While it wouldn’t be quite accurate to say summer has arrived to New England, we do finally have a day decent enough to sit outside. I’d be happy if it were a tad warmer–lower 70s would be perfect–but it’s not raining at the moment and I’m happy to simply accept that. Our yard is finally in, and while the backyard is not-yet-suitable for walking upon, well, we’re walking upon it anyway. We put down grass seed in the back and all this rain has washed a third of it away and the birds have gotten the another third. So our backyard currently looks like a failed Chia Pet. Lovely. I do appreciate the fact that the wireless connects in the backyard so I can play on the computer while Pie plays with her friend. The front we used sod on, which kind of depresses me, because it is the ultimate in suburban lawns. However we’ve got a lovely planting plan that will transform it into something romantic and inviting–we just need to wait till the coffers are refilled enough to afford all those romantic and inviting plants.
But summer it apparently is, and we had a lovely 4th of July and now both kids are at camp. I had a hard time sending Doodles to camp, putting him on a bus to be carted off with all these children who were about twice his size to go off to swimming and boating and ropes and T-ball on his own. Pie is at her preschool camp and she, in her spunky way, “LOVES IT!” while Doodles in his typical more subdued way “kinda likes” camp, but definitely enjoys it more than he would staying home. And me? Me, I’ve got a three and a half hour stretch in front of me every day. And while I am doing a bit of puttering and cleaning–finally getting the clothes Pie has grown out of out of the house, doing the grocery shopping and baking cookies for friends with a new baby–I am also working on the novel. I’m getting in a good hour a day of decent writing time. It’s one of those things that I have a hard time starting, but once I get started, I have a hard time stopping. I find my thoughts frequently drift back to my characters and I’m trying to take notes at odd times so I don’t forget ideas. It feels good to get back into a writing routine again. I’ve got three more weeks of kids’ camp (maybe more!) so I hope to really get a solid portion under my belt. (I’d like to write “under my typewriter ribbon” but it’s been too long since I’ve used one of those… Maybe “under my web camera”? as that’s what’s atop my computer.) I make myself a pot of tea (because, yes, it’s been that chilly), sit at my computer, attempt to ignore Facebook and Twitter, and plug away. My novel readers are awesome and have been giving me great feedback, which I’m working hard to incorporate. Writing is a lot like exercise–when you’re not doing it, you can’t imagine doing so. But once you start, you simply can’t stop.
So yes, the blog posts may be a bit more infrequent. But that’s only because there’s other writing to be done. Because it’s summer time. And the writing is easy.
