Okay, Okay, So I'm A Proud Momma

I just have to share (when don't I?).

I started a virtual wedding album for Elaine and Josh on Facebook and one of the people who were there Saturday took a fantastic picture of us. I am so proud to call this beautiful young woman my daughter.

The blond man standing behind my left shoulder is Victor, our hitchhiking visitor from Denmark - and I am thrilled to have a picture of him, too, for this memorable day.

We were also fortunate that someone had the sense to get a picture of the bridesmaids and groomsmen - because I didn't!

And the gent standing in front of the arbor is Elaine's good friend who performed the ceremony. Which makes a special occasion that much more special - to share it in such a personal way.

They're off on their wedding trip. I can't call it a honeymoon, really, since they've been living together and they're already on the way to making me the next generation. Ahhh. Yes. I'll be the Next Generation instead of... that other word commonly used for the next generation on the female side.

The sunburn I got on Saturday is fading. It wasn't too bad, considering how many hours I spent in the sun, but it wasn't good, either. I looked like Rudolph on Sunday. Since I burn so easily - often just ten minutes will do it for me - I was lucky I didn't scorch, but I'll put that down to wandering. Sometimes in circles. Enough time with my back to the sun that my face didn't burn off.

In other 'news', I've been pondering, while I couldn't sleep this morning, participating in NaNoWriMo aka National Novel Writing Month. It's an annual event, a competition in a sense, where writers sign up and "pledge" to write 50,000 words in one month - November.

I've heard from others that it's intense. 50,000 words sounds like a whole lot of words to someone who's never written a novel, but almost all of my stories are well above that mark. Two thousand words per day for thirty days = 60,000 words, so it's doable. Heck, even my blog posts are generally around fifteen hundred words. Of course, I can't use my blog, so it's a triple writing commitment. My blog, plus my books that I'm editing / revising, plus two thousand words of meaningful rough draft each and every day.

However, since I couldn't sleep and was pondering this, I also thought of a partial solution to that challenge, too. Post all of my NaNoWriMo writing here, as a serial story. That would help me meet the commitment of the word count and I could keep my blog going (and give anyone who drops by here a sample of my writing) and if I really wanted to, I could take a rest from my other writing for a month. Which would serve to recharge the batteries.

Definitely worth thinking about. And I already have the inkling of a story, too. So... We'll see.

In the meantime, you have a lovely day and I'll sit here, drink my coffee and contemplate.

Best~
Philippa

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Tempus Fugit

The other day I wrote about my drive to work and the little sightseeing excursion that resulted from another's misfortune. I wasn't really happy with the quality of the pictures I took. They weren't quite what I wanted, so I decided I'd take the same detour and take new pictures.

In just two days the landscape had changed.

As I drove up the narrow winding road to the ridge from the main highway, fog hung low and light across the hills, drifting down in a thinning veil almost to ground level. Coming around a curve, on the hillside above the road, was a herd of cows (probably steers, actually). The grass was shorn almost bare, the mist laid over their backs, and it was a great picture.

I found a turnout, grabbed the camera, got out of the car (it's so wonderfully quiet out there!) and saw that a manzanita bush was framing the head of one of the bovine critters in its branches. He was looking at me, no doubt wondering what I was doing. It was perfect! Up came the camera and... nothing. The bloody battery was dead.

Naturally, I would not accept the fact that I was in the middle of nowhere with a herd of cows, a dead camera and a great opportunity (which had, while I fiddled with the camera, calmly gone back to grazing, ruining my shot anyway). I kept messing with the power, the settings and got nowhere. Except, accompanied by a pique of frustration, back into my car.

Grumbling up and over, down the other side, a number of other great shots appeared - none of which could be captured. The narrow road sliding between trees dark with moisture, the mist drifting between their branches. Higher clouds at the bottom of the grade, held up by the trees and hills surrounding the valley.

When I got back to the stretches of broom, at least half of the flowers I had gotten pictures of just two days before were gone. One warm summer-like day in between the first and the second, and the flowers had become pods. Changed to seed holders that will dry and generate the next edition.

It's a reminder of how fleeting things are. Big things, little things, all things are swift and transitory. It serves as a reminder to me not to waste time, not to get so bogged down in the 'must dos' that I miss out on the 'want to dos'.

Last night I went to sleep with a long list of 'must dos'. When I woke up at six this morning, I got right to them, got them all out of the way. By nine o'clock all but one of the 'must dos' was done. I have the morning for my 'want to dos', including this and some other writing I want to take care of. Things to look forward to doing and then, this afternoon, I'll finish up the mixed up and blended must do/want to do of shopping (both a chore and a pleasure).

Hopefully, along the way, I'll find a herd of cows on a hillside in the mist and I can catch what I missed out on the other day. If not, perhaps something else serendipitous and fun.

Have a lovely day!

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories