Folks, it happened. Spring arrived in a torrent of sunshine and 70 degree days. The green haze that was buzzing around the trees suddenly erupted into actual leaves. Flowers are blooming, weeds are invading the garden beds, and the insects are back.
A mating pair of ravens has moved into one of the sequoias. I can see the tree from my desk, and all day, every day, two ravens take turns sitting and hunting. Whether there are chicks yet or just eggs, I do not know. I do know that both of them took a break from the nest yesterday to catch the air currents above their tree. I watched them swirling higher and higher, in a perfectly choreographed dance, before they lazily floated back down to only start the climb over again.
Ah, to be a raven on a perfect spring afternoon!
Writing updates:
I wrote 12,482 words last week. These consisted of:
“The Daily Ramble”: 4,128 words.
This is what I call my daily free writing practice, which is where the seeds of many of my story ideas first take root. Normally, the ramble’s word count is a bit higher, but I took a couple of days off because I could.
Medium: 1153 words. “Hope Is Collaborative.” Go ahead, you know you want to read it. There’s no paywall!
Cunning Creatures: 1050 words. “Can Creatives Change the Systems That Destroy Us?” This weekly newsletter is free, so please subscribe!
The balance was written on various other projects, primarily fiction. I didn’t make any submissions this week nor did I hear back from any submissions I have out. It’s like that sometimes!
Reading Notes:
I finished the second book in Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot duology, “A Prayer for the Crown Shy.” These books encompass a vision of the future that I desperately hope we have a chance of realizing. Sure, it’s fiction written about a fictional civilization on a fictional moon, but it is still a vision of hope for me!
I am currently reading:
“Tress of the Emerald Sea” by Brandon Sanderson. This is my first introduction to Sanderson’s writing, and I am enjoying it. I’m about five chapters in, and I expect this to be a quick read because it has a nice pacing to it.
“The Future Is Degrowth” by Schmelzer, Vetter, and Vansintjan. I am reading this for a book club, but I am also deeply invested in what the authors are presenting. I hope to share many, many thoughts on this in the coming weeks. Right now, I am only one chapter in.
Survive & Thrive:
Spring makes me think of food, mainly growing and foraging it. I don’t believe that artists should be starving, and I feel that securing good food for ourselves should be part of our individual creative manifestos.
This week, Mozy and I built four raised garden beds. I scavenged these beds from a local Buy Nothing group. They are the nice deck-style beds that have legs and a shelf beneath them. The gentleman who was giving them away also gave me a can of cedar garden bed oil.
So Mozy and I carefully cleaned, sanded, and re-oiled each board before reassembling the beds on Friday. Our neighbor/landlord offered us a bunch of garden soil he had in his shed, which he is cleaning out, so between that and the compost pile I set up last year, we won’t need soil. We shall have a free garden on the deck, which is protected from the deer.
This means free food. We also take care of the neighbor’s orchard and can pick all the fruit we want. Our yard features a blackberry hedge, and I helped someone divide their raspberries last year in exchange for the excess canes, so we have those to look forward to, as well. There are also blueberries, artichokes, and strawberries that we put in last year, from plants scavenged from a big box store’s composter. I won’t even get into all the herbs I have in pots and growing in the ground.
Last fall, I stuck a few garlic cloves into the ground. Soon I will be harvesting the scapes for stir-fry, then after that I can harvest the bulbs. I noticed nettles poking up in the wet area of the property, which means it’s time to harvest a bunch for soup, pesto, and tea. Bigleaf maple blossoms are also popping, and we use these to make lovely little pancake-like fritters.
I could spend this time on social media, but it is better used outside growing and finding food. Social media doesn’t inspire my creativity, but digging into the dirt and watching a leaf slowly unfurl does. Plus, it ensures we can survive and thrive on our pauper’s budget.
Go forth in hope, Friends!
Jenny Wren 