The Best of Times, the Worst of Times...

It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! ~Mark Twain

Ahhh... SPRING. How I love thee, and hate thee...

I love the colorful birds at my feeder. The goldfinches are bright yellow again, and I can look forward to the red-winged blackbirds and orioles returning.

I love green growing things and the promise they make as the begin to push up out of the thawing earth.

I love the thought of flowers and butterflies and home-grown tomatoes.

I love the bright sunshine, longer days and warm weather.

I love leaving my windows open and airing out the house.

I love being able to walk around barefoot.

...

I do NOT love the mud.

I do NOT love the black flies who are beginning to awaken. They are out now, but only the males who hatch first and do not bite. They are the advance guard, warning us their mates--their vicious, nasty, biting little mates--will arrive soon.

I do NOT love having to bring my bird feeders in at night to keep them out of the clutches of our bear.

I do NOT love ticks on the dog. My Dd has every issue known to dogdom and can't use chemical flea and tick repellents. I use an all-natural one that smells amazing, but it only repels, it does not kill, and it just isn't as effective. So, yes, Dd has already had her first embedded tick.

I do NOT love the waiting period between thaw and being able to plant. Our growing season for "tender" plants officially begins on Memorial Day.

....

Despite my love/hate relationship with the season, I wouldn't skip it for anything.

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You Are a Drawing

You appreciate things that are simple and elegant. You believe that complexity is mostly used to mask flaws. You believe that art is about leaving more to the imagination. The best art isn't overly showy or flashy. It subtly beautiful.

What Type of Art Are You?

Very true....

Many moons ago, I dated a man who was the director of a local corporate art gallery -- they had mainly modern art, which still confuses me. I went to a showing with him and brought a friend who really loved art. I can remember standing in front of an abstract with the two of them saying things like, "I see anger..." and I finally piped in and said, "I see dots."

*G*

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What About Love?

Forget love - I'd rather fall in chocolate! ~Sandra J. Dykes

I've been missing my dog, Bailey, quite a bit lately. It's been nearly a year since she crossed the rainbow bridge, and I still think about her pretty much every day. I imagine that will change with more time, but it's still pretty raw and I'm easily brought to tears by her memory.



I love my new dog, Dakota. I do... but I find myself comparing my feelings. Do I love her as much as I loved Bailey as a puppy? How much would it hurt if I lost her now? Will I ever love her as much as I loved Bailey? Will it be the same kind of love?



All this led me to think about feelings of love in general. For instance, I have a family member I love very much, but there are times I don't like her. She's difficult to be around, though I understand that has changed a bit. She can be very negative and judgemental, and for someone like me -- who already struggles with feeling low -- it makes life difficult. But I love her.

OTOH, there are other family members I love AND like. Does that mean I love them more? Or just differently?

What about romantic love? If I loved someone before my DH, but didn't marry him, does that mean I loved him less than my DH? Or just differently? Does love go away or do you always love someone?

How do you quantify or categorize love?

I'm feeling terribly philosophical today. Or maybe I just need another cup of coffee.

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I'm going to make pickles today. I have... well, a LOT of cucumbers. Lots, and lots, and lots. I gave away several, but I really like pickles and wanted to try my hand at it. We'll see how it goes. I hope it doesn't flop like my strawberry jam.

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DD gets to see a sugar glider today for her Summer Reading Program! She's so excited. We have to be there early, and we have a lot to do today, but that's okay. After all, how often do you get to see a sugar glider up close?

Exactly.

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You Would Make an Okay 1930's Wife

You have some of the attributes of an ideal 1930's wife... but you probably didn't intend it to be that way. You don't buy into retro gender roles, though you do embrace your femininity at times. A 1930's man may find you passable, but you probably wouldn't want anything to do with him.

Would You Have Been a Good Wife in the 1930s?

The Post With No Title

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
~William Shakespeare, Mid-Summer Night's Dream, 1595

Because I can't think of anything to title it, clever or otherwise...

Yesterday, I asked about falling in love with your heroes. Most folks said they did, every time. But Jen raised an interesting point when she said about her current project: My protag isn't like me and her love is for HER. He's great for her, and he'd irritate me, although there are aspects of both that I love.

That gave me pause, and made me think... after all, think of all the people you know who are madly in love with their spouses, but you couldn't begin to imagine also being in love with those men. We can't love everyone, right?

Which then leads me to wonder...when I write, are my heroines a reflection of me? Is that why I love all my heroes? Have I not taken chances with them? Have I not tried to stretch my wings and write what I don't know?

On the surface, my heroines are all different -- tall, short, red-hair, blonde, brunette, prissy, tomboys... but inside? Are they different? Do they like what I like? Think how I think? Feel what I feel?

Color me puzzled... and thinking.
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What I'm reading: Still reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. But non-fiction doesn't get to sit by itself on my nightstand. So I started Falling For You by Julie Ortolon, a book I won at Trish's blog. It's awfully cute! So far, so good...

What I'm writing: I worked on "The Hammer" -- a book I'm specifically gearing for HQ American. I read through what I've edited on "Playing House", but now...I'm stuck. I made a big plot change, and it's got me stymied. Do I take the cowards way out and change it back? Or do I struggle through?? Hmmm...

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My cat has been sneezing for three days. No discharge, her eyes are clear, her nose isn't running... just these cute little sneezes. I'm on the fence: do I or don't I take her to the vet? **sigh**

And me? I have conjunctivitis in my left eye. I kept trying to pretend I didn't... but yesterday it got to be pretty uncomfortable, and this morning, my eye is swollen and goopy. Oh. Joy. Still, being the cheapskate I am, I'm waiting until tomorrow to go to my regular doctor instead of using Urgent Care today because it's FAR more expensive, even with insurance. Hey, I've stuck it out this long...

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We lost another pillar yesterday -- this one was half-grown, and I'm not in the least bit certain why he died. OTOH, we have one pupa, one getting ready to pupate, and three that are big enough to take the long walk to butterfly-dom at any point. There are also SEVEN of the dill pillars that are close enough in size to make me nervous, so they'll get their own homes today.

Monarchs should be here in a few weeks. The milkweed is almost ready to bloom -- it smells so good when it does, and the flowers are just lovely. I can't wait!

Have a great Sunday.

Give me an H! Give me an E! Give me an A!

True love stories never have endings. ~Richard Bach

Okay folks... looks like, for the most part, romance readers are looking for the H-E-A (that's "Happily Ever After". Glad to hear it -- cuz, well, I am, too (*G*) and that's usually what I write.

Mel wrote a blog post yesterday about this, too, and I had to go comment of course. I'm stealing what I said there to post here, because I think it does affect the whole "Does the HEA work" thing.

I imagine it really is all about the execution. I didn't love "Blood Brothers" (surprisingly... cuz I'm a wicked Nora fangirl) because I didn't feel the love. Yet, a good friend of mine thought it was one of the best Nora Roberts books yet.

So, apparently, it's also about the reader. I got a review for my short story "Now That We've Found You" that said they didn't believe the characters could fall so hard so fast, and then today Charity mentioned that the ending to that particular story is one of her favorites.

::scratches head::

So, when an author says she's doing something for her readers, which readers is she talking about? Clearly, no two people think alike.

Still, in the end, it's obvious from the sales numbers that romance resonates with people and that folks are looking for some sort of HEA -- whether it's a "happy" or a "hopeful".

And, that's what I tried to get across in today's blog post.

And, now I'll shut up about it.

:-)

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It was a GORGEOUS day yesterday. I worked outside some, but would you believe it was TOO HOT to spend much time really working??? How is that possible?

Back in November, when my darling dog, Bailey, crossed the Rainbow Bridge, DH and I talked about a memorial garden for her. I had a place all picked out, and I knew I wanted to plant a dogwood tree (seemed appropriate *G*). Yesterday, I ran to our local Agway and took a look at the different dogwoods they had, and got shivers when I found the one I ultimately bought.

It was Bailey's Red Dogwood.

Yes. Really.

Give you goosebumps?

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DH bought new chairs for our deck... six plastic green ones that recline just slightly. We'd both been gone in different directions, and I got home just after he did, not realizing he'd made this new purchase and put them out on the deck. I just went in and let Dakota out of her crate.

She went tearing downstairs and then, all of sudden, she was barking up a storm! I hurried to see what the ruckus was, and lo and behold--she was standing about four feet away from the sliding glass door, barking at the chairs! Her fur was all poofed up and she sounded vicious! LOL...I laughed until I cried.

She is an endless source of amusement.

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Your Inner Child Is Scared

Like a kid, you tend to shy away from new experiences. You prefer what's tried and true - novelty is scary! New foods, new places, and new friends are difficult for you to deal with. Some say you're predictable, but you enjoy being comfortable.

How Is Your Inner Child?

Well... I wouldn't say I'm "scared", but I do agree that I like the familiar.

They Lived Happily Ever After

There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved. It is God's finger on man's shoulder. ~Charles Morgan

So.

My blog post on Tuesday about HEA's and the length of time a H/H know each other garnered some interesting responses AND a blog post from Allie.

Mostly, folks thought it was okay and believeable that characters fall in love and want to get married after a short period of time. There were a couple of folks who didn't. Some simply didn't believe lasting love could occur in a short space, some believed that it could be the START of lasting love, but not that they'd be ready to leap into marriage.

Charity brings up the idea of a "Hopefully Ever After" -- the thought that two characters can agree to try out the whole relationship thing. That they can awknowledge their mutual attraction (to body, heart and mind, IMHO... don't want to put words in poor C's mouth) and decide to date exclusively or whatever.

The question is, though, for the typical romance reader, will a HOPEFULLY ever after be enough? Will the, "I really like you. I like everything about you. Let's give this relationship thing a whirl." ending settle comfortably with them?

Truthfully, I see more and more of those types of ending occuring in romance. They appear more frequently in series, of course, since the edge of your seat "will they or won't they" feeling keeps people reading. But I've seen them in category and single title (more often in single title) as well.

Is this where romance is headed? To end, not with a real committment but an "I'll try?". That is, after all, where the real world has gone. We live together, "try" starter marriages, etc. So, is a "hopefully ever after" realistic? Absolutely.

For, me, though... I struggle with it. "Hopefully" just doesn't feed my romantic heart... it's like eating white chocolate. Sure, it's sweet... but it isn't exactly what I craved. It'll do in a pinch, I suppose, but it always leaves me wanting more.

And, that's just my two cents, FWIW.

You?

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Dakota... my little sweetheart.



She is stubborn. She is independent. She is smart.

Eventually, she will "get" what we want her to do. And when she "gets" something, she doesn't forget. From the time she was bitty, I mad her sit to get her leash on and she always does. I taught her to not rush the door, and she doesn't. So, I know she'll learn, but-- wowza-- is she STUBBORN. But I am MORE STUBBORN, and I'm the boss. So we'll get it pounded into her hard head eventually, or die trying. LOL.

A couple years ago, my SIL gave me a bag of miscellaneous bulbs, which I planted of course. I found a few blooming yesterday--does anyone know what these flowers are?



Or these:



It's just that they are lovely and bloom early and I'd love to find some more!

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You Should Drive a Green Car

You're the type of driver who sees driving as a necessary evil. You much rather be biking or taking a pleasant walk to where you're going. And because of this, you tend to be a "green driver" - as best as you can. Whether this means driving a hybrid, supporting alternative fuels, or simply not littering out your window.

What Color Car Should You Drive?

That is SO NOT ME. I love to drive. If I didn't have a husband who worried, I'd be taking cross-country road trips all the time!