Good News, Good Times, and More

I've been a bad blogger lately. I have my reasons, or are they excuses?

The first and most pressing one was taxes. I had to make myself sit down and finish them. I'd had the spreadsheets finished for over a month, but I was procrastinating. It's on the bottom of the list of things I enjoy doing, probably like most people. But now they are done and I can breathe for another year.

Winter is holding on, although Spring is certainly pushing her way in. We had snow on the first day of the season but it was soon melted in most places. Sheltered places with northern exposure held little bits through Friday, a reminder not to get too excited yet. Larry has sowed a little lettuce, though, under glass cover, so perhaps we might have some sprouting soon.

Tuesday I had the great pleasure of presenting a new program of stories and ballads with my storytelling friend Judi Tarowsky. We have been talking for months about putting together a program of Celtic stories and folklore, and finally decided to take the plunge on Tuesday, which was World Storytelling Day. It was such fun! We did two presentations,  both for free, at libraries in our area, as a sort of dress rehearsal. I am pleased to report it went very well, with appreciative audiences at both places. I made a Powerpoint presentation of photos from our travels in England and Ireland

and we both brought some artifacts to share: Judi brought a Mari Lwyd (a Welsh Christmas "horse") and the flag of Wales and I brought my hagstone and a Brigid's cross. Stories included mermaids and selkies, ghosts and humor, mixed with lots of superstitions and lore.

Then there was my wrist. My left one--and I'm a leftie. It got very inflamed and swollen, probably because I've been on the computer too much doing ebay, taxes and other things, and I do not use good keyboarding posture. My back has also been giving me a lot of trouble.  The wrist healed up after several days of not being online much, and the back...well, that was another thing last week: doctor appointment.

The MRIs and xrays confirmed a few things I suspected--several bulging discs which very likely are causing the pain and numbness in my legs. The doctor recommended spinal epidural injections. I didn't like the sound of that at all, and came home to research a bit. I concluded that it wasn't for me; I'll do physical therapy instead. So that's coming up, and hopefully I'll get through some of it before Larry has knee replacement in May. Getting older is no fun sometimes.

The good news is that taking anti-inflammatory meds is definitely making a difference. I can sleep! The pain I've lived with for the past year is definitely working. Why my doctor didn't prescribe them sooner I don't know. But life is so much better now for me. Yay!

There was other good news last week too! The book, Voices on Unity: Coming Together, Falling Apart, got national newspaper coverage.

My story, Fruitcakes, was included in this anthology. Editor Cat Pleska arranged a reading by several of the authors in the book, and the event was covered by reporter Dave Lavender of the Huntington Herald-Dispatch. His article was picked up by the AP news service, and went viral--several major newspapers around the country published it! I am so grateful to Cat for her untiring work promoting West Virginia writers. You can read the article by clicking here. It may be in your paper too-- it was published by US News & World Report, The Houston Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, the Kansas City Star and many others. I have a link for purchasing this book on my sidebar.

Larry and I also restocked our Ravenswood booth; we'd done the Marietta booth the weekend before. Sales have been brisk lately, which means lots of new things to bring in.

And I worked on stools for some reason. Well, I have quite a few stockpiled and it was time to start working on them and getting them to the booths.








That's most of what's been going on around here. Right now I'm working on cleaning out flowerbeds so they look more like "Easter is coming" than like "Winter's still dragging around" even though we had more snow last week.  These two beds are still waiting for my rake and hands to get them ready for new mulch.

I am happy the cooler weather is hanging on as it is more likely the fruit trees might have a chance to bloom safely--although all the signs point to a very possibly frost in mid-May. We shall see!

I've been busy inside too, just feeling happy that Spring is on the way even if the weather is chilly.
While sorting totes that have been stored for several years I found the insert to a pitcher I bought last month. What are the odds of that! Both pieces are chipped but I don't care; I just really like it, even as it is.

I'm adding little bits of Spring decor around the house as I clean and sort. Little changes make big changes in outlook, don't they?

Next up for me is a storytelling workshop and performance on April 7th in Ohio. More on that soon!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.