Tag Archives: Spring

Report from the Tadpole Queen

April 13, 2010

On today’s hike, I was delighted to find that the Tadpoles of Spring 2010 have hatched.  First, here’s a view of the pond where they live.

Many of the tadpoles are still concentrated around their eggs.

But everywhere I looked in the pond, I found tadpoles swimming around.  There are far more tadpoles here this year than last year.  By far more, I mean thousands.  It’s hard to adequately convey that in pictures of a big pond with sun glare, but I did get close-ups of small groups of tads.

It’s delightful to make new polliwog friends.

I’m concerned, however, about the rain situation.  This pond dries up quickly in warm weather, so I’ll be keeping a close eye on these little guys and girls.

But rain is forecast in about a week, so hopefully the pond will hold its own until then.

Little tads:  live long, prosper, and FROG OUT!

I also discovered a carpet of wildflowers…

…and the forest is getting greener and greener.

Clear jelly-clumps hatch
Wiggling, wandering life in a
Universe of pond.

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Spring is Getting Springier!

March 28, 2010

The daffodils are still spiffy…

The rhubarb has grown…

The garden is ready to be planted…

The periwinkle is blooming on the mountain…

Buds are forming high in the trees…

And waterfalls are flowing…

Flowing…

And flowing…

And (you guessed it) flowing.

Writing update:

  1. Check out Grace Notes for more of my flash fiction (I’ve been writing stories which are based in the world of my novel-in-progress Heart’s Chalice and peopled by its characters, though in the fullness of time, Grace Notes will encompass stand-alone flash fiction as well as flash fiction based on my other novels).
  2. Deep-edits of Heart’s Chalice are going well.  I figure I’m close to halfway through.  It’s a painstaking task.  I wrote the rough draft so quickly for NaNoWriMo — pumped out 135,000 words in a month and a half.  The heavy revisions (which involve much cutting) are proving to be NaNo’s Revenge.  The story is there, but I’m working hard to excavate, clarify, and amp it up.  I love the story and its characters, and I intend to do my very best job by them.
  3. As ever, I’m the Queen of Rewriting.  I have several stories which I hope to rework and get out there.  My long-term readers might remember House on Bear Branch, a novel I wrote for NaNo in 2007.  It’s had two and a half years to bake, and now, I’m planning to rewrite it, change the title to Deirdre of the Sorrows and turn it into a spooky love story.  I’ll work on Deirdre of the Sorrows while Heart’s Chalice bakes for its next pass of revisions.
  4. And there’s Patchwork Stained Glass.  Which was known back in 2006 as Occam’s Razors.  Guess what.  I want to rewrite it yet again.  Yes, I can hear the groans.  But what’s the famous quote by James Michener — “I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.”  Ha!  Rewriting can make all the difference between a story that’s “pretty good” and one that’s WOWIE KAZOWIE.  In Patchwork Stained Glass, two young people fall in love who have different — and opposing — ideas about spirituality.  Will love triumph over ideology?  Well… you’ll have to see.  Heck, I’ll have to see, given the fact that I plan to rewrite the thing. ;)
  5. Last but not least:  there’s Thy Eternal Summer, a novella I wrote back in 2005.  A love story featuring an older couple, it was published in 2006 by a little e-pub which went belly-up the following year.  I’ve thought about revisiting the story, spiffing it up, and offering it as a serialized tale on my blog.
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More Signs of Spring

March 18, 2010

Daffodils…

Dandelions…

Rhubarb…

And a black snake.

Happy Ssssssssspring! :D

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Spring is Nigh

March 13, 2010

arch of laurel leaves
pass through to patchwork sky
and soar to greet the sun

dwarfed by last year’s leaves
frosted yellow filaments
harbinger of spring

trees left standing tall
after heavy snow and cold
soon will bud and bloom

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Springing Up All Over

May 28, 2009

I just finished eating a huge bowl of lettuce, and its sheer yumminess inspired me to share with you the latest pictures of our garden.  Seems like each time I look, it’s grown a little more.  Here you can see the lettuce bed:

garden1

And here, for your perusal, are the cabbage and tomato plants.  The tomato plants already have many small tomatoes growing on them.

garden2

And check it out — we’ll have broccoli!  When we bought these broccoli plants, they were pretty spindly, and we weren’t sure they’d make it.  But they’ve grown up strong and sturdy.

garden3_broccoli_forming

Did I mention I love green beans?

garden4

And corn:

garden5_corn

Here’s a close-up of the potato plants.  Can’t wait for the potatoes — I use lots of potatoes in my cooking.

garden_potatoes

And as if all that isn’t yummy enough, I noticed, on yesterday’s hike, that the wild blackberries on the mountain are starting to form.

hike_blackberries_forming

I hiked up the trail which leads to the tadpole stream.  Right now, the trail is festooned with flowers.

hike_flower_trail2

Our tadpole rescuees were swimming around like crazy in the stream, but when I moved closer, and they perceived my shadow, they scurried under the masses of leaves in the stream.  They’re growing larger bit by bit, and I was happy to see that they are thriving.  Here’s a somewhat blurry picture I managed to get of a straggler.

hike_tadpole1

Back home, the bubby bush is blooming.  It smells wonderful — like apple pie baking in the oven.  And in front of the bubby bush are flowers whose blossoms are so heavy they can’t stand up on their own.

bubby_bloom

Many thanks to Dorothy for a fabulous review of Mirror Blue!  And I’m working along on my next novel, Patchwork Stained Glass.  I recently finished a draft of Chapter Six, and I’ll work on Chapter Seven tonight.

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Today’s Hike

April 12, 2009

The tadpoles were hiding from me today. MIA. East TN got a good bit of rain yesterday, and the tadpoles’ little stream was higher and running more quickly than normal.

Either the tadpole clumps have dispersed (dang, if they’re gone, I’m gonna miss ‘em) or they’ve taken refuge under the thick piles of leaves in the stream. I saw individual tadpoles here and there, so hopefully the clumps will be back in evidence next time I hike that trail.

The forest continues to spring to life, pun intended.

hike1

“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” ~William Shakespeare

hike4

“If you’ve never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom.” ~Audra Foveo

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More Signs of Spring

March 9, 2009

On Monday’s hike, I saw green grass sprouting here and there through the leaf matter on the trail. Yes, Spring is on its way!

hike6_green_grass

And I saw the first mountain wildflower of the season — at least, the first to my eyes.

hike11_first_wildflower2

On the way back, I found daffodils growing wild beside the road.

hike12_daffodils1

A close-up, so you can see their lovely, intricate folds.

hike14_daffodils3

The willow trees are budding.

hike15_willow_tree_budding

See the rock wall behind the willow tree? Well, there’s another rock wall, a very old one covered in moss, on the mountain (picture below). The soil in East Tennessee is extremely rocky, and rock walls and structures — even rock houses and churches — are a fairly common sight.

hike9_rock_wall

“A Light Exists in Spring” ~Emily Dickinson

A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period —
When March is scarcely here

A Color stands abroad
On Solitary Fields
That Science cannot overtake
But Human Nature feels.

It waits upon the Lawn,
It shows the furthest Tree
Upon the furthest Slope you know
It almost speaks to you.

Then as Horizons step
Or Noons report away
Without the Formula of sound
It passes and we stay —

A quality of loss
Affecting our Content
As Trade had suddenly encroached
Upon a Sacrament.

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