It’s been a day full of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The marathon has been lovely, but it’s also left me a bit inspiration-less when it comes to my blog.
With that in mind, I hope you enjoy this pretty, pretty sunset. It was lingering in my archives, just begging to be shared.
Hope you’re having a great weekend!
(c) 2015. All rights reserved.
Once again, it’s a pretty leaf picture:
It’s been a busy couple of days at work, and my brain’s a little fried, so once again, I’ve got very little to share. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be a little more with it.
Happy Hump Day! 🙂
(c) 2015. All rights reserved.
The snow we got over the weekend is now almost entirely gone, but that didn’t keep me from waking up to another white morning. Once again, the ground was covered in frost when I left for work, and once again, I found some pretty leaves to take pictures of:
I was surprised (in a good way) how well the frost crystals popped out in these pictures. These are the best of the dozen or so I snapped this morning after dropping my kids off at daycare, and I’m pretty tickled with them.
What’s tickled you lately?
(c) 2015. All rights reserved.
The grass yesterday morning crunched beneath my feet. Like snow. It was…interesting.
It was also quite pretty, so naturally, I took some pictures. Today it’s in the forties, so the ground is turning soggy. Mud’s just not as pretty as frost.
(c) 2015. All rights reserved.
Since I’ve been moaning about the state of the snow round these parts, I figured a picture of it might be appropriate:
Believe it or not, this is the pretty snow. The ugly snow is completely black and fills the ditches along my commute. Yuck.
How’s winter treating you?
(c) 2015. All rights reserved.
Have I mentioned lately that I’m tired of winter? Cuz I totally am. We seem to be getting the short end of the winter stick this year – all the sub-freezing temps, but none of the pretty, pretty snow.
Now, of course, it feels like March outside because the temperatures have rebounded from somewhere in the -10°F range to the mid-30’s, and it’s glorious. But, as one of my awesome friends said yesterday, “I want it to be March in March.”
March it ain’t, at least not yet.
But in honor of the warmer temperatures, I thought I’d share a picture from a warmer time of year. Here’s me driving a tractor for the first time last summer. We lost some trees in one of the many storms that plagued our area last year, and Seymour and I spent a good portion of this particular afternoon cleaning one of them up. Driving a tractor was an interesting experience – I’ve driven riding lawn mowers many times, but it’s been ages since I did it last, and this is quite a bit bigger. Still, it was a good day.
I can’t wait for more good days on the farm this summer. What are you looking forward to this year?
(c) 2015. All rights reserved.
Winter, in all its monochrome glory, is now firmly entrenched in my backyard. Since my current view is something like the image to the left, I find myself longing for a bit of color.
What? There’s color in that there picture? Well of course there is! It’s just that it’s the color cast upon an ocean of snow by a setting sun, and it’s mostly blue. And white. And some sort of odd mixture of the two. It’s monochrome. And while it’s beautiful in its own way, it’s also boring.
I want color! Color that pops off the page, or better yet, color that pops out of the dreary winter landscape. I want color that makes my eyes sing and my heart soar, color that is so deep and rich and vibrant that it’s practically alive.
I’ve been trying to organize the scads of pictures that live on my computer and in so doing, I ran across these pretty, pretty pictures that I took last summer:
Yesterday Miss Tadpole decided to take the boys outside to play in the snow. Thumper was all excited to bundle up, head outside, and build a snowman.
That lasted all of about five minutes. Then the cold got to him and the screaming began. At least I got some nice cuddle time while he warmed up under a pile of blankets.
Cricket, on the other hand, didn’t start screaming till he was forced to come inside. He wasn’t ready to be done playing, but he wasn’t listening, either, so in he came.
This weekend has given us the warmest temps we’ve had in quite a while – mid-twenties above zero! – but there’s a breeze, and it’s knocked the wind chill down well below zero. Still, at least it’s better than the last week.
(c) 2015. All rights reserved.
Several days ago, I was nominated for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award by the lovely and talented Katrina Jack. This isn’t the first time I’ve been nominated for this particular award (you can read those posts here and here, and a list of my other blog award posts is here), but I’m just as flattered now as I was then. 🙂
I’m sure you all know how these things work – you thank your nominator, you share seven things about yourself, you nominate others. I thanked Kate for the nomination in her post, but I’d like to give her another shout-out: There’s a list of books on Goodreads that are Hugo-eligible this year, and Kate’s book Land of Midnight Days is currently at number 6. It’d be great if you’d hop over and vote for her – she’s a wonderful author and a fantastic friend, and she deserves all the recognition she can get. 🙂
And now, without further ado, the rest of it:
1. In just over three weeks, I will be the same age my mom was when she died. As my 31st birthday draws nearer, I find myself becoming more morbid. This, of course, is a continuing trend, because my 30th year has been rather morbid in and of itself. And come this time next year, I plan to have one hell of a party, assuming I survive 2015.
2. My new favorite song is…
Zandoor
Artwork by Hazel Butler
Hoo boy, am I ever tired! I finally finished reading the Query Shark archives last week and boy, did all that education wear me out. Two hundred and sixty-six queries, plus revisions, plus comments. Talk about a learning experience! That and the comments I received as part of Michelle Hauck’s query critique blog hop have really helped me shine up my query. And further brainstorming led to a name change for my MC.
Behold, my new and improved query:
Dear Super Agent:
Nineteen-year-old Prince Zandoor is expected to follow in his father’s corrupt footsteps. His first task: Marry a wealthy noblewoman and fill the royal coffers to the brim. But the prince has other ideas.
When he falls in love with a peasant…
Suddenly they all died. The end. 