October 22, 2013

I have a list of items I want to post about, and it gets overwhelming when I look at it.  I have so many things I want to say here, but..., well, if you visit from time to time you'll have noticed that I'm not a regular blogger. 
The most important item to write about this month is my 5 days at the Franciscan friary in Port Jefferson, New York.  My husband has an appointed position on Chapter, as vocations coordinator (I think that's the correct title).  And I was elected this year as a Chapter member.  So the five days were filled with meetings with other Chapter members and visitors, and with prayers with the friars.
I've taken on a couple of jobs: I'm on an ad hoc committee on Ministry to Young Adults, with looking at the Franciscan Earth Corp group.  I'm thinking about how to create retreats and pilgrimages that would appeal to people between the ages of 18--35.  My other job is to minister to the isolated tertiaries in the Province of the Americas, while I pay special attention to Canadian tertiaries (many of whom are among the isolated). 

Thoughts on writing

It occurs to me that even when I'm not writing, I am actually writing.  Fingers may not be on the keyboard.  Pen or pencil may not be touching paper.  Yet I'm writing. It's my thought processes that are at work:  Include this.  Delete that.  Try this or that angle.  Then when I do start to "write" it will flow through my subconscious and find its way onto paper, perhaps via the computer or perhaps not.  I like to write on paper and then copy onto the computer, even if what appears on the screen might not even resemble what is on the paper.  The paper notes help combat any writer's block--if such a thing really exists.  So, my notebook is growing even though my word files don't show it. 
That's writing my novels (I have 2  or 3 in the works: Angels in the Flames is written but resting between trips to publishers; and the 2 I refer to as MXME and PPSQ).  Other writing, like articles for example, don't get notes.  They get trial and error drafts.  Today I'm writing a short piece for the Franciscan Times, assigned by Chapter a year ago.  I want to get it in the mail before I leave for the next Chapter meeting--and that's next Tuesday!  I have a draft that I think will do, with just a bit of polishing.  So, that will happen when I type it onto the computer tomorrow.  Some measure of writing success, I guess.

September 2013 review

It's been a month.  The summer is passing so quickly--but it's not quite over yet.  Today, the weather is very hot, sunny, and I'm indoors as usual.  The garden is looking very neglected, as well it should as I haven't been near it in about a month.
I have been writing, but not as much as I should.  Not if I'm really a writer, as I claim to be.  Still, I haven't quit yet. 
So what have I been doing?  Aside from watching TV and playing Scrabble on facebook? 
Hubby & I have been studying Welsh, and singing with the Cambrian Circle Singers.  We've joined the Richard III Society (more on that later, probably). And we've sponsored a 14-year-old girl in Ecuador.  Her name is Ivonne, and she likes foreign languages and playing soccer.  More about her later, too, I hope.  I've sent her an email, but it has to go through the office in Ecuador to be translated and taken to her.  I hope we can correspond better than I have done with previously sponsored children.  This one is through World Vision, my favourite charity.

Garden in August 2013

Well, I've been trying, but my brown thumb is back.  Here's my vegetable plot in the community garden as proof: Poor wee thing.  Not really neglected, but still not producing much.  What have we eaten out of this plot?  Well, we had three radishes out of three rows of radishes (delicious, but just 3); we had one small beet and a couple of little carrots.  Oh, yes, and one leaf of spinach.  I did cook the beet leaves, and they were very good.  No sign of the cucumbers I planted, nor beans on the bean bushes.  Being in the shade of the tree all day (the tree at the foot of the garden here, is at the south end of the plot), probably doesn't do a lot for it, however in the very hot dry weather we've had this year, the ground hasn't been dry. Neglecting it isn't an option, really, as this picture was taken from the computer room window in our house.  Oh well, maybe next year will be better.

to do lists

To do lists just don't work for me.  My husband makes a list for himself every few days and seems to be able to keep to it, crossing items off regularly.  Me?  I make the list, and then sit back as though that were all I had to do.  Or, I lose the list, and find it a week later with all those items still waiting to be done. 
One of the items on my most recent lists has been to write a blog entry.  I intended to write about my garden, as I had promised.  I got as far as taking a photo of the vegetable garden plot.  Maybe I can upload the picture and get it posted.  Then I can make a new list and "blog entry" won't have to appear for a while.

writing these days

It seems that I do everything but write.  However, I've been poking with the plot of my YA novel, still trying to work out what's happening with my protagonist's attempt to solve the murder.  She's been procrastinating, too, I guess.
The play, "The Wolf and the Saint", has been getting a little more attention.  I'm trying to shorten it so it can be performed in about half an hour instead of requiring a full hour.  Hard to know what to cut and where.  No one said writing was easy--at least, no one who actually writes.

garden progress

I had hoped to finish sowing all the seeds in my vegetable plot, but the weather has been uncooperative.  It's still quite chilly and drizzly, so I'll wait a week or two before I finish that task.  Meanwhile, I slip over to the plot once in a while to pull a few weeds and inspect the growth of the beets, radishes, spinach & carrots.  I haven't seen any sign of the cucumbers I planted.  Hmm.  Maybe need a few more seeds in that area.
The flower beds are okay, except the "south" one which is really overgrown with weeds.  Haven't done anything with that except plant one clematis in the corner.  Have to rescue it soon from the weeds, and the morning glory has attached itself to the rose bush.  Just a tiny garden, but I still can't keep up with it.