Daily Archives: July 18, 2013

Poetry, Writing

75%

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Summer                                                                Moon of the First Harvests

Today was an inside day.  9o degrees, 73 dewpoint.  Definitely a writing day.  I’m at the 75% revised point, so I’m looking at the end of revision III in a matter of a week, two at the most.  There are still futzy things to do after that.  Connect up separated sections, change some section and chapter headings.  That sort of thing.  Not a lot of time, but some.

Then, I’ll be ready for my beta readers, if they want, to go over this revision.  I’m asking Kate to give it a thorough reading for grammar, spelling, other technical matters.  She’s very good at that and this is, I hope, the last revision before submission to agents.

As they tackle that task, I’ll set it aside completely.  I’ll signal Greg to turn the Latin back on for the week after Labor Day and I’ll start writing Loki’s Children, the second novel in the Unmaking Trilogy.  I have a good start with material cut from Missing and a good deal of research I did while the beta readers were at work.

I’m also taking two MOOC’s at the end of the summer, one new historical methods for a new china and another on modernism and post-modernism.  Both are core interests of long standing.  Also, in September, a MOOC I’m really looking forward to, Modern and Contemporary American Poetry.

With end of the gardening and bee season chores there will be no moss growing on this rolling stone.

The poetry course will include 19th-century proto-modernists Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman.

Commentary on the news, Garden, Our Land and Home, Politics

Bad News, Man

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Summer                                                           Moon of the First Harvests

Reading the paper this morning made me choke several different times.  First two related to horticulture.  The spotted drosophila, a fruit fly variant, lays eggs and larvae in blueberries, strawberries and raspberries especially.  We have all three.  Managing them may be very difficult without insecticides which I’ve avoided all these years.  They may force me into a difficult position if they show up here.

The second horticultural item involved the now seen as inevitable spread of the Emerald Ash Borer.  I’ve not done a census of our trees, but a reasonable estimate would be that 25% are ash.  That means a lot of holes over the next few years.  My plan is to get proactive and start taking them down, a few each year, and planting other species where it makes sense  .

Then there were all the articles about the Zimmerman trial.  Yecchhh.

Student loan rates.  This student loan business is a scandal.  Saddling kids, especially poor to lower middle class kids, with loans the size of mortgages in my day, before they even get started in life, is a real burden on the future.  It’s like attaching a drag chute to the lives of today’s college grads.

Not to mention that bank profits have jumped.

Guess the good news is that getting irritated by the news means I’m still alive.

 

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Summer                                                           Moon of the First Harvests

All the soil in the orchard is now covered with landscape cloth and mulch.  It will be much easier to maintain weed control.  That had become a real problem, partly due to the bees.  I plan to move them somewhere over the winter.  Not sure quite where yet.