On to October

As September comes to an end I look ahead to October . First thing, my beautiful granddaughter,Paige has a birthday. I wish I could hop on a plane and be there Saturday morning. On Saturday instead of getting to see my granddaughters I will be reading to other children at the SJFPL during a Story time event for the Fog Lit Festival. There are several other events that I want to attend. Check out the Fog Lit Festival at foglit.com or facebook.com/foglit. Congratulations to Riel Nason for her Saint John Originals Literary Arts award. Louisa, Ashlie and I enjoyed the Gala on Friday night. I was very pleased to have been nominated . (Riel let me hold the award) Saturdays at the market have been great. Book sales are good and I have met some very nice and supportive people. This past Saturday I saw a former student and met her kids. Her daughter told me how much she enjoyed reading my book and shared her love of writing with me. It was so nice to see them. I often get e-mails back from readers. I got a couple of really nice ones last week. One said that she and her daughter really think Ten Thousand Truths should be a movie. Author Lesley Crewe who will be reading at Fog Lit just had her book Relative Happiness made into a movie. Who knows? I am still waiting to begin editing The Memory Chair. Writing continues on the book I am working on now. I am possibly on the last twenty pages. I will miss the characters I have come to know so intimately. I am thinking ahead to the next book though and as with most things, that will come to be when the time is right. So October stretches ahead and this last day of September begins . The drizzle and fog is so much different than the bright, sunny, warm days of the past weekend which were a wonderful goodbye to summer. October will bring the changes we have come to expect, the last of the garden will be harvested ( we ate the last of our delicious corn Sunday night), the winter's wood will start to fill the basement, the furnace will be on more than not , leaves will fall and the temperatures will drop.We will celebrate Paige's birthday from afar, look forward to our Thanksgiving weekend traditions , take our annual girls shopping trip and see what else October brings.

Falling Into Place

I have not written on my blog since September 9th, my blog coach /daughter just reminded me. Being a very busy Executive assistant I'm not sure how she had time to alert me to that fact but with her prompting I tried again. I have been stumped by my blog lately as sometimes when I sign out I can not get back on . There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why sometimes my password gets me right on and other times it doesn't . I have tried a few times lately and not been able to get on and gave up. This time it loaded without even asking me for a password. Oh well, the joys of technology. Just ask the people in charge of New Brunswick's election yesterday. Apparently the electronic system that was going to make everything so much faster did not quite work that way. At this point they are saying that the Liberals won but we shall see. I am not going to talk politics though or dwell on my technical difficulties. Instead I am going to say what a beautiful Fall day this is. The trees are changing color slowly but each day the change becomes more visible and vibrant. The air is certainly cooler and I believe my last lake swim was two days ago. September is moving along. I got grant applications sent away and sent my book week contract. I look forward to the Saint John Originals Gala Friday night. Ashlie will enjoy the evening with me and as they say "it was just an honor to be nominated" no matter the outcome. I am participating in the Fog Lit festival and look forward to several of the events that the hard working committee and my friend Rosalyn Hyslop have organized for the 2nd annual festival. Burton is digging the last of the very poor potato crop. Good thing we are not as dependant on the potato as the Irish were before the Potato famine or we would be immigrating to another country. We had a great corn crop though and have been enjoying corn for over a month. Our new dog Biscuit is settling in very well after being with us for three weeks. He now runs through the fields looking like the horse of a dog he is. For a dog that rarely got outside unless tied on a chain I think he is really enjoying his new home. I am awaiting the start of the edits for The Memory Chair and will share the delightful photograph of my grandmother and her siblings(some of them, there were eventually 19)that was the seed for the story that took shape and will eventually be my fourth book. Now back to my writing and I will try to check in again soon.

Watch Your Step

Yesterday I went back to the woods. If you have been a reader of my blog entries you will understand what that means. I have had this beautiful wood road behind my house for a long time, possibly since we moved here in 1981. Burton has done lots of work to make it a better road but for the most part I have always had access to the winding trail through the woods that I now find so enjoyable. Isn't that the way it often is? The beautiful things right under our noses sometimes go unnoticed or underappreciated. Soon, especially if these early morning temperatures continue to get cooler I will have to give up my lake swims. The wood road will replace the lake to give me my alone time and my daily perspective . Yesterday, I really had to watch my step. It was like wading into the unknown ,navigating through tall ferns and grasses trying to watch for the stumps, roots, uneven ground, wet spots and other hidden obstacles. As with most challenges it will get easier. I will learn what to expect. I will build confidence and know that a path I have done before I can do again. I will see the path change with the seasons and each time it will give me something I least expect. So now, I will get to my day of writing and later find time to take that walk and take whatever it has to offer me on this day.

So With September ,

Sixty six years ago Iva Wetmore married Leverett Bradley on September 4th . A few years later after two boys they had me a tiny ,premature baby that clung to life and beat the odds. Speaking of beating the odds a couple that have been married for sixty six years certainly beats the odds as well. I am so thankful that they are both still well and active. My son Chapin was born 29 years ago on Mom and Dad's anniversary. I love the month of September. I remember the year Chapin was born what a gift it was to be home with my new baby , three year old Meg, and Zac just starting school. Today my granddaughter starts school. I wish I was there but will have to settle on the pictures her mother sends me. This week I got back to my writing and enjoyed every minute of it. I am moving ahead with the book I am working on and don't want to stop at the end of each day. I hope if the writer finds it hard to put it down that the reader will feel the same way. I got introduced to my editor for The Memory Chair and look forward to starting that journey with her towards a finished book. I have to squeeze in pickling, making salsa , other harvesting chores, taking woods road walks again and as many September swims as I can get in. Burton has a birthday this month and I'll invite people( Yes I really will, Meg and Burton) to celebrate with a corn boil, to enjoy the ears of corn that are now ripening in our fourteen rows. What a treat to go out each day and check for the cobs (with the dry silk) that are ready to be picked. Burton believes the best corn is corn just picked and dropped in boiling water for seven minutes. So with September, comes family celebrations, first days of school, long days of writing , corn boils with friends, lots of harvesting and days of beautiful end of summer and into Autumn weather.

Looking Back, Taking Stock and Planning Ahead

Sometimes I step back and really try to get my head around where I am right now in my life. As a journal writer and list maker I am constantly looking back ,taking stock and planning ahead. My family hears the words "this time last week, this time last year" a lot. In the quietness of this beautiful August morning I take a deep breath and look at the place I find myself and I will try to put some of those thoughts in words for this entry. Yesterday, I sat amidst a huge crowd that filled every pew in the Trinity Church in Kingston to honor the life of a beautiful woman, a wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother. Her ninety some year old father feebly walked down the aisle to bury his daughter and the stream of family that now must carry on without her filled the front pews. I have seen others leave long before those left behind are ready to have them go. We are constantly reminded how fragile life is and are told to be thankful for each day. The seasons of life change as quickly as the seasons themselves. As I prepare for another Fall season I think of what this one means for me. For twenty nine Septembers I entered a classroom ready to teach a group of new- to -me students. For many years I prepared for back to school for my four kids. I got myself back into the routine of early mornings, homework, school time bedtimes, packing lunches (to be honest Rita made most of my kid' s lunches back in the day when she ran the cafeteria at MCS)and Monday to Friday busyness. Now for the sixth year in a row my September takes me back to my office and my writing. The year I took off and wrote The Year Mrs. Montague Cried set the trajectory that now finds me ready to publish my fourth book and working on my sixth. I can't wait to meet up with those characters and their unfolding story when I sit down to write on Tuesday morning. The editing of The Memory Chair which we hope to have out in April will begin as well and maybe a look at the other manuscript that isn't quite ready to see the light of day. I will watch The Memory Chair unfold and become a book I can hold in my hands and add to the others in my book-ends. In May I will travel to Ontario and spend a week presenting in schools, libraries and who knows where else. I have been given these gifts; my health and well-being, the opportunity to do something I love, a place I love,and my wonderful family and friends. I am approaching another season ; sunny skies, crisp mornings,changing leaves, another harvest and so much more. "This time last year, this time five years ago." These things we know. It is the "this time next year, this time in ten years" that we do not know, but can only imagine and look forward to with the same confidence and assurance we get from looking at the past. Whatever it is that we will be given there will be gifts and challenges and we will find ourselves wherever they lead us. So for this day, I take time to be truly thankful and take the time to really see the wonder of where I am right now.

Home Again, Home Again

I am home again and this morning my mind is filled with all those clichés about home. Home is where the heart is , there is no place like home; maybe not full since those are the only two I can think of. But I know last night as we drove up the driveway the words Home again , home again , jiggedy jig came to mind. Being still on Alberta time I slept until 11:00 and now I have had time to peruse the farm. Burton didn't do too bad of a job holding down the fort but I see lots of things to do for sure. So why am I sitting here writing a blog entry one might ask. Just because I want to and it feels like part of being home. Next week I will get back to work. I am thinking this morning of my daughter in law and several friends that are back to school today preparing for another year in the classroom. I will prepare myself and my surroundings for back to writing next week. I can hardly wait. Ok now I am going to get to the cleaning, the mowing, the laundry, the pea picking , the swimming and the just being home.

What You Duning, Grampie ?

As I write this entry this morning I hear the echo of the question Paige has asked many times a day in the last few weeks to either Grampie or Monkey."What are you duning,Grampie? What are you duning, Monkey?" Following along behind us she constantly asks us what we're duning. Good question Tiny Toad. My July days have been filled with doing many things. Yesterday Meg and Cody took the girls and went to visit friends in Halifax. Being alone and looking at the full day of uninterrupted hours to do anything I wanted was wonderful . I worked away at doing household chores with no "Monkey" interruptions . Oh how I will miss those, but the echoes will stay in my mind. Burton and I found ourselves filling the silence with what the girls would be saying .Today when the sun comes out I will get to the garden. I will fill wheelbarrow loads with the weeds that have gone unpulled.I will have quiet hours to let my mind wander. This morning I found myself longing to get back to my writing. I have not had time to give it any thought, but I look forward to getting back to work. August approaches and just like in my teaching days I feel the tug of September. I am anxious to get to the editing of The Memory Chair. We hope for an April launch. I have been selected to do a tour in May for the TD Canadian Children's Book Week. I will be told in a few days which province I will travel through and will be thrilled wherever the tour takes me.I am so thankful that neither Burton nor I have any trouble filling our days .On our PEI trip Chapin mentioned several times about being on vacation and stated that Burton and I were not on vacation because we are retired and on vacation everyday.I will give him that and would be the first one to say how wonderful retirement is but I would also say how wonderful it is that that stage does not mean sitting on a chair with nothing to do all day. Our days are full, our weeks and months ahead hold the promise of more of the things we love to do. For me there are more words to write , more opportunities to enjoy. For Burton there are more trees to cut, more animals to raise. Together there are more days to enjoy what our efforts have provided us ,the family we have created and the good health we now enjoy. "What you duning ?" We are duning just fine, THANK YOU very much!