Boring is in the Eye of the Beholder

My dear and supportive friend (you know who you are) , the one who said she would wait and buy my book when it is on the Discount table at Indigo, made a remark about my boring blog entries the other day. She is funny and delightful and such a kidder.(I hope) No really, I don't mind having boring blog entries just as I don't mind having a boring life. I take great pleasure in the boring, mundane and ordinary things in my days. Thank you for the ordinary day is a quote I embrace. There is more to the quote but essentially every day that is ordinary is a day to be celebrated. Yesterday I heard from my publisher that "The Memory Chair" will be released in Spring 2015. I am thrilled .My goal of a book a year for 20 years may seem to have a glitch but not really if writing a book a year is my main goal. I am on book 6 so I am ahead of myself. So today on this wonderfully, ordinary day I will write, do my household chores,take my walk and enjoy the boring. *-No sarcasm was used in this blog. I really think my friend is dear and supportive and find her sense of humor delightful.I found her remark funny and not the least offensive.

Research With a Wedge of Gouda

Today I drove in the rain to meet Hetty of Armadale Farms in Roachville. She very generously gave me a few minutes out of her busy day to talk to me about her family's immigration from The Netherlands , their dairy farm and the art of cheesemaking. She answered all my questions as I worked through the facts I needed to know to realistically write how my character Jen evolves from a city girl with no knowledge of a cow except that the milk in a carton comes from one somewhere, to a passion for farming and a desire to begin a business she can proudly run at home while raising her four children.I will now take what she told me and try to write that into my story in a believable way. This aspect of the plot is just a small part in the book's big and complicated story which goes back to 1945 up to the present day telling the story of the lives of a family; lives intertwined with sadness, dysfunction, anger, resentment, heartache and blame which finally comes full circle to bring them back to the farm which could possibly be the place to bring healing and forgiveness. I am anxious to get to the writing as I work through how best to tell the story that keeps unfolding as I write it.That is what I love the most about writing, starting with the seed of an idea and letting it grow ,the many sprouts vining out and reaching in so many different directions. My mind is definitely heading to the gardening mode. The rain will stop, the ground will dry and the tilling and planting will get done. I will spend countless hours weeding, then harvesting the bounty of 2014.But today I write. Thank you Hetty and Armadale Farms for the help and for the Peppercorn Gouda .

Computers, Writing and Cheese

I have my new computer and the learning curve has not been too treacherous. I did have a bit of difficulty getting back on to my blog but it seems that I figured it out or simply kept trying until something worked. I had to change my password and maybe that had more to do with privacy issues than it being a new operating system. I am talking like I know what I am talking about but I really don't. All I know is I am back on my blog. I am quickly writing an entry before heading out for my walk. I have been writing like crazy for the last two days. I would really like to keep at it but my dogs are waiting. I will stop for the day but let my mind wander on my walk to keep the story moving. On Thursday I am going to Roachville to meet with the owner of Armadale Farms. I am interested in hearing of their experience in starting a cheese making business. Part of the storyline in the book I am working on involves a young woman who starts her own cheese making business. I look forward to the research and the cheese.I will write a longer entry next time Megan(my blog coach)

Cenotes,Sinkholes and New Computers

I have been away.First of all I finally bit the bullet and addressed the computer problems that have been frustrating us for quite some time. Time for a new PC so I am waiting for it to arrive and I hope the transition will not be too difficult. In the meantime I am without a computer and am using my daughter in laws to catch up a bit. I have also been away literally. Burton and I spent a wonderful week in Mexico. We went to the Yucatan Peninsula to attend our friends Cheryl and Sheldon's daughter's wedding. In the words of their adorable granddaughter, Layla ,we were at "Shelley and Nick's lovely wedding".It was certainly lovely, as was the setting. We enjoyed swimming in the Carribean Sea several times a day as a warm up for our Walton Lake swimming. (it was much warmer and a lot wavier) and also took a dip in a Cenote or sinkhole. Our guide warned us that it would be leg numbingly cold but in comparison to my first lake swims and last lake swims of the year, it was nothing.After returning home I ventured up the wood road and experienced sinkholes of a different type as the deep snow melts. It is a challenge to navigate the wood road right now, watching for mud holes and knowing at any moment your foot could break through the crust and as happened yesterday you find yourself with one leg in a hole up to your knee.I am reluctant to give those walks up and will take my chances until the road finally dries up.Then of course it will be planting time. In the meantime I wait to get my new computer up and running and will get back to work on book #6 while waiting to hear from my publisher about book 4&5.

Off the Beaten Path

Well indeed the storm raged yesterday. It was late coming making us wonder if the forecast was correct but then came in with gusto. We weathered the storm nicely, snug and warm and with no loss of power.This morning the sun shines brightly and the snow that drifted is still blowing about. I got out and shovelled the walkway, the path to the basement door, the pig shed door, three quarters of the chicken shed where snow had blown in from the small opening that leads to their yard and watched as my husband labouriously moved the snow off the driveway . Then I snow-shoed through the field up through the pig yard where the fenceposts that enclose it poke out only a few inches through the deep snow.Wearing snowshoes I could zig zag in through the woods that I only see the edge of from the wood road. Off the beaten path for sure. I could see where some wildlife had moved since yesterday's snowfall. I made my way up the hill in through stands of trees and small clearings. Coming out on to the trail I was overwhelmed with the beauty from a different perspective. I was euphoric and actually found myself brought to tears. I heard a piece on CBC recently about the Happiness project. 100 days of happiness. I really don't think it should be a project it should just be what we aspire to every day.I don't even think it should be called happiness. I think the key is to be present, be grateful, be aware of our existence in the huge scheme of things and stop long enough off the beaten path to truly appreciate the path we are on.

Ready, Set ,Go

I just got back from a few days at my daughter's home in Alberta. Emma invited me to her dance recital and I couldn't let a mere 4913 km keep me from going.It still amazes me that I can be in Alberta in the morning and back in my own bed at night. I quite enjoy flying and my air miles earned flights yesterday took me from Edmonton to Toronto to Halifax and finally to Saint John. Three different sized planes, the last one being about the size of a good sized travel trailer. You could stand in the aisle and touch both sides and could go right up the the pilot and ask "are we there yet?"The plane before was a huge luxury Boeing with two aisles , pods in first class(not that I got to sit in one)and several flight attendants not really attending to you unless you were sitting in a pod. Maybe someday I will experience that.For each successful take off and landing and staying in the air in between I am thankful. And I am thankful I can get out to see my granddaughters so easily.Paige is getting language at a rapid and amazing rate. She has a couple of words that her dad contributed to her repertoire and although HUH? seems cute at first it could get a bit annoying and hopefully she will refine her questioning techniques. She has "Why" down pat for sure. Another one of her favourite phrases right now is "Ready, set , go" as she sends toys flying from any surface to the floor.To be exact she seems to be leaving out the "ready" but very enthusiastically calls out the "set,go" part. So this morning as I enjoy being back home I am reflecting on my days with the girls and looking to the days ahead.Here is my "Ready, Set ,Go". Write today, big storm brewing for tomorrow,waiting to hear from my publisher with hopes of a book coming out sometime in 2014, waiting for results of application for CC Grant, trip to Mexico for friend's daughter's wedding, facing the 15th anniversary of life without Zac, our 37th wedding anniversary,and SPRING. I know according to the calendar spring is here now but let's have some spring weather. I am looking forward to seeing the ground again and seeing buds start on the trees and shrubs.So today I say with Paige "Ready , set ,go" and let's see where everything lands.

Waiting For Right Now

Another beautiful but very cold Monday morning. The sun was warm as I walked down for Nellie but the wind and the biting cold not so much. I must say like many others I am waiting for warmer weather.Yesterday on my walk (for those of you who are sick to death of my wood road ramblings you can stop reading now)I was caught up in my thoughts when I found myself thinking I had not even noticed walking a certain stretch that I always enjoy.It made me think of how we do that. We get so caught up in thinking of what we are waiting for or worrying about that we forget to enjoy what we have right now.To find a balance in grasping where we have been,anticipating what is ahead and actively enjoying what we have right now is the challenge.I missed a beautiful stretch of the walk by not paying attention. I stopped and looked around me and took in as much of the beauty as my brain could process. I thought of what I have right now, how I got to where I am and where I hope to go. How quickly the already travelled part goes, how fleeting the present and how uncertain the next stretch but I am thankful for all three.