Humble and Honored

Dear Friends,

I am humbled and honored that you have chosen to spend time with me through this blog. I look at the numerious places across the globe that visit me here.

I never would have thought my words to reach to almost all four corners of the world. I have three down solid. I just need to work on South America. Antarctica would also be very cool.

As of Monday, June 29th I have 283 friends that come and hang out with me. And for that I thank you fellow readers. You have hung in there during dry spells when writing was the last thing on my mind. You have celebrated with me when I have reached milestones through the years. My friends please know I hope you are well and safe.

Cheers, james

Quote of the Day: Humor

On the surface it is a cute little joke. Further down is a kernel of truth we as writers should remember, stories are what help change the world. We give the world a lens to look at things differently.

Cheers, james

Artist’s Date: Take 2

So I am reading Julia Cameron’s The Artist Way. A spiritual path to reawkening one’s creative soul/spirit. This book has been around in one form or another since she started living this way in the late 1970s. She has two main calls to action that she advocates for: Morning Pages and the Artist Date.

Morning pages are stream of consciousness writing when you first wake up in the morning before the ego/censor part of your brain starts functioning. Ouch, I am not an early bird. And to start writing before I even make it out of bed to the bathroom. Yeah. I have had to modify the timing on morning pages and I am trying to get the kinks out.

The second and the meat and potatos of this post is the Artist Date. Basically it is taking your inner creative on an outing for a couple of hours. Some examples were going to see a movie alone, taking a walk, driving down an unfamilar road etc. She wants the “date” to last long enough that you are willing to open yourself up. Kinda like when you go to a kids birthday party and all the adults are standing around stiff as a board. Then something breaks the ice, a favorite childhood game, a song, and they get in the groove. They relax and have fun.

So my first date didn’t go as planned. I originally planned to grill out then make s’mores and watch the stars. Fun, easy way to dip my toes in. Except I couldn’t get my fire started. Over an hour I tried to get it going, I guess the charcoal was damp. I can count on one hand with fingers left over the number of times I couldn’t start a fire.

So I was like okay, let’s regroup and think about it. I settled on spending Saturday reading a book series I have been thinking about. Daniel Potter’s Freelance Familars series. He had the first three books on sale for $2.99 and I love a good bargin. I sorta read all three books in a day and half. They are a fun, witty, take on urban fantasy. Highly recommend them if you like urban fantasy. I’ll do a review of then in the next week or so.

My second date was last week and I spent the day hanging out with Mom. So Saturday night I found a gorgeous pattern for a knitted half pi shawl. I have been looking for an easy introduction into lacework and have a super squishy varigated ball of yarn for the project. Hobby Lobby’s Yarn Bee Rainbow Wrapsody in Teal of Fortune. Beautiful cotton and acrylic yarn, but super fine almost thread size.

So the pi shawl was designed by Ms. Elizabeth Zimmerman back in the 1950s or 1960s. And it is a complete circle that uses the theory of math and pi to make a perfect circle. They are huge, labor intensive, skill intensive, seriously gorgeous projects. I have niether the skills or the attention span for a whole pi shawl. But I think I can do a half pi.

My second date was to start a practice shawl with my regular cotton yarn that I have left over from various projects. I knitted for about three hours in the peace and quiet. Everybody else was in bed asleep except me. I had serious doubts about the pattern and Sunday I frogged (unraveled) the whole thing and started over. I had made a miscalculation on which row I was suposed to knit and which one to purl. This is exactly why I chose the bits and pieces of yarn over my project yarn to do a practice piece.

I’ll see you guys on Thursday and hopefully Saturday. Cheers nd happy hump day. james

Pink Supermoon: April 7, 2020

See here is proof I was thinking and blogging. Although it escapes me why I never hit publish on this post since it was complete.

Last night was the Pink Supermoon. Pink because of the blooming phlox that gives it color. A supermoon because it was the closest to Earth when it rose last night.

My pic is blurry. But cellphone cameras are not designed for taking interstellar pics. Or at least mine isn’t. There was a haze and cloud cover so probably more rain in the near future.

Cheers, james

Strange Times

These are strange times we are currently living in, and that is okay. There have been strange times for each generation before us and there will be strange times after us. A lot of people are laid off right now and worried about where the next paycheck is coming from. Hugs, my friends, help is on the way, I hope. Either government aid, warm weather or the virus losing its hold, or maybe a mix of all. Some are working from home, bless you, my children (dogs) are driving me nuts and I am still going to work. And some are hard at work, my trucking and marine shipping friends, the healthcare workers, the folks working to keep our world functioning. I salute you and applaud your efforts.

Eastern North Carolina has been fairly lucky, we have a few cases. Being in a less populous rural area, it is less of an issue than the metro areas of Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham and the Triad area. My thoughts and prayers and speedy recoveries to the families suffering.

A friend of mine posted about the importance of keeping a journal, a blog, or a way to remember this moment of strange times. I keep both a journal and this blog, I mention it fairly frequently. But if you don’t normally keep a journal or a blog, perhaps you might consider it. Records are left behind from every civilization. Historians worry our electronic records won’t leave a trace for future historians. That we need written records, journals, photo journals, art journals, stories, notebooks, etc. more than ever.

When was the last time you wrote an actual letter with a pen and piece of paper?

Personally I think generations from now will be seeing 4 or 5 times great grandparents photos or videos. Things pretty much live on the internet, but what if they are right?

Wouldn’t you love to leave a legacy behind for your future generations to know how it was during your strange times?

Cheers and be safe my friends, james

 

6 Years Blogging

WordPress just notified me that today is my six year anniversary of setting up this blog. Wow. Times flies when you aren’t looking. Things have changed and things have stayed the same. And through it all I am still writing. Still trying to get the magical words “The End“.

Thank you dear readers for sticking with me along this journey. Cheers, james

New Christmas Tradition: Jolabokaflod

https://www.marthastewart.com/1535023/jolabokaflod-iceland-christmas-tradition-of-books

The last few years the internet has been stirred up over an Icelandic Christmas tradition of giving books on Christmas Eve and then everybody snuggling in to read. I love this idea and have wanted to make it apart of my own Christmas family traditions. However events normally conspire that we aren’t home on Christmas Eve until late. This year is presenting me with a wonderful opportunity try it out. I am not sure how it would work with ebooks since that is how hubby reads, but worth a shot.

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and Holidays to everyone. May peace and hope fill your heart and family this year. Cheers, james

New Journal

I recently finished my journal that came with my cover. So excitedly I went new journal hunting. I found out that the refills I used to use in my old journal cover will fit the new cover. They are produced for Barnes & Noble in Italy and come in the 6×8 size.

The pages are a smooth cream color and resist fountain pen ink bleed through admirally. The lines are the right distance apart, neither too wide or too narrow. That was one complaint I had about the notebook received with my cover. The line widths were huge, in my humble opinon. And I have lots more pages for writing. My previous notebook was 200 pages. This monster is, I believe, 240 pages with a ribbon page marker. Which makes the cover look stuffed, but that is okay, leather is forgiving and will adjust. (I hope)

Owl’s Fancy: Storm

Gobby hanging out at the dinette.

Tonight is Sunday, October 13th and we are having a thunderstorm. Ordinaraily that wouldn’t be anything to write about other than the joy I get from watching and writing during storms. Miss having a front porch to sit and watch from. (A post for another time)

This is the beginning of our third week living a camper lifestyle. And this is the first storm we have had since we bought Owl’s Fancy, much less moved in. I have checked and I don’t see any water seeping in from outside. Yay! The sound of the rain, wind and thunder are magnified. But comforting.

I am hoping Hurricane Season is over and done for us. I don’t think I have enough zen calm to weather a hurricane in an untied down camper. Of course the weather and emergency folks will tell you to seek shelter in a permanent shelter. But luckily enough this isn’t one of those.

Our landlady/campground host had a tree removed from behind us because it was in bad shape. Tonight I am glad we aren’t worrying about it. The tree was hollow in the base and filled with the big black ants the size of your thumb knuckle. (Yucky hate those things)

Thunder is rumbling. Rain has softened. Dogs have been acting clingy all afternoon. They have been sensing the changes in the atmosphere. Gobby is currently hugging my husband. He is more panicky than Roxie. She is curled up in the blankets snoozing. He is having a panic attack, poor baby. He has never been that good with storms.

Well I think I have spent enough time writing this that the storm has passed over. Cheers, james

A Page, A New Chapter

Meet Owl’s Fancy, our new home. A 27 foot 2007 Dutchmen camper.

Pretty soon, I will be moving from our house into a travel camper with my husband and two dogs. (Cue manical laughter) Seriously though, we are doing this to get a better grasp of what we want to and where we want to do it. We will be moving into a small campground that has full rv hookups available. Yay! No having to figure out the whole dumping tanks thing, at least not yet.

The campground is about 15 miles from our current location in Kenansville, North Carolina, about 45 miles from Wilmington. My husband says we live in a geographical anomalie because we are literally an hour from any decent sized city. Draw a triangle between Jacksonville, Goldsboro and Fayetteville, then stick your finger smack dab in the middle and you should be about on Kenansville. Duplin County at the very least. Pretty weird right.

We are keeping our day jobs and by cutting down on our expenses. We will hopefully grow a future allowing for our dreams. That is the plan at least, you are perhaps familar with the whole men and mice thing per Mr. Robert Burns. I cheated, I just looked it up. He actually used schemes instead of plans. In this situation, schemes may be the better choice. Ah well I will let you know how things go once we get started.

Cheers, james

P.S. if you have any advice, tips or quotes share them in the comments.