Down to Earth Living

I thought I would start this post off with a picture of a quilt that I have put on my bed since the weather has warmed up. This is a star quilt that my mom said my dad gave to her before they were married in the 1970s made by his grandmother. I never got to meet my great grandmother as she died five or six months before my birth, but I love this quilt. It needs to probably be sewed up in a couple of places, but it is one of my favorites and one of the oldest things I have. (I also have a desk and chair from the 1960s that my grandparents had.) Anyway, I'll probably give this quilt to Yena some day when she gets married or just when she gets older. There is something about having something so large and that was handmade by someone in your family that makes it special.

Moving on, Friday was the native plant sale at the local state park, and I ended up buying twenty plants. They are look small but will grow in two to three years will be big and beautiful. The plants that I bought last year looked like this, but this year they all are much bigger and are going to flower. Some people might consider native plants to be types of weeds, but you can use them for landscaping and as a type of "rewilding," which is a trend these days. For example, in the front on the side of the driveway, I planted two blue false indigo plants, and one white false indigo plants that are super small right now, but can get big and take over. I think it sounds lovely, but I will definitely keep them pruned and shapely, so my yard doesn't look completely out of control. I have 14 plants now against the neighbor's fence on our side, plus a lemon balm plant and two blueberry shrubs. I hate trying to mow or clip the grass by the fence, so I am hoping after a couple of years that the native plants fill in a nice natural border. Plus, they all should have pretty flowers from summer to fall and provide benefits to birds and pollinators alike. I am all about trying to create a somewhat "wild" or "natural" space that is not considered messy, but beautiful.

This week, I made a walnut pie. I made everything from scratch including the crust. Even after buying a dough cutter and other necessary tools, and learning to grate your butter with a cheese grater to try to make it easier to use, pie crust is not easy! Even after you do everything, I always struggle to feel like I did it right or that it actually is right and can be used. The filling for this pie was also not without issues because I ran out of corn syrup and substituted a little maple syrup and then I accidentally put too much salt in it and tried to take some out and added sugar to even the taste out. Needless to say, it was a mixed bag on whether it would turn out or not, but Zoe and Yena both really like it, so what a relief!

Finally, I have been reading my novel Betty and Clark and I am finding a lot of things that I need to edit like typos, spelling errors, and just general editing issues. But I really like the story, and I know as the writer, I am not supposed to like my own writing, but I do!

I think that I have shared this novel with two other people and one probably read it, but I am not sure if the other person did. I told him to read my first novel The Zumba Class first before this one. He did and gave me some good feedback and advice and as a result, I did some major work on it, which included adding several chapters from the perspecitive of another character, who is an important part of the story. I would be interested to see what he thinks about the additons and also what he thinks about Betty and Clark because I valued his feedback.

Anyway, I think by going through and reading Betty and Clark it is doing a couple of things. It makes me see what I need to go back and fix on the master document and second it is putting me back in Clark's head. This is important since my next novel is going to be about continuing Clark's narrative in some way. I think the things that I have shared on this post so far from the quilt, the native plants, and the walnut pie all are a part of this process because in some ways I find myself and Clark similar in a lot of ways. So, even if no one else likes my story or writing, I enjoy it and want to write it, then I should be content with that.