writing and hot desking, really now

Didn't say much (anything) about writing or hot desking in my last post with this title, so I guess I owe you, eh?
First the hot desking: It's working out very well. I have been remembering to bring everything I need, and even a bit more, but that's okay. So far, I've been able to get a desk every time I come in. I was a bit worried a couple of times, because it seemed to me that I just squeezed in, getting the last desk available. It's odd not always being in the same place. It's even odder when it happens that I am in my usual place--like today, for example. I still look up at the shelf for my Kleenex box and have to remember that I now bring my own little packets each time. The drawers are always empty, of course, but I quickly fill them with my handbag and stuff that has to be repacked when it's time to go home. I keep a log of my times here, and so far I've used all eight of my pre-paid visits each month and it doesn't seem that I miss not having more. Of course, I can come in on the weekend if I want to, thanks to my $25 extra for the key and 24/7 access privilege. Haven't used that yet, but I do quite regularly use this privilege by staying well past 5pm closing time. This is now nearing the end of my third month of hot desking, and I'm perfectly happy with the way it's going.

Now. Writing. Hm. Okay. It's not the way I would like it to be.
I have not been able to face the novel that got jumbled in the USP thing that turned my work into a mess of upside-down question marks, etc. I just can't face it yet. I haven't even looked to see how much of it was salvaged by being printed out. It's on a shelf in my bedroom, giving me nightmares. That's the first book in the trilogy, its title is House of Secrets.
The second book in the trilogy is called Baby's Breath. I've taken the rewritten first few pages of chapter one of that to the critique group mentioned in the previous post. Seven hundred words out of seventy thousand--to be reread and rewritten according to advice from peers who have no idea what the first book was about or what this book is going to be about. Yes, the feedback is helpful. Yes, they have good suggestions. But it would take a thousand years to get the rest of it done, at this rate. So, instead of doing that, I've taken to making character sketches of about 700 words for them to critique, and maybe some them will make it into the book. However, at the age of 80 (I'll be 81 in less than three months) I'll need to live to be 200 to complete the trilogy.
Here's an idea: Maybe if I work on book 2 (Baby's Breath) in July--just as if it were a Nanowrimo project, write the whole thing in 30 days. Then, in August, pound out book three, I think it's to be called something like Flames and Flowers, or Flowers and Flames, or something--about arson--and do that in 30 days. July and August each have 31 days, so I can cheat a little and maybe take a day or two off or do a double shift. At least that way I'll have the rough drafts down and can really concentrate on getting all three books done by the end of the year. It means taking a couple of months off from working on my autobiography, If Anyone Should Ask, but … well, we'll see which takes priority. My writing these last few months has been almost entirely working on the autobiography. I've now completed four decades.

gardening in April part 2

This week my daughter came to visit for a couple of days, and continued work on the flower gardens in the front yard--started a couple of months ago.  She went to the garden shop and brought home 3 azaleas, 1 japonica, 1 lilac tree, and some marigolds and allysum (spelling??  aka "snow-on-the-mountain")--and a clematis. She also got lots of topsoil.  So the two of us spent a very pleasant afternoon digging and planting.  Actually, she did most of that (consulting with me about where I wanted things, but even then I think she made most of the final decisions), and I weeded another section of the garden that we'll plant in a month or two when she comes back to Vancouver.