Yesterday’s journal…

Yesterday's journal entry prompted a worried e-mail from my agent which essentially said, "You are still writing, aren't you?" And I said, "Well, actually, no." I haven't managed to carve out writing time since mid-March or so, which frankly is driving me a little crazy. I don't know why right now it feels like I need at least four-hour blocks in order to work on the novel; I think it's a matter of having the mental space to drop away all the other little things that putter in my head. I'm hoping to carve out two of those blocks tomorrow and Saturday, though, so we'll see how it goes.

I'm waking up happier, just because of the weather. Yesterday, I got up, did e-mail work for a few hours, and then went up onto the rooftop deck. I read a little bit, in between gardening for an hour or so. The weather was perfect for it -- warm and breezy, with occasional sun. I pruned my rose bushes (hopefully not too late) and threw out a lot of dead plant matter that I should have dealt with last fall, if I'd put my garden to bed properly, the way you're supposed to. If I'd done that, my larger terracotta pots probably wouldn't have cracked. Ah well -- they're battered, but I think they'll survive another season at least, and I do like the battered look in a garden. I can appreciate a formal garden, but what I really lust after are the gardens that are strange, old, wild.

Yesterday I taught my afternoon class and then met Peter Covino, an old classmate from Utah, for drinks and appetizers. We sat outside on the patio at Rhapsody and I had quesadillas and pear cider, yum, while we recapped my last academic year, and talked his upcoming academic year. Peter's in a similar place to where I was last year, since he's just a) had his first major book come out (poetry), and b) just gotten his first academic job (on the beach in Rhode Island). I'm really happy and excited for him, and I'm looking forward to my just-ordered copy of his book, Cut Off the Ears of Winter arriving. Yay!

Last night, we slept with the windows open, which I love. Finally, a breeze in our bedroom again. I woke up to find that it's not yet sunny, but getting there, and there's a pleasant breeze in the room where I'm typing. I think I'm addicted to wind. It just makes me happy, even a liittle exhilarated. This is one of the reasons to love motorcycles, even though I'm too prudent these days to actually try to learn to ride one. :-)

Before I do my grading, I'm going to make a cup of tea, go up and check on the garden, water plants a little. I think my roses survived the winter, and the hydrangea is putting out green leaves. Some of the little groundcover plants are clearly still alive, and tomorrow, my new pots arrive. I'm going to have a bird bath (quite wide and moderately deep) up there. Do you think if I put little goldfish in there, they'd survive through the summer? Would birds come and eat them? I have no idea...