More writing means less yard work, but there's no urgency with that this time of year. The weather has been mild and dry for the last couple of weeks, and almost all of the snow has left my back yard except for some tattered remains of the November blizzard in shadowed spots. It doesn't look like we'll get a white Christmas this year, which is all the better for travelers. We'll be celebrating Midwinter on Saturday, outside for a change. It will be nice to celebrate with a real fire!
Happy winter holidays to anyone who reads this. At least I'm getting my Thursday posts done on Thursday this week! :)
The weather has been mild this week for December; most of the previous snow which isn't in shaded places has melted, although we may get a little more Sunday night. I spent yesterday taking Ruay to the vet for his annual exam and booster shots -- important because he spends part of the day outside, and sometimes, er, interacts with one of the neighborhood cats (not in a friendly fashion, let's say!). Then I spent most of the rest of the day doing assorted errands. I'm hoping
today will be more productive, writing-wise.
Rowen and I and a couple of friends celebrated an early Thanksgiving last weekend at her house, so the friends could celebrate today with their family members. Among other things we had roast duck, and I made a cheesecake. Good food, good wine, good company. May everyone reading this have as pleasant a Thanksgiving today!
In other developments, my neighbor on the south asked Sunday if he could take some branches off the fence-line elm tree which was overhanging his power line due to the snow, and I said, take what you want, I'm thinking of having the whole tree removed, and could you take some branches off on my side which are on my lines while you're at it? The upshot was that he took the whole tree down in pieces, and I have been spending a couple of hours a day reducing big branches into smaller pieces for large item pickup Monday. I'm going to have all the firewood I need for quite a while!
Then on Wednesday evening my furnace developed problems (it was doing something called "short cycling", where it repeatedly tries to start and then stops), and it started to get rather cold in here. I managed to schedule a repairman for Friday afternoon. Thursday I went out and ran various errands, including buying a second little electric heater like the one I keep in the bathroom. The repairman arrived as scheduled on Friday, rapidly diagnosed the problem (a gadget which tells the furnace if it is getting enough air had died), located, fetched, and installed the replacement part, and did a complete evaluation of the furnace using a bunch of high-tech instruments. (The rest of the furnace checked out fine.) This all took a little over two hours, and was not inexpensive, but now the house is warm again, and I can try and figure out what day it is <grin>, and hopefully start writing again!
I more or less finally finished chapter 18 Tuesday, although it will need a little tweaking. In the latter part of it, Fraechan tells us a little more of what happened to him during and after his last creation of the Druid Fence. It was worse than what he told Gwernin et al in The Fallen Stones, and he only survived due to King Suibne's folk aiding him and taking him back to their camp, and later to their rath for healing. King Diarmait would have left him to die on the hillside after his magic failed.
I should get more written soon, when I'm not shoveling snow!
Very little writing in the last week. I've had some other priorities, including a last minute emissions test and getting license plate tabs for the truck, as this was the end of the grace month. They've changed the system again, sigh, but next year I can do it on line again. Preparation for the Retreat resulted in my being later than usual. I've also spent time preparing for this morning's frost. I should finally get back to serious writing soon.
I finally got a little writing done yesterday afternoon - only 175 words, including some editing, but it's a beginning. It will probably take me a while to get going again, since I had about a two months' break due to Oak Leaves and our Rocky Mountain Retreat, including writing a book review and creating a PowerPoint presentation for the Retreat on prehistoric rituals in British and Irish caves and passage tombs. The latter subject is actually quite pertinent for this book <grin>.
I also have to make sure place descriptions match those in The Fallen Stones, since Gwernin is going back to the North, along the same route but in a clockwise fashion this time. In the process he's meeting people we've seen before, and finding out what has happened with them in the last six years. Fráechán is traveling with the group, and we're hearing more about his experiences, too. And Gwernin's twelve year old son Ianto is developing unexpected talents. All in all, things are getting interesting.
Autumn is definitely here, and we are approaching Winter's doorstep. Leaves are turning gold and falling, especially on the ash trees. I may have the first frost tomorrow night, so the geraniums and rosemarys will go back in the garage today. Some of the morning glorys may survive the weekend, but I wouldn't bet on it. Garden cleanup will probably start soon.
