Hail and Fairing Well?

Hail-Damaged Lily Pads

Before I give you an update on our hail-battered yard and garden, I have a bit of news.  Last week I learned that my three Over Where books (Library of the Sapphire Wind; Aurora Borealis Bridge; House of Rough Diamonds) will be coming out as audiobooks from Trantor Media.

I haven’t been told which reader has been assigned so, obviously, I can’t give you a release date.  What I can tell you is that I’m delighted.  I’m a long-time audiobook junkie, and Trantor has been one of my favorite studios for quite a long time.

Now for our hail-battered garden…  We’re still finding little pockets of damage, but overall we got off lightly, especially given how hard we were hit.  The hardest hit was the tomato I’d been growing indoors, that I’d just moved outside to start the “hardening off” process.  Needless to say, this was a bit more hard hardening that had been intended.  We’re still not certain if it will pull through.

Second candidate were the peppers we’d finally transplanted from their containers into the garden.  At this point, we think they’ll all come through, but they’re very fragile.  A few had all their leaves beaten off and are coming back from the stems.  This will doubtlessly slow down their producing fruit, but I doubt you need to ask why I’m not just pulling them and getting new plants.

(Hint: It has nothing to do with availability or cost of new plants.)

Numerous other plants have holes in their leaves, and it will be a while before the lily pads in our teeny little pond look nearly as pretty as they did.  Also, without the cover they were giving, we’re getting another run of algae.

The snapdragons that were featured last week with their planters full of hail lost some blossoms, but are making a comeback.

We also may need to replant squash seeds in some areas, as we’re not seeing the germination we would expect.  It’s possible they were exposed by the hail and birds got to them.

But the view out of my window shows lots of promise, and that inspires me to keep going.  This week I’m working on the final touches of my part of SK5 (the fifth Star Kingdom novel, which I co-write with David Weber) although I may need to put this aside to work on the proofs of House of Rough Diamonds.  Better get to it!  Catch you later…

Advertisement

FF: Spared By Bad Luck

Late Bloomer

Sometimes what seems like bad luck turns out to be not so bad.  This week, as we enjoy our richly blossoming catalpa tree, I’m appreciating the irony.  Normally, our catalpa begins blooming early in the second week in May.  However, the cooler temperatures (which have played havoc with my schedule for growing tomatoes from seed and other things) meant that the tree was just beginning to flower when we were hammered by hail storms last Saturday and Sunday.  (See this week’s WW for pictures.)  So, that was bad luck that turned out to be good…  Or something like that.

For those of you unfamiliar with this column, the Friday Fragments lists what I’ve read over the past week.  Most of the time I don’t include details of either short fiction (unless part of a book-length collection) or magazines.  The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.  If you’re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive recommendation list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.

Once again, this is not a book review column.  It’s just a list with, maybe, a bit of description or a few opinions tossed in.  And it’s also a great place to tell me what you’re reading.  I love seeing the tapestry of what people choose.

Completed:

Boundaries of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold.  Audiobook.  A collection of short stories (some quite long), filling in key events between the novels.

Princess Holy Aura by Ryk E. Spoor.

In Progress:

Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold.  Audiobook.  Miles has a very difficult incident to unravel, especially as no one seems to want to tell him the whole story about anything.

My Brother’s Keeper by Tim Powers.  Nope.  You haven’t read this, because it isn’t out yet.  I have an advanced copy.  Powers moves the secret history of various literary figures to embrace the Bronte sisters and their very difficult brother.  So far, creepy and engrossing.  If you like this sort of thing, you might want to try his novel The Stress of Her Regard.

Also:

The new Smithsonian. 

Pecking the Fat

Ladderback Woodpecker Visits With White-Winged Dove

Last week, we had high enough winds that I was grateful I hadn’t transplanted tomatoes from my starter bed, or the pimento peppers we have in the shed to the outdoor bed.  They would have been shredded!

I have continued getting plants into containers, because I can move those to more sheltered areas.   The mad mixture of basil seeds I started about ten days ago are sprouting, but it will be a while before I know what I’ve got.

We’re also doing a changeover from our winter birds to the warmer weather residents.  We’ve had adult quail by, considering our yard as a potential nesting place and a definite foraging location.  The spectacle pod I mentioned a few weeks back is starting to put out seed pods, to the delight of the finches.

However, we do continue to put out food for the birds, to help them along as they’re settling in to raise their families.  We were delighted to see the male ladderback woodpecker at the suet feeder, along with a dove.  The ladderback is pretty certain that we put that suet out for him and his lady.  The other day, I saw him pecking the feet of some aggressive starlings.

Even more important than food is water.  Our birdbath needs to be filled at least once a day, and our tiny pond is not only a source of water, but a place some of the birds raid for wet material for their nests.  At night, the toads drop in for a soak and maybe to visit the tadpoles.  Who knows?

But duty calls, no matter how much I’d like to be out puttering there’s writing to be done!

Growing Inspiration

Snapdragons!

Tomato seedlings are finally becoming tiny plants.  That’s the good news.  The weird/odd news is that the majority of the germination is happening on the opposite side of the bed where we’ve had the best luck in the past.  And, I didn’t even plant these seeds.  These came from my habit of watering with grey water from the kitchen, which in the summer contains quite a few tomato seeds.

So, we’ll definitely have tomato plants, but except for those I planted this year, which are maturing more slowly, who know what type they’ll be?  (I’ll try to remember to tell you!)

Over the last few weeks, we’ve started grooming the garden beds, but we’re waiting until nighttime temperatures stabilize in the 50’s to do most of the planting.  We might start some zucchini, radish, carrots, and Swiss chard sooner, especially if the wind lets up.

I’ve started container plants, some with seeds, some from seedlings that need thinning, a few with plants I purchased.  This year our window boxes will feature snapdragons that we bought on cheerful impulse.  I love snapdragons, but these last few years all we’ve seen were a pale yellow.  Since our native plants do a lot of yellows, these weren’t tempting.  However, deep velvet red won the day.

I was recently asked if my gardening had ever inspired a story.  The answer was “definitely, yes.”  In fact, my second published short story “Between Tomatoes and Snapdragons” (originally in Dragon Fantastic, reissued in my collection Curiosities) would not have been written if I didn’t garden.

Off to work on a few more aspects of my life as a writer.  Then maybe I’ll rehab a few more of my containers.  I have more zinnias to thin, and portulaca seeds to plant.

Reseeding and Series

Blue Flax

Our blue flax is now flowering sufficiently that I can see the blossoms from my office window.  These small flowers (about the size of a nickel) need a bit of shade, so we only have this one patch.  However, they must like where they are, because they’ve reseeded.  We have some new plants started a stalk’s length away.  Don’t know if they’ll flower this year or wait until next, but it’s always fun to find out.

Series can grow by reseeding, too.  That’s what happened with my forthcoming book, House of Rough Diamonds.  After I finished the story told in Library of the Sapphire Wind and Aurora Borealis Bridge, I started wondering.  Who actually owns the Library?  My characters put a lot of work into finding the place.  They’ve come to think of it as their main base, but do they actually have any right to it?

From these seeds, the new story sprouted and blossomed forth. Oh, and it gave me a great excuse to explore what’s hiding within the deeper reaches of the Library!  This, I will admit, is how I tend to write series.  It’s a format that works well for my temperament and my sort of creativity.  I enjoy the serendipitous, the surprise, the challenge of the unexpected.

The copy edit for House of Rough Diamonds showed up in my inbox on Monday morning, and I’m working my way through it this week.  Better get back to it.  It’s due out in early September, and I certainly don’t want to be the one to cause a delay!

FF: Yellow Iris

Mei-Ling Says “MY book.”

In case those of you who read the WW wondered, the yellow iris did indeed bloom, as did several more purple. But it’s hard to get Mei-Ling to hold still for a picture, so she won the top model contest this week. However, there is picture of the yellow iris at the end.

For those of you unfamiliar with this column, the Friday Fragments lists what I’ve read over the past week.  Most of the time I don’t include details of either short fiction (unless part of a book-length collection) or magazines.  The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.  If you’re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive recommendation list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.

Once again, this is not a book review column.  It’s just a list with, maybe, a bit of description or a few opinions tossed in.  And it’s also a great place to tell me what you’re reading.  I love seeing the tapestry of what people choose.

Completed:

Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold.  Audiobook.  Very closely tied to the events in Mirror Dance.  This might also be called “Miles Grows Up,” because he does a lot of reassessing his goals and priorities, as well as solving a major crisis.  I quite liked.

Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh.  I’m not sure I ever read this one.  Very exciting to have a “new “book by a long-gone author.  I quite enjoyed.

In Progress:

Komarr by Lois McMaster Bujold.  Audiobook.  Nice use of two different narrators, each of whom has information the other would really like to have.

Death and the Dancing Footman by Ngaio Marsh.  I think I read this one a long, long time ago.  Nonetheless, quite enjoying. 

Also:

Finished the most recent Smithsonian and give it a thumbs up.

Yellow Iris, Backdropped With Purple

By Purest Chance

First Iris

Spring flowering took a few baby steps forward the past week.  We now have three purple iris blossoming, and will probably have both purple and yellow flowers before the end of the week.  The first blue flax has opened.

The tomato seeds I planted still aren’t doing what I’d hoped they’d be doing by now.  I think this is due to the much colder than usual nighttime temperatures.  By purest chance, I have a comparison.  The evening of the day I planted the tomato seeds in my outdoor starter bed, I found a seed I’d missed on the kitchen table.  Rather than putting it back in the envelope, I put it in the pot of basil I have on my kitchen windowsill.

(Yes.  I am familiar with John Keats’s poem “Isabella, or the Pot of Basil.”  No fear, no one was harmed in the planting of this basil.  I was simply t lonely for a plant to watch, and started this one over the winter.)

Anyhow, the indoor seed sprouted within ten days.  The sprout has grown, and is even thinking about producing a true leaf.  Of the seeds planted outdoors, only one or two have sprouted, and the seedlings have remained small.  This is quite counter to my past experiences with starting seeds in this bed.

Why do I start the seeds outside?  I’ve started seeds indoors many times.  However, probably because of our extreme shifts of temperature, the young plants don’t take well to being “hardened off.”  Until this year, I’ve had fairly good luck starting tomato plants in this one sheltered corner outside.  I haven’t given up hope yet.

Why do I grow plants from seed?  The varieties I’m trying are not widely available as bedding plants.  They’re grown from heirloom seeds, of plants that have been shown to do well in the higher summer heat we’ve been having these last few years.

On that note, I’m off to the planet Sphinx where Spring is moseying along through its fifteen and a bit Terran month cycle, the crown oaks are changing their foliage, and the treecats are getting ready to have kittens.

Take care!

What a Spectacle!

Spectacle Pod Near the Temple of the Toad

One of the many wildflowers (some would call them “weeds”) that Jim and I let go in our yard is the spectacle pod.  Named for its seed pods, which look somewhat like a pale green set of opera glasses, these roughly foot high plants grow with very little encouragement and no need to be watered.  They start flowering about this time of year with blossoms lasting for about a month.  Then they produce seeds that the birds enjoy.  Finally, they wither into something ragged and brown that we pull.

After we pull the spectacle pod plants, we often put the dead plants in an out of the way corner of the yard, so the birds can continue foraging for a while more.  The seeds can be eaten by humans as well.  I’ve tried them.  They’re somewhat spicy but, not (to my tastebuds at least) particularly yummy.  I guess they’re best “for the birds.”

Slowly but surely, our yard is acknowledging that maybe, just maybe, we’re done with winter.  Jim and I have been going out at night to see the toads in our tiny pond.  The record thus far is six.

When I’m not enjoying my yard, I’ve been writing away on SK5.  Like the garden, the novel doesn’t seem to be growing very fast.  However, when I compare what I have done by the end of the week to where I started, I can see the changes.

Honestly, being a gardener, especially one who frequently grows plants from seed, and being a novelist have a lot in common, don’t they?

FF: Apple Blossoms

Apple Blossoms

Our not-quite-thriving young apple tree (it hasn’t liked the very hot summers) is just beginning to bloom.  I celebrate this as a reminder to enjoy the moment, as the moment may be all you get.

For those of you unfamiliar with this column, the Friday Fragments lists what I’ve read over the past week.  Most of the time I don’t include details of either short fiction (unless part of a book-length collection) or magazines.  The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.  If you’re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive recommendation list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.

Once again, this is not a book review column.  It’s just a list with, maybe, a bit of description or a few opinions tossed in.  And it’s also a great place to tell me what you’re reading. 

Completed:

Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold.  Audiobook.  Personal and emotional complications of Brothers in Arms come home in this much longer, more complex novel.

In Progress:

Reading toward the Nebula awards.  At least for a few more days…

Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold.  Audiobook.  Very closely tied to the events in Mirror Dance.  Denial of his infirmities has long been a way for Miles to power through.  Now he must face he can’t deny everything.

Also:

The new Smithsonian, as well as a few odds and ends of articles, and scattered research.

Iced Tree

Iced Tree

Last week, I got out and about to somewhere other than the grocery stores and post office, which are my usual glamorous destinations.

I couldn’t get a picture of the pick-up truck which had two huskies wearing mirror shades leaning out the window, but I did get a picture of the tree covered with ice.

Context will help you appreciate this photo…  The temperature was warm enough that I was not wearing a jacket, only a sweatshirt.  The hour was closing on noon.  The cause was a sprinkler that had apparently been set on an auto-timer that hadn’t shut off overnight, and had lightly sprayed (and was still spraying) this tree and its surrounding with a light mist.

Bizarre.

Despite these attempts of “reality” to convince me I’d stumbled into one of those contemporary Fantasy novels where the Fey are living among us (my favorite is War For the Oaks, by Emma Bull), I had a fairly normal week.

Writing happened, and SK5 is shaping up nicely.  Over the weekend, I put twenty-one tomato seeds in my starter bed (twelve Punta Banda; nine Texas Wild cherry).  I’m now restraining myself from going outside every few hours to see if anything has sprouted yet.  Various perennials are leafing out, and the lilies are just poking over the surface.

We won’t go ahead with much of the rest of the garden until after April 18^th, which is the official “last average frost” date for our area.  In the meantime, we’ll be getting beds ready.  Jim is going to test his new shoulder with a little gentle digging…  It’s doing pretty well overall.

Coincidentally, SK5 is also set during the time when Winter is giving way to Spring.  Of course, on the planet Sphinx, seasons last for fifteen and a bit T-months, so the cold weather gear is still out and being used.

Be well!