You can see so much of a person by looking into their eyes. The same goes with horses. This beautiful eye belongs to a horse friend called Cowboy…widely misunderstood by many and loved by just as many who’ve looked into his one blue eye and were captured by his spell.
Coming home in the dark, it is so welcoming to see Christmas lights on the house and on the little apple tree out the window where I write. I finally remembered to take a photo of my beautiful greeter and share it with you. The wind blows here so much of the time and when it is still and quiet, it really makes me sit up and wonder what is missing. Tonight is one of those very still nights stretching out with so much possibility–“every little wish and every little dream has a chance of coming true..”
You can find me in Longmont, Colorado this evening at my first book signing! I’ll be reading some selections from Windows in the Loft and there’ll be cookies! I’ll see some of you there. 🙂 Details of the event are on my Facebook page.
Twenty-one years ago today, around 5:06AM, I received an incredible gift of life in a newborn baby boy. Happy birthday Alex.
Now…putting up the Christmas tree was somewhat precarious as I did not trim enough of the lower branches off. 🙂 It managed to stay upright all night with the lights casting a beautiful colorful glow on us. It fell over this morning. My trusty Leatherman took care of those pesky branches and it is upright again and much more stable. It looks nothing like this tree, but I love the perspective and it was taken by that same Alex.
Boy is it cold! Twelve below this morning and all the way up to six below when I fed the bulls. Many of you know how much I love antique tractors and use my 1949 Minneapolis Moline ZA to feed…it did not want to start this morning and who could blame it? The bulls and the horses very much appreciated their hay and I appreciated a lot of hot coffee. Yes, that is ice build up around my face!
There is just so much beauty in the land. Right now, everything has a creamy tint even though most everything is brown. When the sun hits the grasses, they glow. Putting up lights on one of our little apple trees outside the window where I write, not only shines with the beautiful blues, greens and reds, but casts a glow all around the tree like a halo. I can’t stop looking at it and breathing in the peace it brings. I’ll try to capture a photo when it gets dark tonight. Meantime, here are some lonely corn stalks in need of their own lights!
Thankful seems to be the word of the week, and I am . I’m thankful for: blue skies, sunshine, prairie grasses waving in the wind, bulls bellowing for their breakfast, horses looking for treats, wash machines that do the work of keeping clothes clean, family and friends, inspiration, that had to be God moments, two legs that can run, love in my life, students to teach, each and every breath that I get to breathe, and, whipped cream in a can!
Here’s a photo for you for the holiday:
What writer isn’t inspired by their everyday world? I can see my characters walking and talking right outside my windows. When I ride, so do they; sometimes it feels kind of crowded here.
Steel gray is the only way to describe the sky this morning. The sun was scheduled to come up, but the clouds never got the memo to clear out. I love mornings like this though; there is something so peaceful in the stillness. I think one of the greatest parts of being a writer is that you can give your characters qualities that you’d like to have yourself and somehow you end up learning from them. This is weird because you were the one who wrote them into existence.
This photo captures the mountain kind of steel gray. I took it on a mountain pack trip.
Woke up in the middle of the night to winter. I knew that north wind was not going to be pleasant to run in. If I force myself out of bed in the dark to run, should I not also give my characters the same kind of grit?
 | Mary Deatherage on What My Soul Misses |
 | Kathy Cordes on What My Soul Misses |
| Kathy Cordes on The Outhouse |
 | Michael Moore on The Outhouse |
| Michael Moore on Grandpa’s House |
Sally Gerard 