Before dawn, it's still dark outside without much hint of light (it's the fog).

For the past week I've had insomnia but last night I slept - six solid hours.  Seven would have been better but I'm thrilled to have gotten six.

Normally, in the sleepless times, I struggle for the first day or two.  Then I accept it.  Depending on how awake I feel, I'll either lie in bed with my iPad and check my e-mail, play a game or go to Authonomy.  If I feel awake and energized enough, I'll get up and write.  This time through I never felt energized, going back to my post yesterday about exercise.

Confession:  I didn't take my walk at lunch.  Instead, I decided to look for a yard full of flowers behind a picket fence.  It's for a book cover - A Matter of Friendship - in which the MC is recently divorced and can now do the things she's wanted to do.  Like have a garden full of flowers.  Because my office is not in a place where there are scads of gardens with or without picket fences, I got in my car and drove to a residential area.  Then I drove around and around.

Do you have any idea how few yards with flowers and picket fences there are? Isn't that the old ideal (or idyll), the country cottage with the picket fence?  Maybe it's California, or maybe it's the north end of the Napa Valley.  Whichever.  The closest I found was:

Which is pretty, but not what I was looking forward to finding.  At the same place, I also got this which has promise:

I'll play with this; crop it and manipulate it some.  Then, for insurance, I'll get to work a bit early today, so I can leave a bit early.  There are a couple of older sections of Santa Rosa where I might have some luck - and then I can go back on Saturday to get better light since I think the fog is going to be here for a few more days.


I also took pictures of a couple of other things, an old barn that I've admired on my drive home most days for one.  Those pictures are too washed out to be any good.  I do miss my old SLR with the manual F-stops, film selections and so on.  It was more challenging to take 'good' pictures but much easier to take 'better-than-good' pictures.

Now I guess I'd best be getting on to fiddling with my cover.

Have a lovely day!

Best~
Philippa

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Check out:  A Matter of Friendship at:  https://www.authonomy.com/book/294687/