Spring is springing

I still may feel like crap on toast (in fact, I feel worse today than I did yesterday which is a horrifying thought), but spring is coming. I have proof! My crocus are blooming:




Other than that, I'm doing the bare minimum of work on the computer and trying to rest. Because OY VEY I don't feel good.

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Spring in New England

First a howling blizzard woke us,
Then the rain came down to soak us,
And now before the eye can focus -
Crocus. ~Lilja Rogers

We "welcomed" a nor'easter to our neck of the woods last night. Predictions were 6 - 12" of snow. I wish I could say I was playing an April Fool's joke on you, but ... no.

This was what I was enjoying just yesterday:






And this was my yard yesterday:



I stuck the camera out the back door this morning. Here's my backyard today:



I admit, the trees are pretty when they're covered in snow:



To give you an idea of how much has fallen, check out the piles on my railing:



And it's still coming down. Whee.

How's spring in your area? Have a great weekend!

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Sorry ... another stupid quiz today. Hopefully next week's quizzes will be better!

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Spring is ... Springing

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

I can't say that spring has sprung, because it's not *quite* done doing its thing. But -- WOW -- are things warming up early this year. Two things have made it feel like spring to me.

First, check this out -- these are from the garden in front of my house:




Second, I had to pull in my bird feeders last night. NH Fish & Game report bear sightings, even in the far north, so the bird feeder raiders are awake and HUNGRY. I've never pulled them in this early. I usually wait until mid-April, though last year my feeders got nabbed early by our backyard bear.

I even worked outside, raking leaves out of my one "woods" garden because I know the daffodils are coming up and I have piles and piles of them in there. Last year, I didn't rake it out right away and the poor daffs were growing as best they could under their heavy load and when I finally raked, they were a good 3 - 4" high, but bent over and pale, pale green from no sun exposure. Poor critters. Not this year! Nope, I went out and got my first blisters of the year -- but their little nubs are exposed to the sun.

I'm even going to plant my seeds early. I'm planning on making little miniature greenhouses out of discarded milk jugs and liter bottles, and will put those over the tops of my most tender plants until it's safe to let them out into the big bad world for real.

Yeppers.... from here on out, it's gardening season. *G*

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You Are a Tiger

You are an even tempered, controlled person. You assess situations carefully. You are aggressive, but you are never out of control. You pick and choose your battles. You are rational and calm. Even if something should effect you, you don't let it. You are cool and calculating. People can rely on you, as long as they don't cross you!

What Safari Animal Are You?

LOL.. that's pretty close to correct!

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Pet Peeve #2

The world may be full of fourth-rate writers, but it's also full of fourth-rate readers. - Stan Barstow

Okay... next reading/writing pet peeve: POV breaks, or "head-hopping".

People always throw La Nora out when this comes up, so we'll just get her out of the way right now: love her or hate her, Nora Roberts IS who she is, and can write whatever she wants. Until other authors are as big as Nora, they should (IMHO) play by the POV rule.

I lurked on a group with many editors discussing this very issue once. It was about 50/50 as to whether they'd let authors head hop or not. And, things were typically ambiguous or random, stuff like, "If the POV swaps are smooth, it's okay." or "If it only happens once in a scene, it's okay." Of course, there were some who put their foot down and said: NO HEAD-HOPPING. They were my heroes.

Fact is, IMHO again, POV switches are never smooth. I always notice them. Some bug me less than others, but they don't slip under my POV purist radar.

Additionally, I think that head-hopping is just lazy on the author's part. Sometimes, it's HARD to get something across when you only stay in one character's head in a scene. It's also the reason that choosing your POV character is so important, and why when I'm struggling with a scene, I'll sometimes try to write it from the other character's POV to see if it works better.

And, no matter the argument, I firmly believe that people who DON'T care about POV switches also won't care if an author is a POV purist. BUT -- and this is important!! -- people like me who don't particularly like head-hopping? They're NOT going to like your work if you jump around POVs willy-nilly. They may have bought your work once, but they won't again. What's more, you won't get positive word-of-mouth from them.

I don't know about you, but I prefer to annoy the fewest number of people possible with my writing. I know not everyone will like what I do, but I can make an effort not to push hot buttons that I can avoid.

What do YOU think?

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I have FOUR crocus that should bloom today -- and if the rain holds off this morning, I'll post pictures. Those of you down south are probably snickering at my excitement. After all, YOUR crocus bloomed two months ago. You're probably planting your veggie gardens.

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Gratuitous pet picture -- because Breeann is seldom so undignified. She's only started doing this lately:



I think Dakota is rubbing off on her:



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