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Lockett Meadow, writing news, memes, and more
Good afternoon, and happy Saturday! It’s a balmy 100F here in Satan’s Anus, which is a helluva lot better than the 108 we endured yesterday. In this week’s missive, I bring you some pretty pictures of Lockett Meadow in the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, my writing progress (such as it is), a few interesting dribs and drabs I found on the internet when I should have been writing, and a fresh batch of memes I also found on the internet when I should have been writing. But first: Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer! Grab a treat, pull up a seat, and let’s get…
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Fire near my old neighborhood, books, and more memes
As some of you know, I used to live in the country outside Flagstaff, Arizona. We lived on 2.5 acres a half mile or so from the Coconino National Forest, with a view of the San Francisco Peaks from our driveway. It was the most beautiful place I’ve ever lived. This week my former neighborhood was evacuated because that beautiful place is on fire. This fire, the Pipeline Fire, is the second major fire in the area. The Tunnel Fire blazed through in April. According to the current map, this fire burned to within about a half mile of our former home. So far the neighborhood has been spared, but…
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Spring has sprung! (Weekend Coffee Share #33)
Good morning, happy Friday, and welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer! It’s 59F and sunny right now, so let’s chat in the garden. Garden pictures Spring is in full swing out there, so I snapped a few pics before the inevitable hot weather wilts everything. The garden is a work in progress–and looks like it. This area was entirely covered in gravel when we bought the house in fall 2020. As you can see, we’re still constructing and planting, but at least it contains some green things: Some of those green things are actually blooming. The rose covered in flowers is Camille Pissarro. I’ve showed…
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Flagstaff, Writing Classes, and the last of the 2020 COVID memes (Weekend Coffee Share #32)
Good morning, and welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer! Grab a drink, pull up a seat, and let’s get to it. Video of the Week I’ve spent the last several weeks inflicting 2020 COVID memes on y’all (see here, here, and here). We aren’t quite done yet, but before we get to the last batch, I have a treat for you. Trent McDonald, a fellow Weekend Coffee Sharer, created an excellent parody of “Yesterday” at the beginning of the pandemic. Thanks, Trent, for giving me permission to share your work here–I love it! Crisis truly inspires creativity. Writing News
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#FOTD: Rocky Mountain Bee Plant (Cleome serrulata)
Like a lot of us still in quarantine, I’ve been trying to get out for walks throughout the day. I walk early in the morning, which is a great time to snap pictures of some of our local wildflowers. Today’s post is the second in what I’m going to optimistically call a series for Cee’s Flower of the Day photo challenge, featuring some of the native flora in my rural Flagstaff neighborhood. Today’s entry is our native cleome, Cleome serrulata, also called Rocky Mountain Bee Plant. Like the sacred datura (Datura wrightii) I featured in my last #FOTD post, this plant is both beautiful and kinda ugly. The plant itself…
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#FOTD: Sacred Datura (Datura wrightii)
I’ve been snapping photos for Cee’s Flower of the Day photo challenge for the last two weeks or so, but I keep forgetting about a key step in the process: posting them. D’oh! On the upside: that means I have a backlog that should net me at least a few days of quick and easy posts, which is a good thing, because life is a little, um, *full* right now. Today’s flower is a wildflower/weed (depends on your perspective) here in Flagstaff. Datura wrightii or sacred datura is a member of the nightshade family, quite poisonous, drought tolerant, a hallucinogenic, almost impossible to kill–and both beautiful and ugly. As I’ve…
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Photo safari through a historic Flagstaff neighborhood
My first novel, Vanishing, Inc., is set in a fictional mountain town in Arizona called Ponderosa. I live in Flagstaff, a not-so-fictional mountain town in Arizona that makes an appearance in my story, but since I’m writing a paranormal romance (a time travel romance, to be specific), I wanted the freedom of a fictional setting. I don’t want some overly-literal reader leaving me a one-star review because there are, in fact, no time portals in Flagstaff. Hey, you know it could happen. I’m sure plenty of tourists have walked through standing stones in Scotland and become very grumpy because they did not immediately find themselves in the arms of a lusty…
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Noticing
As it has for many of us, my world has grown smaller in the last few weeks. We aren’t under a shelter in place order here in Arizona (yet), but the number of coronavirus cases is rising rapidly, and most public facilities are either closed or restricted. Like most Gen-Xers, I’m good at entertaining myself. I also know how to cook, and I enjoy time at home, away from people. But still, having to be home for an extended period of time can get monotonous, even for an introverted librarian/writer like me. And so I’m consciously looking for ways to improve the experience. Sunday afternoon, my husband and I took…
Suspense | Horror | Romance
