There’s only one…
I’d Like My Crayons Back Episode 5 – Mead Making with Brandon and Lehel
Episode 5 in my podcast about creativity in all its forms is a very entertaining interview with two friends who have a shared interest in making mead. They talk about how they got started, the process, the supplies used, the fabulous flavors they have and plan yet to achieve. I laughed quite a bit, because these guys are funny, too!
F is for Fantasy
Yes, I currently am writing a dark fantasy series (the Shadow Journey series, writing it as Jo Allen Ash), but that’s not what this post is about. It’s about, well, SPRING and a fulfillment of the next letter in my challenge. The challenge I stood up and declared I would meet. I thought I’d have it finished in March. Fat chance, apparently. I’m only on the letter “F” for crying out loud.
Has anyone looked out the window around here, checked the temperature gauge, scanned the weather forecast? Right now, it’s 46 degrees and raining, if not exactly buckets, at least some pretty big containers. We are supposed to have multiple inches of rain over this upcoming week. I’m not complaining about that. Water is a commodity that can run to short supply in a dry summer, so if the reservoirs, etc., fill up now, that would be great. However, snow is also in the forecast for this week. Not much, but with the temps dropping into the 30s at night, I’m not really sure what I should be doing with my flower seeds. I put off sowing them because of recent frost.
I’m so confused.
At least my daffodils finally decided to bloom so even on a rainy day, they bring sunshine inside and out. And truly, I’m not complaining. There are too many other things going on in this world to let something like a little rain get in my way. Happy Monday, folks! Rainy days and Mondays…
E is for Excellent
Yes, I’m cheating a bit. But I’m also pulling my hair out between writing, marketing, writing, yardwork, writing… Well, you get the picture.
At any rate, I came across this article about the uses for silica packs (you know, the little packets filled with silica pellets that come nearly in everything?) to keep them from your trash and in use. The great thing is, once they are filled with moisture, you can dry them out in the oven to reactivate them. This, I did not know!
So, Enjoy this Excellent article Explaining the Efficient use of silica packs! (PS: I tried to Embed it, but for some reason it didn’t work. However, the article is worth the read!)
D is for Delight
I had another D word in mind when I initially sat down to write this blog. Demented, however, would have been a rather brief but virulent topic. Instead of venting, I settled on something more, well, delightful. Something simple to maybe lift the spirit.
First, we’ll start with daffodils, those lovely harbingers of Spring. Mine are as yet mere buds, perhaps delayed by the all the snow we had recently. However, I dug up this photo of mine from a prior Spring.
I couldn’t find the color version, but we all know the sunny yellow of a daffodil dancing in a temperate breeze, or even bravely poking through a late season snow.
Below, pictorially, are a few other “D” images that Delight me. Some will be obvious, while others might take a few moments to Decipher.
Just so you’re not left wondering: Dahlia(s); Daisies; Dover (DE) and/or Deep history; Devotion; Dining with friends or family; Dance (in this instance, ballet); Daring to take the unknown path; the Delicate touch of snow; Dandelion clocks (isn’t that such a Delightful name?)
I’m certain I could come up with more, but I don’t want to bore you 🙂
I’d Like My Crayons Back Episode 2 – Josh Lounsberry
Before two upcoming (and the latest) episodes in my podcast, I figured I’d post episode 2 and 3 (2 here, 3 in a separate post). This is my interview of Josh Lounsberry, a young man with a heart hearkening back to bygone eras. His passion, among others, is for dyeing and spinning wool into yarn on antique spinning wheels. Not to sell it, but to instruct and inform others in demonstrations about the ways things were done in times past. History buff, me, I admire him for that, for sure.
Enjoy!
C is for Constant
Like the ringing in my ears? No. Well, yeah, sure, if it helps the point.
When we are very young, the constants in our lives seem so very certain. Or maybe just my life. As a child, I had been privileged to live a life where I didn’t experience a ton of fear and insecurity. I know that was not the same for many in this country and around the world. I never expected to find myself without a roof over my head or in the middle of chaotic violence or any number of things people faced and still do on a daily basis. That would have been, in my young mind, absurd. We were fed. We played in the sun. Summers were long. Friends were everywhere. Families meant everything.
Like the moon and the stars and the sun and the changing seasons, these were the constants in my life. The things I could count on.
But things change. Life can be cruel. Expectations, hopes and dreams are dashed. Sometimes, it seems the only constant is disappointment, worry, dread.
There are bad things happening in the world. Power struggles and wicked, heartless people and climate change, to name a few. Our fellow humans are dying at the hands of others. People are hungry, displaced, yearning for a better life. But as I expressed above, this is nothing new. These, too, are unfortunate and tragic constants. And these are things we must stand up and fight against, as the generations preceding ours also did.
When I was a child, however, I was protected from the nasty stuff. Somewhat. Perhaps because the internet wasn’t a thing. Or because I was too enamored of bike-riding, rolling in the leaves, reading under my covers with a flashlight. I don’t know.
Now I am a grownup, more or less. With the current state of the world, the aging of my generation, the losses that pop up unexpectedly and inevitably, I feel adrift. Lost, sometimes. Yearning for those days in the sun. The long summers. The friends everywhere. Family meaning everything.
Egads, this does seem a depressing post. Perhaps I should get to the point before someone breaks into the refrain from the ELO song. All together now: Don’t bring me down…Grooss. It wouldn’t be me bringing you down, actually, but I get where you’re coming from. On a lighter note, what the heck is “grooss”? Anyone?
Looking back with my heart to a deceptively simpler, happier time isn’t necessarily the answer to my dilemma, but it helps. As long as my feet and head remain in the present, addressing what issues I can and leaving in the hands of those more capable the issues I can’t. Right? To be honest, there are very few issues (at least in my life) that I can’t personally address—even if only in some small way. Strive to correct, alleviate, support, improve, point out, protect. Isn’t that what a grownup-more-or-less is supposed to do?
To maintain my strength for the everyday challenges, however, requires a reminder of those old constants. In daily and frequent doses. Yes, I must remember I still love the sun on my face, the changing seasons, the glories of nature. I must continue to take pleasure in the friends I have, although they may be fewer in number. And love my family with all my heart. These things, these joys, these constants remain. They really do.
I feel like one of those signs hanging on people’s walls. A sentiment, sometimes sappy, sometimes beautifully evocative, nearly always straight to the point, written with calligraphic flair. And really, when I look back at what bound all my childhood constants together, they are summed up in one word. One I could put on a sign, if I possessed superb penmanship.
Cherish.
That’s a word beginning with C, too, and a darned good one.
B is for Brave
We all know brave when we see it. The firefighter rushing into a burning building. The bystander pulling the injured from a battered car before it ignites. A soldier facing the uncertainties of battle. Voices speaking up for what is right. The list goes on. There are many deserved accolades for the brave heroes in our world. However, most of us, perhaps all of us, experience our own brand of bravery in everyday life.
It’s not easy, this whole living thing. There are decisions, steps taken toward and steps taken away, roadblocks and possibilities, painful hope and frightening uncertainties.
Sometimes, just walking out your front door in the morning to go to work may be the bravest thing you do that day. Or getting out of bed at all.
Or steeling yourself for a doctor appointment from which you expect bad news.
How about talking to your child about what matters to you? Talking to your child about what matters to them?
Traversing the barriers of bigotry and bullying.
Standing up for what is right.
Giving kindness in the face of the unkind.
Daring to love.
Choices.
We are fragile, we humans, but we are also brilliant and strong and caring.
We are brave.
Please feel free to comment about a personal braveness or the brave actions of another, as I only touched on the many possibilities.
A is for Archeology
Okay, people, this is the first in my alphabetically triggered blogs, in response to the gauntlet cast down at my feet. (For more, see the “Challenge Accepted” blog recently posted.) So, after some consideration, I decided to write about Archeology.
Whoa. Archeology? Why? Certain readers, those who know me after a fashion, may be thinking, “that came out of left field.” But others, those who know me best, are well acquainted with my love of history, historical places, watching documentaries about delving into the past, the careful hunting for artefacts (another “A” word) at places of historical significance, staring open-mouthed at the plethora of YouTube videos on the subject, and yada, yada…
I am fascinated, enamored, awed.
Oddly enough, in my early aspirations about what I wanted to do with my life, Architect and Author (more A’s—does anyone detect a pattern?) topped the list. I never even considered I could be one of those folks with their hands in the soil, searching for evidence from the lives gone by. I don’t know why not. Well, I sort of know why not. I sometimes “sense” things from tactile manipulation of objects from the past. That has a name, it turns out. Psychometry.
Psychometry is a psychic ability in which a person can sense or “read” the history of an object by touching it, holding it. These impressions can be perceived as images, sounds, tastes, smells, emotions. I know, perhaps I should have saved this whole thing for a blog titled “P is for Psychometry,” but I decided to mention it here in this blog because I believe this is why I avoided heading into the archeological field. Not deliberately, but a back of the mind, egads, I’d go nuts sort of thing. That, plus the fact there are degrees which people who are expert in the field possess. Need to possess. Proudly possess. I surely didn’t have the stamina or gumption for that.
But, as always, I digress.
These days, I feel more and more as though I could deal with the “psychometry” and should push myself forward, in an Amateur (another “A”—see what I did there) fashion. I know a cave was recently discovered in Buckingham, Pennsylvania which may (or may not) have been one of the many hideouts of the infamous Doan Brothers, robbers, thieves, and British spies during the time of the Revolutionary War. What more could you ask for? I have considered inquiring if they accept amateur assistance, diggers, so to speak, with a gentle hand and a massive interest. I mean, I’m not getting any younger, right? I should go for it.
However, in the meantime, or in addition to, I plan a little more delving this Spring around the 1700s outbuilding foundation in the front corner of my property. My eldest son and I went halfsies on a metal detector. It wasn’t an expensive one. I expect digging will be required BEFORE the thing can recognize a metal object below the surface. But it’ll be fun. When the Lehigh Historical Society did some checking along the roadside before the bridge out front was replaced, they found quite a few artefacts, more on this side of the road than the other, despite the original and stunning 1745 house across the street. The most amazing thing, to me, anyway, was the discovery of a girl’s shoe from the 18th century. Well, hell, how cool is that?
I have a connection to the past. We all do, to our personal pasts, the days of our parents, relatives, extended family back through the years. But I’m not sure everyone feels the connection to ALL of the past. To me, it’s like countless connective strings emanating from bygone ages entering and tying around my gut. Calling me. Constantly.
Might be time I answered in earnest.
Challenge accepted!
Recently, my post regarding the interview with Karen Katchur was liked by, among others, an author named Elske Howeler. I went over and looked at some of her blogs and was quite intrigued by a task she had assigned herself, writing a blog a day using the letters of the alphabet, in order. I commented and told her I wished I’d thought of it myself. She responded with a suggestion I do one as well (not using her alphabetical topics, of course).
Well, Elske, the gauntlet has been thrown and I have picked it up! This should be a lot of fun. Thanks so much for the idea. I’ll begin with A in March. Fresh month, fresh start.
Unlike Elske’s posts, each of mine will not be confined to a writing related topic. I’m going to go for a broader scope, because I definitely don’t think I could stick to the writing topics the way she has. Check back to find out if I see this challenge through or fail in the attempt!
robin maderich - write-brained scribbler and crafter-on-the-loose 