One-sided Conversation

ONE-SIDED CONVERSATION

“Uh, huh, yeah, that’s what I thought.”

“No, I haven’t seen it yet – really? Oh, I can’t wait!”

“No, uh, uh! No way I’m going if that heifer’s going to be there.”

“Because …”

“No, because she drives me crazy.”

“It’s not funny, Linda. No, I think that red dye job has soaked into her brain and rotted the gray matter!”

“It’s true – no, I think she’s very intelligent.”

“Yes, she is – she has to be smart to be able to down that job at the law office.

“Well, let me finish – I said she’s smart, but she just doesn’t have any common sense.”

“Haha – no, seriously, I don’t think she has enough sense to come in out of the rain.”

“Well, true … she probably would melt in the rain.”

“Oh, you are so bad! No, you are, you’re evil!”

“Yeah, I know – but how could someone smart enough to be a paralegal actually think it’s okay to be dating 3 different guys at the same time?”

“Well, she’s got more energy than me, that’s for sure.”

“Well, what’s going to happen when she goes into the Old Bull Tavern with Bill and she finds Joe Bob at the bar?”

“Yeah, that’s what I mean – the fur will fly!”

“Or, maybe she’ll be eating with Kenny at the Food Affair and Bill walks in with his buddies.”

“No, I don’t care who she dates, I just think it’s wrong for her to sneak behind their backs. Those guys need to know they’re in competition with each other.”

“Oh, I know, that’s why I don’t want to go if she’s there. I can’t stand to her complaining about her love triangle – or I guess it would be a love square since there are four of them.”

“No, I can’t stand to hear one more story. No, I’ll go with you, but if she’s there I’m leaving. Oh, Linda, I’ve gotta go – that hubby on the other line. Talk at ya later. Bye!”

Mrs. Greenhands - Unusual gardening ideas

During this time of year, especially this year with its mild temperatures, many thoughts turn to garden. Now is the time to start planning what your garden will be for the coming growing season. 

You are probably receiving all types ofgardening and seed catalogs in the meal and your visions are full of all the gardening possibilities.

This year, maybe think more about container gardening. Container gardening gives you some advantages over regular gardening:

1. Contains warm sooner than the ground soil, so you are able to plant some crops sooner.
2. You can place containers where you like them in the garden.
3. Containers are easier to water and maintain than regular garden bed.

There are many things that can be used as a container for gardening: wheelbarrows, old buckets, and old cooking pots, anything that will hold soil can potentially be used to garden with.

One of my favorite items to use in gardening is used tires – either car or tractor tires. They can be used for all types of gardening, or as compost heaps. Place them in the garden, fill with good garden soil and presto, you have an instant garden.

This year I found the pictured flower garden and I have plans to make this for my coming gardens. It is basically several car tires painted different colors and stacked in varying order. When the tires are in the shape you want them, fill with garden soil and plant. Instant beauty and an easy way to have color all through the growing season.

Christmas is green

Christmas Is Green

Cold, damp, dreary. Why did she love these types of days so much? Everyone else hated these days, but she relished them. Maybe it’s because they reminded her of the holidays.

The holiday season was fast approaching. Just today a Christmas commercial came across the television screen. It’s amazing how those types of commercials could make her tear p. She wanted her girls to have the same kind of feeling for the holidays that she had. Sure things were different now. Kids were different, environments were different, and demands were different.

When she was younger, she simply lived for the holidays. She would start drawing pictures of Christmas trees way before Halloween. She loved to read any books that dealt with the holidays. She loved to pretend she was Snowbound with Betsy, or fantasize of a Christmas in the Big Woods. Reading only served as the fuel source for her imagination.

Christmas music; beautiful gospels, traditional tunes, and children’s classics - you could hear them everywhere during this season. Her favorite song used to be “March of the Wooden Soldiers.” Even though it was an instrumental song, she would always make up dances to match the movements of the music. Even today, at the age of 35, this song makes her well up with tears.

Christmas lights – oh, how she loved Christmas lights. Sparkling red, yellow, blue, and green … especially green. She would dig in the basement until she found the worn box of Christmas decorations. Then she would plug the lights in just to watch them glow.

At Christmas time, she used to lie under the tree just to look at the lights. Beautiful, dancing. She would always sneak out of the bed at night, turn on the tree lights and fall asleep on the couch, dreaming of sugarplums and the anticipation of the season.

Green was always her favorite color. Back when she was a child, Christmas tree lights were the large, screw-in types. She and her two siblings each had a particular side of the Christmas tree that they called their own. Mother was always complaining because the children would change the colors on the tree. One side would be all red, another blue and yellow, and of course, the green side.

It gave her great pleasure to have one side of the family Christmas tree to call her own. She would place her handmade ornaments upon the branches, as well as the traditional ones. Santa always left her presents beneath her side of the tree. Always …

Snowflakes, the Christ child, Granny Devine’s home cooking, and the color green ...these always reminded her of the Christmas season. She now wants the same for her children. Christmas Eve Church services, a birthday cake for Baby Jesus, supper at Nana’s and MaMaw’s, and the color green … no, not green. Her three girls are all passionate about the color blue. Blue for Christmas? Oh well, times are changing.

Paying attention to detail

I like to think of myself as detail oriented, especially in my writing. I love to read about the rich sounds of the big city, the alluring smells of the corner bakery, the magical sights of a lone country road, the touch of a tiny baby animal or the taste of an apple picked fresh from the tree. These details enrich my reading experience and make me strive to be a better writer.

All too often, we get caught in the trap of writing for the sake of writing - trying to hurry through the days word count or page count without stopping to make sure the words are the best that they can be. Many, many times, this is what happens with my first drafts - boring words with no attention to the details.

However, once I have the "bones" of a story on paper, then I can jump into the fun part of writing. Adding the color of my hero's eyes: are they sparkling blue like a midsummer's day, or swirling green like the changing forest? Adding the sounds of the current environment: is the town old and dying, or is it fresh, new and growing? Adding the taste and texture of the heroine's evening meal: is it spicy and hot with a flair for the exotic, or is it the comfort food of a lip smacking hot dog? Adding the smell of the current surroundings: is it salty from the spray of the sea foam, or is it dusty from the mountaintop coal mine? Adding the sensation of touch is sometimes hard: does the heroine's dress feel thread-bare and worn, or is it starchy and stiff?

With the onset of autumn - my favorite time of year - my attention to detail is heightened. The blazing rainbow of colors as the sugar maple trees start to turn, the deepening yellow color of the goldenrod as it ages, and the white snowflake blooms of the frost asters as they dance above the meadows.

Overhead I hear the loud honking of the geese as they make their way to winter parts unknown, the crackling and popping of a backyard bonfire, and the crisp, wet crunch as I bite into a freshly picked pear or apple. I love to touch the dew drops as they glisten and cling to all the garden foliage, feel the rough texture of the corn shocks as I make arrangements in my front yard, or the smooth feel of the pumpkins fresh off the vine. Autumn brings the taste of sweet and gooey carmel apples, the spicy hot flavor of a huge pot of chili, and the warm aromatic tastes of hot cocoa or apple cider. The smells of autumn are probably the best from the damp, wet leaves littering the sidewalk to the clear, fresh breeze after a rain shower to earthy fragrance of the late blooming herbs.

Paying attention to details and describing to your audience the five senses are the best way to draw the reader into your story. Being able to picture yourself in the situation be described is the hallmark of a good author.