This week -- A check-in

I was ruminating lately about what's different in blogging now towards when I started, way, way back in January of this year, and one thing that's changed is that during the first twelve weeks, during the course of The Artist's Way, every week, I paused and reviewed what's been going on, what's been good, bad, what did I get done that I wanted to do, what are my creative challenges... and the check-in was good, the weekly touching base was good, and while I do the rounds of favourite blogs fairly often, I only tend to post here for Sunday Scribblings, Poetry Thursday, and not in between.

So... this week... I didn't even post on Poetry Thursday. , although I have had a chance to glance at a few of the blogs that took the challenge of writing about SEX! I didn't post anything partly because I'm ... well... truth be told, a little shy like that, and partly because on that day, I was at a beautiful wedding - Chinese bride, Iranian groom, under a beautiful Irish sky. A happy, happy day for a family I have known and loved for 20 years, and a family from the other side of the world whom I have just met, but who were taken to the hearts of everyone who met them on that special day.

We've been enjoying a heatwave here too. I've been spending as much time as I can sitting out on my patio, initially layered in suncream and soaking up rays, but for the past couple of days, sitting in the shade, and just admiring the sunlight on the plants. I have some beautiful yellow lilies accompanying a magnificent Fremontodendron Californicum (Flannel Plant? Anyone know it?) that my sister gave me to celebrate my graduation. My roses and lavender are at their best now, and the bees and butterflies are appreciating them.



Every morning this week, I've been at a workshop on women writing - an exciting blend of literature, mythology, feminist history (herstory?), drama, poetry, sisterhood, permission, ideas... and it seems the more time this group spends together, the more connections and synchronicity come into play, so that we keep on exclaiming "I KNOW!" and "Oh, oh, that reminds me... " I'm enjoying it so much, and being so stimulated with ideas, and storing up inspiration, I'm coming home spent, and sitting outside if I can. Since I don't have a laptop, that's keeping me away from the computer. I didn't even switch on my TV between Monday and last night (Friday).

I have gone back to my 48x365 blog. I'd found it hard to return to the routine of writing the 48 words each day, toyed with just quitting it if the energy wasn't there, and then, I started reading the archives of some of the other 365 participants (if you haven't checked out the whole project, and you're hiding indoors from the heat, run through the blogroll, and check out a few of these. I love them!) and decided to get back into my blog, by doing 3 a day until I'm back to the number I'd have reached if I'd continued it as a daily practice. Confused? I'm playing catch-up is all.

Someone linked to a Dollmaker's site - Barb Kobe. I found it fascinating, particularly this doll. It struck a chord in me, and deep in me, I found a voice saying "I want to do that!" I mentioned it at the workshop the next day, and got told "Go make your doll! Do it! Do it!" So that's part of what I plan to do this weekend. Something new.

And here's my If You Build It, They Will Come story. I like frogs. They make me happy. I always thought if I ever owned a coffee-shop, I would call it the Green Frog Cafe (with a nod to Guy Clark, of course). Well, although I don't have a pond, stream or fountain in my garden (the only water is an outside tap, and buckets that collect rainwater, and get left to develop their own ecosystem - unintenionally) during the past few years, every once in a while, a frog might show up in my garden at night, and I would be delighted, but it would then disappear and not turn up for months again. So, because I like the idea of them, I put in a little frog statue (I have a hedgehog statue (with a baby) for a similar reason). I like the frog statue. It sits outside my kitchen window, on a raised area, where I've planted a few alpines and put gravel around it. Well, wouldn't you know it? The frog has returned. She's bigger and happier looking, and is living in a cool bucket with some well-softened peat briquettes and comes out at night to help with my slug problem. Yesterday, she came out in daylight, and here's where she turned up:



And after a few hops, she found herself right beside the statue I'd put in. (can you see her? Just to the left?) I just was tickled to see this manifestation in reality. I wanted frog energy (transformation, I believe) in my garden (and in my life). Well, it seems I have it a-plenty!

And when my transformation is complete? Well, who knows what's going to happen!