Cold Snap

The spring flowers began coming at the end of April. The snowdrops and crocuses came and went and will not be seen again until 2014. Right now the daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths are making a grand showing. The rain of the past two days pepped them up just when I thought they might dry up.

I've been working on the gardens for several weeks now, clearing the beds and planting early vegetables like onions and peas. The past week I found really good buys on flower sets. I began putting them into pots right away, the ones that will go throughout the gardens, but planted nothing in the ground. Wisconsin in May has unpredictable temperatures. I put all the flower pots on or next to the front deck.

Sure enough, starting tonight, we're having a cold snap that will last until Monday morning. I moved all the pots and remaining sets into the garage.

Until Monday, that's where they have to stay.  I will open the garage door when the sun rises tomorrow morning as soon as it is warm enough so they can get some sun.

The extended forecast suggests that the following two weeks will be warm and that brings us to Memorial Day.  After that, the plants will be safe.

On Monday, with a good start, the pots go to their summer homes. 

Eavesdropping

My two cohorts at our short story blog, "Black Coffee Fiction", like me are working on other projects.

After moving his family into an apartment and finally a new house in Arkansas, Wade Peterson is back working on his novel.  He chronicles his work in "It's a Long Way to the Top".  This week he talks about finding ideas:  http://wadepeterson.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/why-ill-never-run-out-of-ideas/  He takes a conversation he overheard at a swimming pool and dissects it for possible plots. I expect to see at least one of them in a future short story.

Today, Bettyann Moore posted her latest Porpoise McAllister story at Black Coffee Fiction. Porpoise is an odd character but I suppose he was compiled from the many teenage boys she knew when she was young and later when she met the boys her teenage daughters dated. She stored up her memories and used them as needed.  You can find her story here.  http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-nudge-in-rightdirection-by-bettyann.html

My day to day world is not very big.  Seymour is a small town with a population of about 3500.  Yet in that population there are so many characters, so many strange stories that I need only walk the aisles of our only grocery store, wander through the library or have a cup of tea in a local restaurant to find the plots I need.  Only a dash of imagination is needed to complete the short story.  Yet if you asked them, Seymourites would tell you nothing ever happens here.


This is what all writers do.  We are observers waiting for things to happen that we can use in our scribbling. In malls, in restaurants, in bus stations we wait for conversations, then we eavesdrop.  We watch mannerisms and listen to accents. We are voyeurs. Its a wonder that anyone allows us in public at all.

News

Someone asked me today where I get my facts...in other words, what I listen to and read for news. I've thought about it and here goes:

Every morning starting at 7:00 a.m., I go through the Google feed to see what is trending.  Then I read several newspapers on line.  I like the New York Times and the Washington Post.  I read the opinion pieces in both because both newspapers include conservative and liberal views.  For state news, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel with side trips into the Capitol Times and the Appleton Post-Crescent.  I skim through those. I'm not into sports or obituaries so it doesn't take long.

I often get the Daily Show with John Stewart and the Colbert Report on Comedy Central on line, both because they are funny and because Stewart is one of the best interviewers on television.  When he has an author as a guest, he actually reads the books, which is amazing.  As soon as his interviews are over, I order the books through the library. I watch one or the other of the shows with my cappuccino before I start the day. It's always good to start the day laughing.

I'm too busy to watch television during the day but at 5:30 p.m. I put everything aside for what I think of as my daily civics lesson. I watch the broadcast news unless they are involved in something I consider silly or over the top.  For instance, half an hour on the Boston Marathon bombing is too much. After ten minutes, who learns anything new?  When that happens I turn to BBC on the PBS station for something more balanced. Then I watch the PBS News Hour. Here I find news from the world with important topics debated by people with opposite views.  Margaret Warner is a regular who is also on my list of great interviewers.  She has no fear, going to every corner of the world, talking to terrorists, politicians and bankers. She is knowledgeable and takes no crap though she looks like somebody's grandmother.

At ten o'clock I check on my third great interviewer Charlie Rose, again on PBS, as he interviews people about the days news.  His interviewees are the smartest and most important people around. Sometimes the discussion takes me deep into economics with people like Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize winning economist and New York Times columnist.  Sometimes it is about an important film.  For "Lincoln" he interviewed Stephen Spielberg, Sally Fields and Daniel Day-Lewis, and with them presidential historians like Doris Kearns Goodwin. You never know what subject or which guests will be there each night.  Again, they lead me to read more books.

And that ends my day of news.

When Gary was in Illinois, he had access to the Quad Cities PBS and there was something wonderful: news from around the world.  We could watch French, German, Australian, Spanish plus Al Jazeera news broadcasts.  It was was a wonderful education to find out what people around the world were thinking.  I wish we could have something similar here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Gary is another source of news. He never misses reading the New Zealand newspapers and he is particularly   good at keeping me informed about environmental issues.

All in all, I think I am well informed about the day's events. My civics teachers would be proud.

Map Time

I've been gardening all day, but still found time to walk three miles around town.  Those three miles brought me the center of Salzburg in Austria in my imaginary walk around the world.

For years I've been keeping track of the miles I make on my daily walks.  So far, I've walked 18,875 miles which has taken me from Seymour to the West Coast, up to Alaska where I crossed the Bering Strait to Siberia.  Up until the crossing I knew the areas I was traveling through, but I've never been to Siberia or any of the other countries I've walked through.

But once I came to Salzburg, I begin to go through areas I visited in 1968.  I am passing into Germany. My next stop will be Munich where I got a little snockered in a beer hall drinking with friends. The Germans were building a subway through the center of town.  Munich looked like it was still its post-war period. I was wearing a dark trench coat and a black beret and swept through the darkness pretending I was a spy.

My plan is to go through Stuttgart, Heidelberg, and then head to Paris. Paris will take me to London, London to Lands End, then I'll take a ship to the United States and work my way home.  I hope to finish my journey by the time I am 75.

* * * *

During our Skyping session this morning, Wade Peterson informed me that our anthology Black Coffee Fiction is now available at Smashwords, iTunes, and Kobo.  By the weekend it should be available at Barnes and Noble. It continues to be on sale at Amazon.com

My novel Yesterday's Secrets, Tomorrow's Promises can be purchased at Amazon.com and Create Space.

And my anthology of short stories Decades of Love and Other Disasters can be found at Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com and Create Space.

We'll let you know as we arrange for more outlets for our books.

2013 Harvest Begins

This morning, as I always do in spring, I began the day taking inventory.  There are the flowers of course. New this week are Virginia bluebells, anemone, and grape hyacinth.

Even more welcome was the first asparagus stalk.  Only an inch tall so far, but it is the promise of the 2013 harvest.  Only three weeks ago, we finished the last package of green beans we picked in September.  With only a three week lapse, we can continue to eat from the garden.  I've already planted peas and onions. A week from now, it will be carrots and green beans.

I wait until then because over the weekend there is a possibility of a cold snap.  Until we get past Sunday, most of my plants are in pots on the front deck.  There they are protected from strong wind.  The deck is always going to be a few degrees warmer than the rest of the exterior temperature because the house gives off a little heat.  The most delicate flowers and plants will be moved in their pots into the garage until the snap  is over.

Major planting in the back yard will begin on Monday when the frost danger is past.

The final surprise this morning was the pear tree.  For several years, we could harvest only four pears at most.  Last year, there was only a solitary pear that survived a March heat wave and an April frost.

This year, the tree is loaded with buds, each one to become a blossom, and after that a pear.  If the cold snap doesn't bring frost, this could be a bumper year for pears.

I worked in the gardens most of the day while Gary worked on building a railing around the rear deck. By the end of the day, Gary was sunburned while I had a lovely tan because I never burn.

Tonight, we took sub sandwiches to the Shiocton marsh to see what was new there.  In addition to all the birds I've been reporting, there were green-winged teal and one species of sandpiper  the yellowleg.

Here at Mathom House, we've put out grape jelly for the oriole and filled the water basins in hope of enticing the rose-breasted grosbeak in. The wrens already have found their nesting places in the back yard and are chewing us out for daring to go back there.

Come May 15, they may well have the place to themselves much of the summer.  When the national forest campgrounds open, we'll be gone.

Jakedog and Gary

These days, I spend my time in the gardens. I already have a summer tan. Gardening time is pondering, thinking, dreaming time. Today I was thinking about Jakedog, who often slept beside me when I was weeding. 

*****

From January to May that first year, we were dog sitters for puppy Jake, taking care of him for my mother. Gary and I began to train him, teaching him to walk with us. It wasn't difficult at all because he always wanted to be at our side.  He was never perfect at heeling, but since he had the general idea, we had no problem with it.  

He quickly grew into his big feet. He kept knocking my mother over. By May, she decided Jake was my dog after a lot of suggestions from her friends about taking him to the pound. Finally it was agreed that Jake would live here in Mathom House with me but she and Gary would share dogsitting duties while I was off on one of my storytelling adventures. 

Jake was an Australian shepherd with so much energy. Gary said the trick was to keep him busy learning new things. Jake was a fast learner if he liked the lesson. 

Gary and Jake were inseparable whenever he arrived. (In those days, Gary lived in Menasha with his father.)   Immediately, Jake was at his side. If I went upstairs, he ignored me. If Gary went upstairs, he followed right along. Jake almost never slept upstairs…except when Gary was there.Gary had only to hide under a blanket, and Jake was there nosing him out. He had to keep track of his alpha male.

When Gary and I left on trips, Jake went into mourning. But when we returned, he went all joyous, and welcomed us in herd dog fashion with sideways body slams, telling his returning sheep to get back into the flock. Then he tore around the yard, happiness boiling over until he exhausted himself.

At Christmas Gary brought for more gifts for Jake than he did for me: big bones, Frisbees, balls. His big stocking was filled with tasty treats and more toys. Baskets and baskets of toys accumulated over the years.  His toy box eventually became a big bin. He was a spoiled dog. There were presents for Mean Ol' Ms Baby Doll but never on Jake's scale. 

It didn't stop with Christmas. Somewhere Gary found a party hat with a rubber band and put it on Jake to celebrate New Year's Eve. That would be Jake’s party hat from then on, carefully saved for birthdays, New Year’s, any celebration. He would wear it briefly, just long enough for photos, then paw it off.

 Gary set up an adjustable jumping fence for Jake and practiced with him daily. Jake loved a challenge.

Spring brought Jake Dog's annual  haircut.. An Australian shepherd has a coat of fur as thick as the wool of the flocks he should be guarding. To cut through it, Gary and I drove over to Bob and Lee Bock's farm to borrow a cow clipper. Jake was patient during haircuts, at least until the growling clippers approaches his cranium. The “grrr” must have been murder on ears that big. I suppose the sound echoed through his brain. That’s when my job was to hold up a dog biscuit before his eyes as a promise of the future reward, a trip to Dairy Queen for the doggy sundae, ice cream with dog biscuits.

Garden Planning

Suddenly, the gardens are popping.  From one tulip and a handful of daffodils four days ago, I have thousand of flowers today.  The beds are filling up faster than I can clear the winter's refuse. Yet I must.

Gary's camper will be ready for us on May 14.  He wants to be at a national forest campground a couple of days after that.  I absolutely must clear the gardens and plant so that I can join him. I have about 40 beds and only fifteen cleared so far. In the next ten days, I must finish three beds a day.

Today I cleared two beds, one big,one small, and with Gary's help, began the vegetable garden. He rototilled the plot which gets bigger each year. I planted onions and peas, which can take take the cold we expect Wednesday night. So can the pansies and dianthus. Once we get past that day, I think we'll have clear sailing.

Tomorrow, Gary and I will go to the garden center that he used to run before he retired.  We'll buy the extra plants I need including the geraniums, marigolds, and lobelia I want to put up at the cemetery.

Meanwhile, I keep growing tomato plants that I first started in planters in February. They are on the front porch, but we'll haul everything in on Wednesday night and put the pots back out on Thursday morning. I'll plant beans and carrots, okra and herbs. Marigolds, geraniums, cosmos, zinnias, morning glories and more will go into pots. Then let summer come!