Jules of Nature
ellievsbear
Today's Document
if i look back, i am lost
shark vs the universe
Misplaced Lens Cap
tannertan36
Kiana Khansmith
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styofa doing anything
Cosmic Funnies
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AnasAbdin
❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
NASA
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will byers stan first human second
seen from Canada
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@smallerconceits
bears, yahoos, and security needs
bears, yahoos, and security needs
Late September 2018
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news.” Sam’s words were difficult to pick out over the intermittent cell connection, but this one sentence came through loud and clear. My heart sank.
I was an hour into the two-and-a-half-hour drive from my parents’ house in South Carolina, where I’ve been staying until I can build the bare minimum I need to live on Joyous Gard, the name…
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mountain men cracking themselves up
mountain men cracking themselves up
Mid-September 2018
“You know…they make good saws, too.”
Darrell punctuated his assessment of Sam’s Stihl chainsaw by spitting on the ground, a smirk playing about the left corner of his mouth.
Sam lowered the saw he’d been trying to start and shot mock daggers at Darrell from under the brim of his baseball cap before glancing over at me and explaining: “Darrell’s a Husqy man.” (A pause.)…
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inroads: construction (and destruction)
inroads: construction (and destruction)
Late August, 2018
“You know I’m going to cry the first time I see all these trees down,” I told Sam, the man I’d hired to excavate my land. He chewed his lower lip a little, glancing sideways at me from under the brim of his baseball cap. “I’ll get over it,” I continued, “but I wanted to make sure you were prepared.”
Sam grinned and shook his head. He and I shared a goal for Joyous Gard:…
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yurt plans change...significantly
yurt plans change...significantly | A bear walks into a yurt... Yeah, let's avoid the punchline to that one.
Summer 2018
“I don’t know if you still have your trail cam up,” Pam, my nearest neighbor, began, “but you might get a few photos of Eric running by and shooting his gun into the air.”
Welcome to the mountains, Denise!
It seems that Pam and her grandchildren had been outside playing, when their little blue-heeler, Ranger, went bananas. “You know how dogs have different barks for things,”…
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Missing
There’s something poignant about the now-blank, white paper taped to the light pole. It once held a message about something gone missing.
A pet.
A bicycle.
Some essential possession or…
I don’t remember. I just know that something important to someone went missing, and this sign was a plea for its return.
The paper’s blank face flutters against its cellophane tape restraints,…
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A Gift of Donut Holes
A Gift of Donut Holes It's a small thing -- and not really about the pastries -- but it carries me through my day.
“Here are donut holes, for you.”
The slender Asian woman behind the counter smiles and hands me a white, waxed-paper bag with a dozen or so sugar-glazed, cloud-soft donut holes nestled in the bottom. I accept it and carry it out to the car with my other bag of donuts — the ones I’ve selected for purchase — my heart doing a happy pitter-pat.
It’s not just the donut holes that make me happy —…
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5 Tips for Writing Your (NaNoWriMo) Novel
5 Tips for Writing Your (NaNoWriMo) Novel
“Walker, your treads are
the path and nothing more;
walker, there is no path,
the path is made by walking.”
— from Caminante No Hay Camino by Antonio Machado
“Do you have any advice for writing a novel?”
The question both amused and touched me. Amused because I’ve never actually finished a novel. Touched because this friend believed I knew enough about writing one to have accumulated shareable…
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If a story is in you, it has to come out. — William Faulkner
Woo-hoo! Welcome to my third attempt at National Novel Writing Month (which we “Wrimos” affectionately call NaNoWriMo)!
Yeah, I know: We’ve been here before. Me, promising to post daily updates of my progress. You, reading all two of the posts I actually get around to writing. Then…nothing.
Mostly because I’d stopped writing my novel.
In 2016, I announced The Demon Project. I made it about halfway through my 40,000-word requirement for finishing before Thanksgiving travel completely upended my writing, and Jaqi and her Demon went into what appears to be semi-permanent hibernation. (I just read back through a few pages, and I’ll be finishing that novel someday. It’s funny stuff.)
Last year, 2017, I got no farther than announcing the title of my novel. But I’d just lost my best friend, a big, red Golden Retriever named Bodhi, and my energies were solely focused on things like getting out of bed in the morning, dressing myself, occasionally showering. Writing a novel was not a viable option.
So, here we are, at the end of 2018. I’ve announced my novel on the NaNoWriMo site, given it a title, written a (really bad) synopsis, and I’m off and writing. In just three days, I’ve managed to make the 5,000 word mark. And I’ve promised myself that, this year, I’m not only finishing, but I’m also doing everything differently. Everything.
So, for instance, I’m participating in social events, like write-ins at my favorite library branch — sitting alongside other Wrimos, all of us with our anti-social earbuds in and a soundtrack playing while we type furiously on our computers, not speaking but building the kind of collective creative energy usually reserved for group meditation sessions.
I’m also challenging myself to word-sprints, which means setting a timer and breaking the sound barrier with the speed of my typing as I race the clock to word-count goodness. And there are group sprints on my horizon, where a virtual herd of Wrimos race each other as well as the clock.
I plan to participate in workshops on finding an agent and how to self-publish a book at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Main Library.
And, too, I’m earning my badges (the whole affair is delightfully gamified), making donations, inviting others to write, cutting my fingernails short so their tapping doesn’t bother my fellow write-in Wrimos.
This year, I declared myself a Plantser (a combination of Planner and Pantser, as in “by-the-seat-of-my-pants”) and wrote some loose outlines, ideas for storylines, bits of dialogue — then went out and started writing whatever came to mind, leaving the planned bits for days when inspiration trickles instead of flows.
Oh, and I also declared myself a NaNo Rebel this year. As I started my Plantsing, I realized that — despite my efforts to write it as fiction — this is a story best told truthfully. So, this year’s “novel” will be a memoir. I have no idea what it will be after that because I’d originally planned for it to be a “choose your own path” digital experience, but I never quite got it off the ground. For one thing, I noticed there was an embarrassing lack of story in my story. Maybe forcing myself to compress my writing process during the next 30 days will provide the impetus to do something more…extraordinary…with it.
Then, again, maybe it will be extraordinary enough just as I write it.
Whatever happens with it, it needs to come out into the light before it eats me alive. Because that’s what stories do when you don’t let them out: They fester and churn and wake you up at night and sometimes eat your breakfast or your favorite dessert, just as you get ready to take the first bite.
Stories are like that, you know. As Faulkner says, “Better out than in.” (I might have paraphrased that a tad.)
In any case, I make no promises this year regarding keeping you updated. But don’t write me off just yet. Because you never know…
Tools of the trade
Official writing partner
I can type like the wind! (Quietly.)
NaNoWriMo: The Third Time’s the Charm If a story is in you, it has to come out. -- William Faulkner Woo-hoo! Welcome to my third attempt at National Novel Writing Month (which we "Wrimos" affectionately call NaNoWriMo)!
They’re called (variously) “hearts-a-burstin,” “hearts-a-bustin,” “spindle bush,” and “strawberry bush.” A native euonymus by any other name... 💖
The Perc Test that Launched a Thousand Dreams
The Perc Test that Launched a Thousand Dreams | My slow beginnings pick up a little speed.
Slow Beginnings
The thing delaying all the other things related to living on my newly-purchased mountain land was the road. The thing delaying the road was finding an excavator. I’d spent most of the winter months trying to get a road guy — anyroad guy — to answer or return my calls to no avail. My neighbors supposed they were all over-worked, and weather delays didn’t help matters. Whatever the…
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Collecting Soil Samples on My Mountain Land
Collecting Soil Samples on My Mountain Land (or Real Farmers Use Shovels)
Wherever I go, I grow things. Flowers. Ferns. Hostas. Berries. Vegetables. Whatever the soil will take and hold. It’s my gift: to myself, to my neighborhood, to the land. I learn the land by putting my hands in the soil. I pick out and collect the stones. I wrap my fingers around the roots. I shape and sculpt, dig and contain, tie up and tie back.
But this time, this land…
Oh, I’ll still grow…
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Walking the Mythlines
Walking the Mythlines | I'd sought a place to put down roots. Finding that, I now needed to walk myself into the land, into belonging.
I am engaging in the process of walking myself into this land. Feet pounding the tracks, eyes and ears open. Every inch of this old, old country sings of story, and I am walking the mythlines. The stories of rocks, and streams, and trees; the stories of fox, and badger, and hare; the stories of heron, and crow, and sparrowhawk…
And as I walk, my own stories begin to take shape and merge with…
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Would I like a rose-infused latte with my completely ridiculous pastry? Well...if I must.
You go ahead and believe it’s a mushroom.
Tuna tower 🧡
Is Permaculture Really for Me?
Is Permaculture Really for Me? The tiny introvert in my chest and I experience a rude awakening.
“What’s your plan for the land?”
I really liked Zev, the permaculture designer I’d hired for a consultation, but he kept asking hard questions. As I looked around us, the immensity of the land — the towering trees, the enfolding ridges, the tangled clearing running along the west edge of the tractor road — intimidated me.
What, indeed, was my plan?
I’d first heard of permaculture years ago, but…
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