Update #5 - May 2025

 Still working (slowly) on chapter 26, but the end is in sight. I've figured out (mostly) how to get Mac Criomthann out of the situation he's in - just have to finish writing it. The remaining five chapters of the book should be more straightforward, at least from my point of view.

We've had rain here, and then more rain - a heavy thunderstorm Monday which gave me 2 inches, and a gentler storm last night for about another inch. I've planted eight market tomato plants, one cucumber, two zucchinis, and two basils. I also direct seeded my beans, and a couple are starting to come up. This mild, wet weather has been good for everything except the beans, which need to be a little warmer, but we'll get that soon enough. After last year's near-drought, this is welcome weather.

Update #4 - May 2025

Still working on chapter 26. The framing is fine - Gwernin et al's visit to the Oldest Man - and I finally got the general outline of the internal Mac Criomthann story. Had to think about this one for several days, and I'm still thinking about the solution to the situation I've put him in. This may be the last new Mac Criomthann piece in this book.  The next chapter will take us back to Sliabh na Cailli for a couple of initiations. 

We had a mid-30s low Monday night, but no frost. Things are warming up nicely now, and I've planted several types of tomatoes, two zucchinis, and a cucumber -- all plants I bought at the farmers markets. I didn't try and start anything indoors this year - no room under the garage lights and no safe cat-proof place in the house. However I've ordered a couple of kinds of heirloom tomato seeds which I'm not likely to find locally, so might have a go with them even though it's late. Everything has leafed out now, although I lost one rosebush to the hard winter and three more effectively came back from their roots. Oh, and I'm planting bean seeds -- I missed having them last year, and I'll bet the humming birds missed the scarlet runner blossoms too.

Update #3 - May 2025

 I'm working on chapter 26 now, which takes Gwernin et al to visit the Oldest Man who lives on the plain of Mag Slécht. We've been there three times before, once in The Fallen Stones and twice in The King's Druid, so I can recycle some of the descriptive passages. This visit is different, because Fráechán is introducing Neirin, Mael, and Ianto to him all at once, rather than one at a time, so some of the framing will also need to be different. I'm working on that now, stitching together stuff from our previous visits with new material. Once that's set up, I'll write the Mac Criomthann story which gives the chapter its name: "Mac Criomthann and the Knife of Stone." This refers to one of the forfeits Mac Criomthann paid in rescuing those who were stolen in "Mac Criomthann and the Cave of the Cats". I own such a knife myself, but he got his in a different way, and I'm curious to find out when and where he got it <grin>.

Summer is arriving cautiously. After three days in the 80s F, things have cooled down again, and I had a very slight touch of frost this morning. I want to plant some things I've gotten from the farmers' markets - so far a couple of tomato plants, a zuchini plant, and a borage plant - but I'll wait till tomorrow; I've other things to do today anyway.

Update #2 - May 2025

 I've written most of chapter 25, including the internal story "Mac Criomthann and the Robbers' Den", and will be tinkering with the rest for another day or two. The next chapter will take them to Mag Slécht to visit the Oldest Man and hear another Mac Criomthann tale. Including these, if they're ones I haven't written yet, slows me down, but they add to the main story. By the time I finish this book I'll have enough of them for another Mac Criomthann collection as well! 

After a warm weekend (and the first Farmers' Market), we had a couple of mornings of light frost, then got a lot of rain Tuesday and Wednesday in what would have been a spring blizzard if things had been a little colder. After today I think we will probably be frost-free until September, so I will start buying vegetable plants at the Farmers' Markets, not having started any of my own this year. I'm hoping for lots of tomatoes!

Update #1 - May 2025

 I've made a start on Chapter 25, which will have someone telling yet another Mac Criomthann story before Gwernin et al head on south to Emain Macha. This one answers a question left hanging from the previous chapter. I've written part of it, and need to get on with the rest. Six more chapters after this one will finish this book. The next one will be another spin-off: "Taliesin: King Arthur's Bard", and will flesh out some of the things he has told us from time to time about his early life before Gwernin met him in the first Storyteller book.

Spring has definitely arrived. The tulips are finished, the oak tree has opened its first tiny leaves, and the ash trees which took so much damage in the last hard frosts are timidly starting to leaf out again. It's also lawn mowing time. I did bits of the front yard yesterday, and need to do the back next. Not today, because we got some rain last night, but tomorrow or Saturday before the big storm which is forecast for next week. I just hope that will be all rain and no snow here - it will probably be a spring blizzard in the mountains!