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Tucson Botanical Gardens + April review + a fresh batch of memes
Good morning and happy Saturday! It’s the last day of April, a good time to look back at the month that was. Also on tap: art and blooms from Tucson Botanical Gardens, memes, and various bits of personal news. But first: welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer! Pull up a seat, grab a drink, and let’s chat.
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Tucson Botanical Gardens and a few laughs (Weekend Coffee Share #15)
Good morning! Writing and work have kept me busy this week, so I’m a little late getting the Weekend Coffee Share (hosted by Natalie the Explorer) up for this week. Today I’ll share a few pics from my visit last weekend to the Tucson Botanical Gardens as well as the usual funnies at the end. But first: This Week’s Writing Update, Brought to You By Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers The writing update for this week is that there isn’t much of an update. I’ve heard exactly nothing about any of my pending submissions, including the story I submitted for the Christmas horror anthology that was supposed to be published…
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Passion flowers at the Tucson Botanical Gardens (#FOTD)
Long-suffering husband and I visited the Tucson Botanical Gardens yesterday for the first time since December (see pix from that trip here and here). We’re having a wet monsoon season, so we hoped for lots of flowers–and got our wish. Their butterfly garden includes these wonderful passion vines twining around the trunks of huge mesquite trees. I love the intricate detail of passion flowers–so lovely after a couple of months of dry, scorching heat. Posted for Cee’s Flower of the Day challenge.
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Acceptance, rejection, Christmas lights, and funnies (Weekend Coffee Share #18)
Good morning, happy Friday, and welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer! I can’t compete with her amazing holiday display pics, but I’ll share a few of my own anyway. But first: Writing news! There are two kinds of people in the world: those who want the bad news first, and those who want the good news first. I’m the former–get the yuck out of the way so we can end on a positive note. So in that spirit: I received a rejection for the writing retreat I applied for. Bummer. It would have been amazing, I’m sure, but on the bright side: that’s 2 weeks…
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Saying goodbye to summer (Weekend Coffee Share #4)
Good morning, and welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share! It’s Saturday morning here in Tucson, the start of Labor Day weekend. It’s sunny and humid, and the wet pavement by my front door tells me it rained last night. The air is cool (well, cool for Tucson) and fresh, so before it gets unbearably hot and sticky, let’s plop on the porch with a morning beverage (got my Diet Coke right here) and look back on summer. But it’s still summer, you say? Well, yeah, the equinox is over two weeks away, and it’ll feel like summer here in the Sonoran Desert till November. But to me, Labor Day weekend…
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New Orleans and Spring in the Garden
Good morning! Happy Saturday! I’m still trying to clear the fog after a whirlwind 3 days in New Orleans for my first in-person work conference since the before times. It was wonderful! It was exhausting! And, me being me, I ate my weight in beignets, because: And: But before we get to my New Orleans gluttony travel photos, welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer! Grab a drink, pull up a seat, and let’s visit the Big Easy.
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I got a story accepted! Plus other news and a few local laughs (Weekend Coffee Share #17)
Good morning, happy Friday, and welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer (whose pics are always gorgeous, but this week’s are *incredible*). I’m going to kick off this week’s post with: Writing news A couple of weeks ago, I was grousing about my lack of writing news. I had several pieces on submission plus a pending application to a writing retreat, and I was getting just a tad impatient (if you consider refreshing GMail every 1.3 seconds, “a tad impatient”). Well, I still have a bunch of things pending, but: My Christmas horror story got accepted! It will be published in the 2021 Deathlehem anthology, which…
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#FOTD: Coke can flower
For Cee’s Flower of the Day photo challenge. We live only a mile or so from the Tucson Botanical Garden, and we decided to check it out during Winter Break. We had to cancel our Winter Break travel plans due to the Microbe that Must not be Named, so we are exploring our new city instead (outside only, masked and socially distanced). According to the audio tour: This shady barrio (neighborhood) garden came to life with the help of local Mexican-American gardeners and honors the distinctive gardens and yards found in Tucson’s Mexican-American neighborhoods… the distinctive decorative style featur[es] ‘found objects,’ family mementos and whimsical use of recycled materials. https://tucsonbotanical.org/tours/nuestro-jardin-audio-tour/…