turn green and it would have grown up past the fence this summer. Otherwise all else made it through the nasty winter. If only it makes it through the possible snow on Friday!
And this, is my novel. All 223 pages of it. I felt the need to print it off and reread it with red pencil. I felt very much like an author last night going through my draft. My ultimate goal is to almost double the legnth from 50,000 words to 90,000 words. I have so many more ideas to add that I finally felt well enough to get started again. Just starting the reread last night made me feel great. I got right back into the characters, I saw where I went one way when I originally wanted to go another. Hubby bought me a few books at Christmastime so I started flipping through them as well. It should be lots of fun.
Categories:
Novel,
Weather
J singing his “spider on the floor” song.
