Friday,...

Cooler weather yesterday, which was nice. I'm making good progress on the new book, and have set up a page here for information about it. I'll add new bits from time to time. In the meantime the harvest goes on:



Back to work!

-GRG

Wednesday...

Wednesday already! I've been busy with the book the last couple of days - over 1,000 words a day, which is fast for me. Now if I can just keep it up... Weather's still warm - too warm for this time of year, though not setting records. I picked the three remaining ripe pumpkins today lest the squirrels get them; the three younger ones are changing color, so may have time to ripen fully if the weather holds.



Back to work now...

-GRG

Monday...

The new book is coming along slowly. Title still seems to be a bit uncertain - I may use something other than "The Druid's Son" after all, and leave that one for Gwernin... Got a little writing done over the weekend, in and around other things.

The finches are busy with the sunflower seeds now, but one took a little time out yesterday to take a bath:



Weather's still warm and dry - I actually am getting zucchini again, although they're growing slower. Still, the longer before serious frost, the more beans will mature, not to mention the last three pumpkins which are only now starting to change color.

Speaking of changing, I'll be changing the template on this blog soon, but wanted to tinker with it a bit first to give people a warning - I hate going to sites which are suddenly completely different!

Back to work now...

-GRG

Changes coming...

I'm thinking of redesigning the look of this blog somewhat. I'll start gradually, though, so as not to create too much confusion...

Friday...

An early post, since I'll be busy today. Yesterday morning we had our first frost. This is relatively late for Denver, where we often get a hard garden-destroying freeze in early September followed by another month of irritatingly mild weather. Yesterday's frost was light - I had a small amount in the coldest spot in my yard, but saw frost in some other open spaces and on roofs while I was taking my dawn walk. No damage to the garden, and I had protected the eggplant/pepper bed with plastic just in case. The reading by my back door was 34 F.

Managed to get some more writing done on the new book the last couple of evenings. I've got to get more regular about this. I don't find it easy to start a passage - rather like diving into cold water - and will do all sorts of things to put it off (like blogging!). Once written, on the other hand, editing is easy. I'm also doing this one without an outline, another departure from past practice. Things come as they come. I like the results so far.

The autumn clematis is in full bloom, and smells wonderful:



Back to work...

-GRG

Wednesday...

Busy with a wood-working project the last couple of days. It's good for thinking, though. Should be able to get some more writing done now.

Rowan berries are very red now:



That's all today.

-GRG

Monday...

More fine autumn weather. We celebrated Harvest with SBGH Saturday, and I sacrificed a pumpkin for a pork and pumpkin casserole:



The 17th seemed a little early for the equinox celebration, but I think there were scheduling conflicts. We'll have our own celebration Friday.

The new book is coming along fairly well. Unlike the Gwernin stories it's third person narration and not planned out ahead of time in any detail. We'll see how it works. If it comes out well I'm hopeful it will make a good entry point into the series for people who haven't read the earlier books.

The asters are blooming, and the bees are going crazy:



Back to work now...

-GRG

Friday...

And a cool autumn morning (40 deg. F. by my back door at dawn). Lots of dew on top of last night's showers, so nice and damp - good for photography, too:



This morning I harvested my first pumpkin. It's going into the pot along with some pork and other good stuff for tomorrow's feast.

Back to work...

-GRG

Wednesday...

...and the weather is changing. It was clear at dawn, but now the clouds have moved in, and the forecast is colder and wet. No frost likely here yet, but the snow level may be down to 10,000 feet in the mountains tonight, which means Mt. Evans will have a new white hat in the morning.

I've been involved in a lot of miscellaneous activities the last couple of days, but now it's time to get back to writing. One more picture from Estes Park before I go:



Now, back to work...

-GRG

Tuesday...

I meant to put the book review I did for Sharon Penman's new book Lionheart up on the blog, though I did link to it on LibraryThing. Anyway, as the book release date is coming up soon (4 October according to Amazon), I thought I'd post it here as well. So here goes...
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Lionheart by Sharon Kay Penman.

Covering the period July 1189 through September 1192, this is very much Part I of a two volume book. To say that it traces Richard Lionheart's involvement in the Third Crusade and his marriage to Berengaria of Navarre is too simple a description of a narrative which starts with a three page list of principal characters and stretches in its field of action from northern England to the Holy Land; to say that it includes a cast of thousands is no exaggeration. Penman paints a vast and minutely detailed picture; indeed the depth of detail (and the extensive and impressive research behind it) is both a strength and a weakness of this book.

The first eighty pages sometimes seem to drag as Penman jumps from location to location, viewpoint to viewpoint, in the process of introducing all her principals and providing the necessary thumbnail sketches of their backgrounds. At last, however, the various parties (fated to converge in Sicily) get on the road, and the pace picks up slightly. By the time we reach Cyprus the action is fairly brisk. The rest of the book, located in the Holy Land, mostly holds this pace, although there are some slow sections now and again which deal mainly with the labyrinthine politics of the Crusade, often seeming to take the principals in slow ponderous circles at an enormous cost in blood, treasure, and general suffering.

The conclusion of the book sees Richard's departure from the Holy Land, sailing back to Western Europe to try and salvage his battered empire. History (and Penman's afterword) tells us the fate of most of the principals, but it's partly the future of two minor but appealing invented characters which will lure me back to read the next volume. Overall, an impressive achievement, highly recommended for Penman's fans and those interested in the Angevins and the Third Crusade. Four stars out of five.

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

-G R Grove
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And that's it for today.

Monday...

We spent the weekend at Estes Park in the mountains, helping with the Colorado Welsh Society booth at the Long's Peak Scottish-Irish Highland Festival and telling stories. I got a chance to do the Mongan story for the first time. It still needs a little more polishing, and preferably a venue with *slightly* less overwhelming background noise, but it's coming along. I also did a few others - "Arthur and the Three Truths", "House Was Too Small", "How Cuchulain Got His Name", and "MacCrimthann's Three Treasures" are the ones I remember. Also got to tell a lot of people about my books. I could have sold a few, but the Long's Peak festival doesn't like that unless you're an official merchant (and pay through the nose for the privilege).

We also found a Celtic jeweler named Michael Hayman whose work we hadn't seen before but really liked. I bought two pieces from him, and would have liked to buy more.

An Estes Park picture to close:



The white tents are the festival.

-GRG

Friday...

As I noted on my LibraryThing thread a couple of days ago, something strange is currently happening with my writing: I now seem to be working on two books simultaneously! The first one, of course, is The Druid's Son, which will form the fourth book of the Storyteller Series. But the other one... well, it's a sort of prequel, not narrated by Gwernin, which forms the background to the main book. The working title for now is Son of the Fox. If this is confusing - well, I'm a bit confused myself at the moment!

On other fronts, the weather has finally settled into a seasonal normal range for Denver - much nicer than the last part of August! A couple of pictures: first, autumn-blooming clematis...



...and second, the rowan berries are getting ripe:



Back to work now...

-GRG

Wednesday...

Cool, cloudy weather yesterday and today with occasional light drizzle - makes me think of Ireland and Wales. (In fact today's temperature here is about the same as Cardiff's!) Working on some writing ideas today - a new plot thread for the current trilogy has surfaced, also some more background for the title character.

No photos today as the light isn't great, and there's nothing really new in the garden. Back to work!

-GRG

Tuesday...

I don't usually post on Tuesday, but I got some photos yesterday I'd like to share...

Ever had a day like this?



Or found yourself in this position?



Or this?



As far as I'm aware, the mouse survived. He (yes, I checked) was very good at getting down under the grass, and creeping along or holding still. I think the cats eventually lost interest, and he escaped.

There are a few more shots on Flickr from this sequence - just click on one of the above and you'll see them all.

-GRG

Monday...

First, our performance as Dwygelli at the fundraised Saturday night went well. I've set up a new website for us under that name here - take a look and tell us what you think.

While I was at it, I finally got the .com domain name for Tregwernin and set that up. the old blogspot address will continue to work, but you can also get to this page now by simply typing "tregwernin.com".

Yesterday we spent recovering from the fundraiser. The garden is still in full flood, and I snuck a few early new potatoes out of the raised bed yesterday. The last two nights have been quite cool - 42 F by my back door, so probably a little lower in the vegetable garden - and the end of the squash / tomato season is in sight. We'll probably have our first frost in two or three weeks. Squash production is already tapering off with the change in the light, and the only tomatoes still setting are the Sweet 100's, but it's certainly been a good year.

Today's picture is of a huge caterpillar I saw in the driveway Saturday. We think it might be the kind which turns into a big moth - anyone have a better idea?



Hoping to get back to writing today or tomorrow.

-GRG

Friday...

Cooler weather at last! And I've spent half the day working on website and email stuff - what a waste! I'm going out in the garden now - but one picture first of the green beans (3.5 pounds) I picked yesterday:



-GRG