...and Wednesday...

Tomorrow's my last day at work, and of course we have a winter storm warning, so I'm trying to get everything that's possible done today. I'm determined not to add to my paper storage problem at home - so (almost) everything here is being scanned and then shredded. Then I can put it all on one cd, and lose the cd ;-)

Maybe I can start writing again Friday.

-GRG

Monday...

More mild, dry weather here, but that will be changing in a couple of days, just in time (alas!) for New Year's Eve. I got a bit of work done on The Druid's Son yesterday, with more planned today. Then after New Year's, full speed ahead, I hope...

The rowan tree still has a few leaves, but not many:



And that's all for now.

-GRG

...and Friday - well, Saturday!

OK, I admit I missed Friday, though I doubt many people noticed this time of year. It was partly because, with my changing work schedule and all the holidays, I am finding it difficult to remember what day I'm in. It was also because I was - well, not writing, but preparing to write: tinkering with the outline for The Druid's Son, and rereading parts of the previous book. Now that my full-time writing opportunity is almost here, I'm excited.

And also, of course, preparing for Christmas, which is now here: a Happy Christmas to all who celebrate it!

-GRG

...and Wednesday...

The lunar eclipse was impressive. We had excellent viewing conditions here, clear and still and not too cold. Not feeling I could stay up most of the night and still go to work the next day, I went to bed early - around 7 pm - and got up again a bit after midnight. When I went outside to look, a big chunk of the moon was already dark, so I gathered my stuff together and settled in a lawn chair next to the truck, where I could lean back against it. After a couple of attempts at photography (small blurred spots) I gave it up and just enjoyed watching the show with binoculars and naked eyes, occasionally going back inside to warm up. Although there was a reddish tinge to the disk during totality, I reminded me more of a tarnished silver coin - base silver, perhaps, with a bit of copper in it. The most exciting moment was when the moon finally began to emerge from the earth's shadow again: first a faint brightening along one edge, then a perceptible silver rim, and at last a bright and slowly growing silver crescent - half a month's phases in an hour. I finally got to be again around three, and slept with the curtains open and the silver moonlight streaming in.

Before the eclipse, I also held a private solstice celebration - but that's a story for another day.

Today's photo: St. Lythan's Burial Chamber in south Wales.



-GRG

Monday...

Lots of seasonal chores today - wrapping presents, going to the post office, and so forth. Saturday night we celebrated Yule with ADF in a rather low-key ceremony; so, feeling the need of more ritual, I will be celebrating the Solstice again myself tonight - and hopefully observing the Lunar Eclipse as well. So far the weather looks good...

After the first of the year I'll have a couple of public appearances: a book reading/signing (date still to be arranged) with a local venue, and on January 22nd some storytelling as part of the Colorado Welsh Society's St. Dwynwyn's Day. More on both of these later.

Still looking like a brown Christmas in Denver, although the mountains have been getting heavy snow.

Picture later...

-GRG

... and Friday

We got a powdering of snow last night, about an inch out here in Lakewood, but only a trace where I live. Just enough to be pretty, and make it look more like December. At this rate Denver may be heading for a brown Christmas, though I gather that it's different in the mountains - snow pack ahead of normal and ski areas doing great. But it's been dry enough in town that I've started watering things like rose bushes and fruit trees at the weekend - assuming it's above freezing!

I've started one more ebook giveaway on Librarything, this one for Storyteller Songs. This is a one-week giveaway only, ending on Christmas Eve. Take a look if you're interested.

A snow picture today - not from this morning, when I didn't have time for photography, but from last month. But the effect is much the same.



I've been working my way through the first three books, collecting character descriptions and getting Gwernin's voice back in my head in preparation to start writing again. I'm really looking forward to it!

-GRG

...and Wednesday...

Some winter weather moving in today, with snow forecast for tonight and tomorrow. It's more than time, I suppose, but I'm not eager to drive in it tomorrow. Think I'll take the laptop home with me tonight so I can work from home tomorrow if necessary.

We'll be celebrating the Winter Solstice this weekend, even though it's not actually until Tuesday 21st. The length of the day doesn't change much at this point - here in Denver, for example, tomorrow's "length of visible light" will be only 22 seconds shorter than today, and in mid Wales (where Gwernin spent his winters) about 40 seconds shorter. So a couple of days early or late is no big thing. What I'm excited about, though, is the total lunar eclipse the night before - hope it stays clear!

Today's picture: Drom Beg again. If I remember right, the sunset now would be just about in the notch on the ridge line...



-GRG

Monday...

Hai mai! as Neirin would say. I've been off from work today, but so busy with bookselling administrivia that I keep forgetting to blog. Yesterday was the Colorado Welsh Society's annual Christmas tea, and I read a couple of poems as part of the program. Afterwards a number of people asked where they could find copies, and the upshot was that I sold several poetry books, and a set of novels as well. This led to the need to replenish the box of books I take to events, and the discovery that I am out of copies of The Ash Spear - not a desirable situation this time of year. I've ordered more, and they should show up in a couple of weeks, absent any blizzards between here and North Carolina... I'd been hoping to write a bit today, but all I've managed is half an hour or so glancing at timelines and thinking. So it goes...

Today's picture: draft horses at a Denver street fair last weekend.



That's all for now.

-GRG

... and Friday

Another nice day here, although it may snow tomorrow. Maybe I can sneak a bit of writing in this weekend; I'm impatient to get started again. Three more weeks...

Meanwhile, the possible weather sounds appropriate, and the forecast for south Wales, which is similar, more appropriate still. December 11 is the 808th anniversary of the death of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, last Prince of independent Wales. I visited his memorial again on my August Welsh trip - here's one of the pictures:



And another of the Welsh marker stone by the gate (there's an English version as well):



(Near this place was killed Llywelyn our last leader. 1282.)

Drink a toast to him tomorrow!

-GRG

...and Wednesday...

A busy week - busy at work, and busy preparing for the next few weekends. We're having my retirement party today - a potluck, so I can actually talk to people. (See my post on Quitting the Day Job). Sunday is the Welsh Society's Christmas Tea, and I'm on the program to read two poems, which I so far haven't either chosen or written. At least the weather continues unseasonably mild and dry (my sister says it reminds her of 1982, just before the Christmas Blizzard...).

Another Irish photo today: flowering gorse. Pretty but prickly...



And less than two weeks until Winter Solstice...

-GRG

Monday...

A busy weekend without much notable in it: put up the Christmas lights on the front porch, did a little shopping at a local street fair, puttered around house and garden. Weather was cold but dry, sunny on Saturday (bright blue Colorado sky), mostly cloudy yesterday and today. Took some pictures at the street fair, but haven't uploaded them yet. On the other hand, I found I'd missed a batch of the Irish photos when uploading to Flickr:



-GRG

... and Friday

Another mild, dry day, but windy: more weather coming in soon. We had been planning on going to an SCA event in Cheyenne tomorrow, but have pretty much decided not to after all, for various reasons. I had just as soon have the day off instead, as the next few weekends will be busy, and I am at bottom not really a very social person. This is good from the point of view of writing, which is generally a very solitary occupation. Book promotion, however, is another story.

Another Irish photo today, more reflective of the season than what I see outside my window: the entrance to Grange Stone Circle in the rain.



-GRG

...and Wednesday...

The week goes on... weather's a little warmer, which is good, and looks like staying mild and dry through the weekend. I am starting to apply myself to Old Irish, using David Stifter's Sengoidelc, in order to harvest some bits for use in The Druid's Son. I don't think I'll ever get the pronunciation right, but on the other hand I'm not planning to speak it! Some of the words look familiar from my attempt at Scots Gaelic a few years back, and others show their common Celtic roots with Welsh. I suspect that to Gwernin it would have sounded like the "Old Tongue" - British before it evolved into Primitive Welsh.

Nothing new on the wildlife front, but here's another picture from last weekend:



This shot took some waiting until he decided I was harmless - or at least worth tolerating for the sake of the peanuts!

-GRG