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clarentineI keep plants in the deep window wells in my office downtown. I have terrific windows; they both face south, offering views of the James River and the downtown banking district. (The view used to be better before Mead Westvaco built its new offices down by Tredegar Ironworks. Ah, progress.) I am fond of scented plants – more foliage than flowers, because let’s face it, flowers just don’t last – and a lot of what I have are oddities of one sort or another.
One of those oddities is preparing to bloom.
That really is eek-worthy, as you’ll see if you explore any of the websites devoted to the genus Stapelia, like this one: http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week048.shtml. Stapelia is better known as Carrion Flower.
And it’s in my office window.
eek!
No, I am not going to let the flower buds mature. >:-) Though I may seize the opportunity to pass the plant and its pot-mates along to someone better able to “appreciate” them...preferably off this floor!
***
My son changed jobs today. It was a change he’d been courting, and working toward, for a year or more, and he’s pleased at an increase in pay and benefits. Here’s hoping the new company will prove as good a place to work as his peers have indicated it is.
(See, now I have something new to tell those who ask how he’s doing. My usual response had been, “He’s still employed.”)
***
All my books at home are packed. My office there will soon be reduced to a skeleton. Kay has already started looking worriedly at the mounds of boxes appearing in the hallways and stacked against the walls. (She’s a perceptive dog, yes.) Once I finish with the closet full of craft supplies and the file cabinet drawers, I’ll start work on the china cabinet downstairs. At least, having done all of this in such recent memory, I have a good idea what we can live without for the next month and what we’ll end up needing.
And, wouldn’t you know it, I find myself suddenly with useful thoughts on the tangle in the middle of the novel known as Bells (which needs a new title). I’ve been reading over some of Alexandra Sokoloff’s tips for writers (her website is http://thedarksalon.blogspot.com/, and she’s got a book out on the subject which I just downloaded via Kindle for Mac) and, feeling energized, started picking at Bells again. It’s been hard to find enough time to really sink into the book, but the other day on the bus I had a revelation that I think might be the key to unlocking the plot.
One of the tools Ms. Sokoloff recommends is the notecard. Not coincidentally, one of the improvements I am planning for my new home office and workroom is a nice, big, blank wall for notecarding and storyboarding and tacking up drawings for review. Maybe with more space, I’ll figure out how to use notecards in multiple layers! It would be nice to master this technique everyone seems so enamored of.
And nicer yet to actually have the space and time in which to work on it....
One of those oddities is preparing to bloom.
That really is eek-worthy, as you’ll see if you explore any of the websites devoted to the genus Stapelia, like this one: http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week048.shtml. Stapelia is better known as Carrion Flower.
And it’s in my office window.
eek!
No, I am not going to let the flower buds mature. >:-) Though I may seize the opportunity to pass the plant and its pot-mates along to someone better able to “appreciate” them...preferably off this floor!
***
My son changed jobs today. It was a change he’d been courting, and working toward, for a year or more, and he’s pleased at an increase in pay and benefits. Here’s hoping the new company will prove as good a place to work as his peers have indicated it is.
(See, now I have something new to tell those who ask how he’s doing. My usual response had been, “He’s still employed.”)
***
All my books at home are packed. My office there will soon be reduced to a skeleton. Kay has already started looking worriedly at the mounds of boxes appearing in the hallways and stacked against the walls. (She’s a perceptive dog, yes.) Once I finish with the closet full of craft supplies and the file cabinet drawers, I’ll start work on the china cabinet downstairs. At least, having done all of this in such recent memory, I have a good idea what we can live without for the next month and what we’ll end up needing.
And, wouldn’t you know it, I find myself suddenly with useful thoughts on the tangle in the middle of the novel known as Bells (which needs a new title). I’ve been reading over some of Alexandra Sokoloff’s tips for writers (her website is http://thedarksalon.blogspot.com/, and she’s got a book out on the subject which I just downloaded via Kindle for Mac) and, feeling energized, started picking at Bells again. It’s been hard to find enough time to really sink into the book, but the other day on the bus I had a revelation that I think might be the key to unlocking the plot.
One of the tools Ms. Sokoloff recommends is the notecard. Not coincidentally, one of the improvements I am planning for my new home office and workroom is a nice, big, blank wall for notecarding and storyboarding and tacking up drawings for review. Maybe with more space, I’ll figure out how to use notecards in multiple layers! It would be nice to master this technique everyone seems so enamored of.
And nicer yet to actually have the space and time in which to work on it....
