Weekend

65°f at 7am, about 18°C. Overcast but clearing, high of 75°f, beautiful day.

The writers conference came and went, and what a good time it was! I had not attended since the pandemic, so it was pure pleasure to see so many friends. How they have all aged! Not me of course, I am pretty sure I stayed about the same. Not.

I didn't run crazy from workshop to workshop. I wanted time to visit people I only get to see at this conference. I did attend two sessions, and both were interesting. The first was by a writer named Larry Thacker, and explored ways to take a piece from "macro" to "micro", as he put it. He gave one example of what he meant that I liked: consider the ocean, wide, extending from horizon to horizon. You can say a lot about the ocean--the color, the temperature, storms and waves, etc. Dive down, though, and you find more--creatures, seaweed, and deeper yet maybe shipwrecks, rock formations, and strange creatures like one fish that, to paraphrase Mr. Thacker, decided to swallow its one eyeball and looks out through its transparent body! And another that decided to grow this long antenna from its head. If one just wrote about the surface of the ocean, one would miss all the fascinating things below the surface. His suggestions for ways to dig deeper into a piece we had written made us search for what more we could say, what more depth and value we might find.  

The second workshop, given by author Val Nieman, focused on the concept of landscape as a character. I had not thought of place in that way, but what she said made sense. Think of books you have read where the setting of the story plays an integral and important role. The story would not be the same if set in another place. But of course just putting a story in a place isn't all there is: the writer needs to really know the place intimately, know the flora, fauna, customs, superstitions, history, etc. Some writers achieve this effortlessly. Others plunk down the information so awkwardly that it reads like a tourist brochure, often using the old "as you know, Bob" trope, which has characters telling each other this information that they obviously should already know.

And of course we did a reading from our poetry book, and this time included two new poems each that may go into a second volume. It was an easy and laid-back reading, and this time I enjoyed it. Maybe I am getting used to this gig!

In the evening, quite a few of us got together for a traditional after-conference gathering, which consists of much talk and laughter and adult beverages, including some nice Irish whiskey and several kinds of moonshine. Larry joined us for this--he is well liked by all my writer friends and they always ask if he's coming. We made it home just before 1 a.m.

Which meant that our morning was late and slow! But we gathered steam and by mid-afternoon both of us were filthy dirty and up to our elbows in our projects. Larry worked on the mowers--again--and finally had one going by evening, a huge relief. 

I was in the gardens and I swear I worked harder that a mule in a coal mine. I dug, hoed, planted, hauled big bags of dirt and mulch and buckets of rocks. The digging was to plant celery under one of the garden arches, and also to plant more leeks and peppers. I weeded the strawberry tubs while I was out there too, and hoed weeds that had popped up since Friday.

Then I moved to the herb garden. Larry had finished putting in concrete blocks to add another shallow terrace. I needed to put a layer of small rocks into each hole in the blocks and fill with good dirt. I got most of them done before running out of dirt,  so I planted the finished ones, putting a different herb in each hole--parsley, thyme that I transplanted, calendula, sage, chives, and stevia. Behind the new wall I planted lavender, basil, sage, and borage. 

I cut down the overgrown gooseberry bushes that had never produced more than 2 berries and cleared that mess out, then spread a couple bags of mulch. I planted fennel and cut back the chamomile,  but may end up pulling it up as it is a straggly mess. The rosemary, Job's Tears, variegated sage, and pineapple sage all looked good. I still have a lot more to do in this garden, but need more good dirt, lime, and mulch to finish. I am happy with today's progress but I think every muscle is singing a pain song tonight.

Tomorrow Larry has 2 doctors to see in Huntington, so road trip! And I can pick up the stuff I need on the way home. I think both of us are ready for another day off.

(I took no pictures either yesterday or today.  Had too much fun yesterday and was too busy today.)

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