My Writer's Blog

For anyone interested, I started a blog to chronicle my writing life.



Corsets & Cadavers

The address is : www.gothicmysterywriter.blogspot.com

If you are into mysteries or historicals you will most likely find my posts interesting. I am diligently working on my manuscript and have a self imposed deadline to be finished the first draft before end of summer.

Sensational Summer

I am already feeling really good about my garden this year. I have never harvested so much in so little time. Every day I head out to the gardens I am floored by the progress. The greens are flourishing and I have already had many salads. It's great to be able to take my bowl out and fill it up with nutritional goodness.



The radishes are divine. I planted them for my husband who eats them like a carrot. I, on the other hand, slice them up for salads and force them down because I know they are good for me. I planted my radishes between my rows of onions. By the time the onions really take off these radishes will be eaten. I am going to plant another small patch of radishes and try to keep the supply lines moving all summer. Radishes only take 20 days to reach maturity so they are a very fast and easy addition to the summer garden.



The broccoli has been threatening to flower so I cut them off and I am now searching for recipes to use them in. There is not enough to freeze. I will have to try my hand for a fall crop and see if I can get some more.




Things are moving along tickety-boo. Going out to my garden is not a chore. It revives me and makes me happy.

The Kid vs. Poison Ivy

Sometime last week, during one of our three hikes in the woods, my son came in contact with poison ivy. I think I have narrowed it down to one specific area since it was on that hike in which he deviated from the path and spent more time romping in the woods than his sister or I. He also wore sandals that day (not my choice of hiking wear but he is 8 and more or less in charge of his own attire), where as my daughter and I wore running shoes and socks.



Poison Ivy symptoms, small blistery, oozing bumps or welts, can take up to 72 hours to show up, which gives the persistent plant oils plenty of time to rub off on hands, clothes, bedding, you name it. My son's condition has been complicated by a handful of mosquito bites he also had, which became itchy. And being a kid, he scratched them all over and spread the oils to 75 per cent of his body. He was completely covered before we knew there was anything wrong.



We have been using Benadryl to dampen the itching and After Ivy cleansing lotion to get rid of the remaining oil. His bed has been stripped and the bedding washed numerous times. The last few nights have been a haze of medication, cool baths and hugs. He has been in a tonne of pain and there is very little I can do to help.

He has a prescribed medicated ointment now and seems to be doing better. I, on the other hand, am exhausted. Please tell me this is a lesson learned and my kids will be more careful the next time we are in the woods.

Quiet Time

I am weary of people who always look busy, or those who constantly remind me how busy they are. As a society we tend to equate busy with important, as if being busy meant our lives carry meaning and worth. We see a busy person as productive and assign a value or level of worth to that person. We dismiss those who take on a slower pace. We honk horns at the slow drivers. We cut corners to get the job done faster. We place a greater value on speed and activity than we do on mindfulness and solitude.

The fact that one is constantly moving, creating, accomplishing does little to distinguish them from another slower paced person. Often times this projection of perpetual motion is a play produced for the rest of us. It creates an illusion of importance, a mask of meaning.

My life is busy but I do not mean 'in motion'. My mind is busy and I don't use my outer world and its schedules, organized groups and endless movement to dampen the progress of the mind. When I am alone and remain quiet, my thoughts invade my space. They remind me of uncomfortable things sometimes. Words I have said and now regret. Actions I now wish I could undo. In those quiet hours when my body is still and my lips silent, I am made uncomfortable by the ceaseless internal chatter which dissects my life and the world around me. The choices, good and bad, that I have made become highlighted in my mind. When I try to force myself to think of other things, happier things, I fail. Squelching these patterns of thought gives me a fleeting peace that will once again become disturbed. I may become saddened, worried or regretful and this can be uncomfortable.

For some reason, people avoid things that make them uncomfortable. Society has taught us distraction is okay, that escapism is ideal.

Life can be uncomfortable. This is what separates the strong from the weak. We are strong when we can face our demons, our shadow personalities, and recognize the faults within us. We can hush this part of life with television, media, hundreds of friends on our facebook friends list, but this noise will do nothing to advance our internal selves. The noise detracts from our internal processes and we can become stagnant, unmoved, unchanged. We become inanimate and robotic, living our lives as dictated to us by society as a whole.

But when we clear our calendars and excuse ourselves from the constant barrage of obligation, our lives take on greater meaning. Once we walk the uneasy walk, meet our shadows head on, we become quiet in mind and body. Stress is reduced. Things start to become accomplished and we begin to see a peak in productivity. When we are no longer made numb by screens, noise and chatter that is when we truly become free.