Glorious Sunday

I rolled outside today and took plant pictures. One of the most magnificent plants in my yard is a twenty-five year old rosemary that thinks it is trying to take over the county. It is covered in blue flowers that are so pretty and abuzz with bees. Good to see considering that the bees are having trouble surviving these days.

One of my greatest photographic challenges is trying to capture the bee or bees at work on the rosemary flowers. This is something that I have been trying to do for three years and will keep trying.

The daffodils are still pretty; the hyacinths are too and one azalea is blooming in a little pot. Two pots contain leaves of bulbs--tulips in one, calla lily in the other that will bloom sometime soon. I would particularly love to the see the calla bloom in time for Easter. I like it better than the more traditional "Easter lily". I am allergic to the fragrant lilies, which is too bad.

The old, old white flowering Satsuma plum in my next door neighbor's yard is blooming and is so fragile, and ethereal looking. It bloomed the year my Mama died during the week that she lay dying and I have thought of it ever since then as my resurrection tree. It is one of the things I am always most grateful for on a hot summer day, for it shades my bedroom window and allows me to rest until the worst of the heat passes and I rise to open windows. That time will come sooner than I think; I dread it already for it is getting harder each year to cope with the heat. In the yard behind me a beautiful flowering plum tree is putting forth a veil of pink blossoms. Unlike the Satsuma, it will not bear fruit.

When I was young and the house was almost brand new--nearly fifty years ago--the entire neighborhood was alive with blossoming plum trees at this time of the year. They did not do well, I am not sure why and they have gradually been replaced by other kinds of trees.

The sunshine streaming in today makes me cheerful and warms me as I type. Sunday is good; life is good and spring is definitely coming.

Sunshine Monday

We are having a "clearing weather" day and the sun is trying to shine! It is beautiful but too cold. My amaryllis is opening even more and growing on the kitchen counter.
Only three more days of January and then February will fly by and hopefully Spring will show signs of arriving.

Last night I seriously edited the first half of the first major section of the novel I spoke about several weeks ago. This section has been edited so many times, that it would be really great if I could just leave it alone. Even now I am tweaking and what is far worse, finding typos. Oh if I could only type! I see what should be there and what is and so am a rotten proofreader.

Finding the next section, which is much bigger and which exists in both the physical, printed listing mode and the files on computer mode and will have to be recovered in both will be the next task after I re-read the rest of part one tonight. So tomorrow's work is well cut out for me as is the next week or more.

Finding a writing coach, finding an agent and finding a publisher are all tasks I have been putting off for a decade. This seems like the year to finally reach out and try. (I can always just give up and pdf file the whole thing and share it with those who want to read it the most.) (She thinks in her less confident moments.)

It has been a long time since I worked on this project, long enough so that I am almost reading it as though it were written by someone else. That is good. On the other hand, I don't think I could do the research now, even with the Internet. I just tire too quickly and too easily. So more progress reports lie ahead.

In the meantime, the Valentines are so pretty and colorful. I do hope I sell a few.