Good morning from my little corner of Virginia! I hope that if today is a holiday for you, as it is for me, you’re out enjoying it somewhere beautiful.
But even if you’re hard at work, I wish you a lovely Monday and a good week ahead. 😊
A fun photo for a holiday Friday! You might remember that I mentioned my friend’s new puppy in a previous post. Well, she grew.
But not to worry – she’s still a goofball. She certainly keeps us entertained. 🙂 Puppies, y’all.
I feel it in the cool morning air. I see it in the subtle turning of the leaves. I am ready.
*Also a quick note: If you commented on my last post, I wanted to say a very heartfelt thank you. I have been overwhelmed and so appreciative of the outpouring of love, support, and kindness, and once again at the number of women who have shared their own stories with me. Thank you, thank you. Your sweet words and caring thoughts have made this dark and painful time a little brighter. I am grateful for you.*
Y’all, I just had to share one more picture from our beach getaway.
Now that we’ve been home for a week, Annie is up to her usual antics – barking, guarding the back window against deer and groundhogs, generally being sort of loud and energetic.
She was a different dog at the beach. As you can see.
Calm, sleepy, relaxed, easy-going. I’m beginning to think our country puppy who loves the snow and cold is actually A BEACH DOG! Who knew?
Life is full of surprises, isn’t it?
…for one last sunrise.
This is from yesterday, bright and early, as we were packing up and getting ready to head home from a lovely and much-needed vacation. I don’t know what it is about sunrises on the beach, but I just can’t enough of them.
I’ll be taking a writing break next week to really enjoy some family time and of course some long days on the beach. 😊 I’ll be back on August 15th. For now, enjoy some pictures of my mother-in-law’s beautiful garden, which we have been enjoying so much these last few days.
And until next time, I wish y’all happy creating!
It’ll be up by Sunday at the latest! Honestly, I haven’t started on it yet, but I will, and I’m sure it will be good.
In the meantime, I wish everyone a lovely weekend! And for now, enjoy this picture of Annie (the Snow Dog), who doesn’t like this heatwave any more than the rest of us.
I love coffee.
I also love tea, and I’m too fond for my own good of Diet Coke. As vices go, caffeine’s not so bad. Nonetheless, I haven’t had a drop since June 21st.
This is a change I’ve been thinking about making for a while. I was experiencing some really bad heartburn, and I’ve never been the best at sleeping. I figured cutting caffeine – especially coffee – would be helpful, and so I finally did it.
And, well…yeah.
I’m fine. Totally fine. Really, I’m completely good. Except…
I had no idea how essential caffeine was to my creative process!!
Y’all, I have had so much trouble writing anything good for the last month. Poems are a struggle, and I truly don’t know how I’m going to manage this month’s short story (which is coming this week, by the way!).
So, tell me, writer friends: How do you get yourself into a good writing headspace, especially if you’re also going without caffeine? I’ll take any advice. HELP. Please. And thank you!
(I’ve also cut out alcohol. But that’s been much easier. Which both surprises me and doesn’t surprise me at all.)
Look at this little guy!
I’ve written before about how I find bugs fascinating. Graham snapped a few pictures of this one – just molted – yesterday, and I just had to share.
Last year, we had a giant brood of cicadas in the region, and boy were they…annoying. And different from our usual set, too.
Neat to watch, and cool to think about, but generally loud, and ever-present. I caught one of them landing on me every ten seconds.
No brood this year, but one of the surest signs of summer around here is the gentle (and sometimes not so gentle) hum of the cicadas. Like fireflies in the evening and passing storms in the afternoon, it’s really just not summer without it.
Happy Monday, y’all! Here’s a picture of Gatsby, taken with Graham’s new camera earlier today.
I just had to share, and I hope his handsome face makes you smile.
Gatsby’s sixteen, and in addition to the eye issue he’s been dealing with, we know he has a heart murmur and kidney disease, which is not advanced, thankfully. He’s also had some digestion issues in the past couple of years, which seem to have settled for now.
I adopted him when he was a kitten and I was nineteen.
We’ve basically grown into adulthood together.
It’s funny, watching a beloved pet get older. I still look at him and see the scruffy little kitten he was, even though he’s going gray and he’s slowed down quite a bit. He used to play fetch. He used to play at all, for that matter. His days now are filled with naps in the sunshine and cuddles and snacks. It’s quite a life.
It’s been a quite a life.
I don’t know how much longer this sweet old man has, but I will treasure every second I get to spend with him.
A Virginia Writer's Diary 