Creativity Gone Walkabout

A whole month? I have never gone a whole month without posting here. I'm blaming it on my creativity. It has decided to meander off on some walkabout and left me high'n'dry all the month of June.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

But I have not been dead, you know - just ... um ... uncreative.

How I spent the Last Day of June

I have tried to be creative, but mostly I have been trying to wind up all things fiscal at work while wallowing in Michael Connelly novels at home. BD started reading him a year ago and in a rare alignment of literary stars, I began reading him this spring. We never read the same books unless we read them out loud, but this author was an exception. We're both laughing at each other and ourselves, as we succumb to the torpor addiction to a detailed, skilled, mystery writer.

Of course, June was was the last month of the fiscal year and though I believe I've tied up all the strings, I have a funny feeling that maybe I did not. It all seems too easy this year. Of course, there have been huge personnel changes this year, both in the library and in the county government - so maybe that's what's giving me that odd sensation. Or maybe I screwed up royally - a lowering thought for someone who's had her job as long as I've had mine. At least I know the changes are for the better, so I will just throw out my blessing hook and expect the best.

A wee bit of creativity displayed itself in the kitchen during June. I purchased two good sized pots of lavender this spring. While the brief strawberry season was in flush I managed to get a single batch of Strawberry/Lavender jam cooked up. This is a delicate flavor blend - neither lavender nor strawberry but something unique and heavenly. There is never enough S/L jam and I pot it up in tiny  jars so that I can share it. This particular batch did not set very  hard but it's jam. It doesn't have to be gooey and it set up enough to take it out of the syrup category. I wish I had 10 times this much.

 In the middle of the month BD had a chance to go sailing in NY. It coincided the first week of Summer Reading Club as well as Bess' Girls Camp. Cousin F is such a big girl now and Cousin A makes everything twice as much fun. The weather gods decided to bless us with Perfect Weather so there was lots of outdoor fun - horseback riding, canoeing and hiking - it's a rare week in June when every day is the right weather for doing stuff outdoors. Last year we nearly died in triple digit temperatures. This year was the reward.

I took the Friday of that week off and we went for a hike in the woods. Just down the home path and back by way of the rim path - not that far - but always beautiful. I took that same walk on Saturday only starting out on the rim path and coming back on the home path. When I got home I told BD how proud I was of him for fixing the bridge over the middle swamp last week - when the weather was so wicked-hot. He stared a moment and then said "I fixed that weeks ago".

"No Way" I argued - claiming that I'd just taken the girls down the home path last week and I would have noticed.  I see now that, though I did not notice, I did photograph it. A lowering senior moment here. Isn't this the most magical spot, though? Deep in the woods - like an emerald tunnel?

ThePrince had told me about a tree that had come down right on top of a tree that had come down several years ago. This is a spot where trees tend to blow down - perhaps some vortex builds in this southern stretch of the fields - and the fallen giants are all exposed to the north and north east winds. What I do know is that there can not be a tree down in the woods and TheQueen not itching to climb it. It turned out to be a bit harder to get up onto it than I thought but of course - triumph was inevitable.

Just in case you were wondering how Callie is doing - she is much improved. She still has a row of dimples along that femur where the screws were, but she has completely forgotten the cage and collar.  Here is a picture of her tormenting Jack on a walk. Whenever we reach this spot on the lane she always grabs his cheek and tries to pull him along. He has never snapped too hard at her even though she is digging sharp pointed teeth into his face. Evidently it's a dog thing.



Here they are in action:


 Last Friday evening there was a wine tasting in our local wine shop - She does these about twice a month on Friday evenings and they're like little parties. Afterwards there was a free bluegrass concert down the street at a riverside park. These are sponsored by our local main street organization and this is their second season. Last year I bought tickets for all of them and then never got to go to one - and gave my tickets away. It was fun to stroll down the street and listen to the music after sipping my wine (carefully calculated to fit within the days calories/points.)


And that's something I rarely discuss here at TheCastle - the calories/points/weight loss thing. You can't be an American Woman without having weight issues: weight loss, eating disorders, aging bodies, expanding girth, osteopenia  - you get the picture. I am no different from your typical (gasp 60 year old!!!) woman and have fought the good fight against Fat most of my adult life. It's just that I yammer on about it in a blog on a different website - Spark People dot com.

The weather turned hot almost as soon as the girls went home. Not killer hot, but in the low 90's. This week we are promised rain. Rain rain rain rain rain. I know some of my neighbors have had Enough Rain Already - but if I had to choose between enough rain and not enough - I'd take the rain every time. This is how green it is around here after the rainy month of June.

And so.  And so that's what's been going on at TheCastle. The year is half over. Time for the second half to begin. July July July July July

December 12 in 12

 Whew! I haven't written in forEver and I want to post this twelfth in my 12 in 12 good habits before it's 2013. In part this has been because I'm absolutely not feelng the Christmas Love. It's been all I could do to fake it till I make it - but I shall continue to make that effort. Usually I'm cock-a-whoop with Christmas Joy. I am sure the 2012 supply is around here somewhere .... I just have to find it. 

So here it is - the last good habit I want to weave into my life. It may sound like an odd one for a librarian - but it is important for me to reveal the Great Librarian Secret: 

We do not read books all day 

 Yup. That's right. We don't sit around reading all day.

What do we do? 

• We introduce little ones to their first act as citizens - to benefit from the common good, to care for the borrowed books, and to return them so they can be shared with someone else. 
• We help 9 year old boys find something they can do a book report on that isn't full of princesses and dresses. 
• We listen to teenagers as if they were adults. And then we answer them as if they were adults. 
• We help your mother log on to the Internet to see the pictures you emailed her. 
• We mop up the bathroom after somebody evil has made a mess. 
• We fix the lights outside. 
• We explain to county/city/state/federal sources why they need to fund the library 
• We entertain the Rotary/Lions/Chamber of Commerce/Masons/Women's Club with stories about life among the stacks - before we ask them for money too. 
• Oh yes. And then there is the paperwork. 

So - what we tend to read all day are book reviews. We only get to read books at home .... like you. And for a couple of reasons, I don't seem to read all the books I intended to read. This is especially true for reading teen and tween fiction - where I believe some of the most innovative writing is happening today. Don't get me wrong - I love a good mystery and now and again I can find a historical writer who is not into Vampires or time travel. Ken Follett comes to mind first but there are other great historical writers out there who can put a convincing amount of modern mores into the world of Castles and Kings. But I don't like a lot of the adult fiction that's coming out right now: Mean bitchy women and weak men ... Ugh. 

Alas, I've resorted to reading mostly non-fiction or familiar old friends - novelists I can depend upon - Austen, Bronte, Lovelace and Wilder - and while this is certainly alright - my choice - even a good thing -- the danger in avoiding contemporary fiction is that one looses touch with the values and beliefs of society. It is only through fiction that we pass on what is important to us to the next generation. And so, my 12th in 12 will be:

7. Read some fiction every day. 

I am thinking seriously of limiting my reading to YA and junior fiction. The teacher in me wants to find out what type of fiction - besides vampires, of course - is reaching young folk these days. I actually started last month - because just knowing this was coming reminded me that it was also going to be fun. I finally read The Giver (Lois Lowery) and the first of the Percy Jackson novels (Rick Riordan) and I'm rather rubbing my hands at what I am going to pick up next. 

And how am I doing with my other habits? How was November? 

 Clean the kitchen every night. Not perfect but good enough to make me take notice how pleasant it is to walk into a kitchen that is clean and tidy. I would give myself an A-

 Food Tracking eh - there have been some days when I just didn't bother - but then there was Thanksgiving when I Pre-tracked! I give myself a solid B 

 Exercising Yep. here I have done well - and even done very well so it gets a solid A 

   Drink 6-8 cups of water every day Can't figure out why I haven't been drinking water - but I can feel it. Not a failure but I need to do better. I give myself a D+ 

   The Charles Schwab list at work I realized I was letting this slip and ... uh. no. not a good thing. Not enough work gets done when I forget. I earn a C 

  Read my 5-year plan every morning week Eh. Not. What was I thinking? This earns a C-

   Compliment someone on my staff every day This month has been all about planning for someone's retirement so I was aware of what everybody does and how valuable they all are - and said so. I get a B 

 Draw 20 minutes a day. I did some art most days till I finished the 40 watercolor Christmas cards I'm sending out - and then I stopped because ... there are other things to do that demand artistic effort - I get an A 

 Select a big life goal - a big personal thing - and take one step towards it ... every day. Got to admit this - I have drifted a bit in November. It's the beginning of the Holiday Season so I won't be too hard on me, but I will only give myself a C 

 Ditto at work - Same issue - same grade C 

 Pray. I realized last month that I needed to do lots more of this ... and I did - the healthy, kind, grateful, honest sort of prayer. I'm proud of this. I get an A

Next year I will work on keeping these habits fresh and alive and perhaps, just perhaps, limit my resolutions to only a few key things. 

And now ... where is that Christmas Mojo - did I leave it at Tara? 

Better'n 3! It's a 5 Day Weekend!

Of course, it is Thanksgiving too - and I am thankful for both the day and the reason for the day - thankful for the thousands of blessings I enjoy - but most of all - I am thankful for some time off.

And just typing this makes me pause and wonder why I feel that way. This way. This is more than the usual delight-in-goofing-off sensation. This is a taking-off-tight-shoes feeling. This has a soupcon of relief to it. And it's been a long time since I felt relief at escaping my day-to-day world. But this has been a very challenging year. I love that word - it's such a good euphemism for rotten. And of course, this hasn't been a rotten year either. But for a ENFP Virgo - which is already such a conflict - I've had to spend more days than I like doggedly getting through whatever I had to get through.

But not this week.  This week I am going to savor my time, enjoy my family, explore new foods and read the Percy Jackson series.  My traditional holiday weekend reading is usually the 4 high school books in the Betsy/Tacy series - and I'll read them, too, but they are fun all the way up to - and through - Christmas.  The last of my 12 in 12 habits is to read YA and older children's fiction 20 minutes a day. The underlying intention is to be better grounded in that genre and I'm not going to get too weird about the 20 minutes a day thing after December .... though I will stick to it during this final month of 2012. And since I'm thinking of using minutes of reading instead of number of books read for our Summer Reading Club, it will be interesting to see the effect of monitoring my reading time.

I like this series - it's got a lot in common with Star Wars and Harry Potter - the same 'special' kid, the same fight against the dark side, the same enigmatic teachers who won't lay it out, but insist upon their charges risking their lives while figuring it out. I have always found that last aspect sort of weird because if I were coaching someone who's life was at risk, I'd give him all the tools he needed to reach his quest  - but there - it's a guy think, I think. BD used to do the same thing to LD and I, at least, had the good sense to stay out of it.

I also recently, and at last, read Lois Lowery's The Giver - a different sort of book - with much less of the quest and a much greater development of an alternative culture. In many ways it was a far more horrific book because a single soul was expected to contain all the feelings of an entire community while everyone else buzzed along in neutral.

The initial books in both of the series are good enough to tempt me to continue reading - even if their structures are very predictable. They are, after all, intended for young readers.  In fact, that's part of why I enjoy reading children's literature. I like distilling stuff down to clear lines.

But before any indulgent reading happens there must be HouseCleaning and Feast Preparations. I have silver to polish. I have pies to make. I want to go to the gym before lunch. We have New Guests coming for Thanksgiving. First the Feast - then the Fiction.

Ta.