DIVA @ DIVOT

November 2009

This is the month of whatever was I thinking. Two hundred daffodil bulbs need planting. The weather has turned cold and rainy and my image of a spring garden filled with beauty is battling with reality. Darn, and oh gee, this is not going to be easy. I keep telling myself it is all an engineering challenge. Take it one bulb at a time. My knees are already screaming.

My writing mind is also screaming. What have you done? I have a habit of creating secondary characters I think are interesting. No matter they may not have a part in the story. The crux is the “may not,” part. I keep the character in the story until I am sure they won’t fit. This drives my logical mind nuts. Right now I have a character I love and don’t want to delete her to the maybe in another story, file. In a case like this I turn to writer’s intuition, stick with this character for a while longer, and hope she has a reason for showing up.

Much like the two little fawn Pugs who showed up, totally unexpected, in my life at five weeks old. Here they are eleven months later racing and bouncing through the garden with a puppy’s curiosity and silliness every time they go out. When I write, Diva and Divot cuddle next to me, like hip to hip Imperial Fu dog guardians, offering their warmth, protecting me with their dreamy snorting. I can’t imagine the story- line of my life without them.

Finches and bees love sunflowers!

Fountain @ glass sculpture

October 2009

First rains and cold temperatures herald the beginning of fall. A time to look over the garden and wonder how in the heck I will get all the last minute tasks finished. I still haven’t cut the iris leaves, and there are hundreds of them! However, all the plums have been harvested and I put up 32 pints of luscious ruby red jam. Yum. The house smells like a sugar plum factory :D

Time to stop feeding the handsome orange and white goldfish so they will begin the process of dormancy. Last year I selected over a dozen of them from the pet store and made sure their patterns of color were as close to Koi as I could get. They are triple in size and beautiful watch while they cruise just below the watery surface between the lily pads and plants.

Writing is mostly done in my head these days. While I trimmed the spent blossoms from the lamb’s ears I resolved an important plot element. Planting winter beets I found an answer to one of my character’s family background. While making space in the barn for the glass sculptures to be stored I went through a major conflict scene in my mind. And out of no where while picking cherry tomatoes I found the reason the antagonist wears a certain ring.

I know I have developed a symbiotic relationship with the garden. It is a living space in which I physically work and mentally let my imagination and creativity grow and develop. Now to get the mental work down on paper!