Tuesday was the trip to Moundsville to tell Celtic Tales with my partner-in-crime, Judi Tarowsky. The library did great event publicity and the newspaper provided a good lead-up article, so we had a nice crowd of adults who began arriving a half-hour early. A rule of thumb is to multiply how many people are there 10 minutes before the event by 5, and that is a good indicator of how many will show up. It certainly worked in this case. The storytelling went so smoothly, lots of good comments and questions afterward from the attendees. I can't wait to do it again in Grafton, WV Monday night at the library there.
Yesterday was one for the books, certainly--certainly for the checkbook. Ow. We started early with pickup from some of our pickers who find us cool things for our booths. Then we went shopping for a new riding lawn mower. We have, at last count, three dead ones. Larry spent hours trying to repair them last year and managed to kick them enough to keep them going through grass-cutting season, but it was time to give it up and get a new one. So we went looking and settled on a nice one with a 54" cut. Larry's off to pick it up now.
The second big expense was a tractor. Not a new tractor, but new to us. Ours has not started in almost a year, despite Larry's best efforts to get it going. We've had it for over 40 years and it wasn't new when we bought it. Tractors have a long life, but it was time to let this one go. So the new one will arrive next week, and the old one will go to the tractor place, probably to be sold for parts. I hate to see it go, honestly. It was a good and faithful friend for many years.
I came home to an email from a school, urgently seeking a storyteller for Friday. Well, I wasn't scheduled anywhere--it was to be a painting day. So today I am preparing for a day with middle school students, telling Appalachian stories. Should be fun.
I also got myself motivated to finish up a couple of workshop/presentation submissions I've been playing with for a while. Three completed--yay me! Last week I submitted some poetry to an online journal, so I am keeping up with my New Year's resolution to submit writing somewhere at least once a month. No acceptances yet (no rejections yet either), but at least I'm submitting my work for a change.
The weather is so spring-like, it's like the earth's heart is bursting with it. Daffodils are in bloom here and there, the crocus are blooming and the forsythia is sprinkled with yellow too. We planted some early lettuce, radishes and onions the other day, so maybe with luck we'll have some early salads. Fingers crossed!
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We finally are warming up and getting rid of the last snow banks. I can't wait for something to bloom! Good luck with your writing submissions!
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