Update #4 - June 2025

 I've only made modest progress on chapter 28, partly due to very hot weather over the weekend, partly due to other distractions in the news. I have some chunks of the chapter, and have to keep stitching them together. I also have to figure out how to set up something that happens in chapter 29. Onward...

The hot weather hasn't hurt the tomatoes et al, I just had to run sprinklers three days as well as the morning watering round. Three of them have little tomatoes which are getting ripe, but these are ones that had already set on some of the tomatoes before I got them. The zucchinis are blooming, but it would help if they could have male and female flowers at the same time. I continue my morning battle with the bean-eating slugs. And I found the first Japanese beetle on the last pink rose. They'll be on the repeat blooming David Austin roses soon. Summer in the garden...

Update #3 - June 2025

 I finished tinkering with chapter 27 over the weekend, and started chapter 28, although I haven't got very far yet. I should make more progress today and tomorrow, when it will be too hot to do anything outside. Then there'll be another pause Saturday, when we will be celebrating Midsummer/Summer Solstice. I've also been thinking about what needs to happen in chapter 29, when Gwernin et al leave the Lughnasadh Oenach at Tailtiu and return to Bru na Boinne. After that, chapter 30 will take them to the Well of Wisdom and some surprises, and chapter 31 will take Gwernin home.

We're getting a hot weekend for Midsummer - expected highs around 100 F. I'll be up around sunrise every morning for slug patrol and a watering round, followed later in the day by sprinklers. Happily things should be better for a while after Sunday. The zucchinis are blooming - male flowers today, but they'll be setting soon - and the tomato plants are doing well. I usually start getting ripe tomatoes by late July, and hope to have enough to can some this year. 

Update #2 - June 2025

More good writing progress -- chapter 27 is done, bar a little tinkering. It deals mostly with Druidic initiations for Neirin and Mael, based loosely on Gwernin's initiation in The Fallen Stones. The next chapter will take Gwernin et al to Tailtiu for the Lughnasadh Óenach. This may put Fráechán in danger, since King Díarmait is likely to be there, but it's his idea to go. I'll get to that sometime in the next few days, after I clean up chapter 27.

Our cool rainy weather is over, and we're about to get some heat for Midsummer. The tomatoes will like it anyway. My biggest gardening problem now (aside from needing to do some mowing in the back yard) is the slugs which keep eating the beans. I need to put out fresh beer for them tonight, in hopes of catching more of them (slugs, not beans!).

Update #1 - June 2025

 Better progress - I finally finished chapter 26, and am almost halfway through chapter 27. This takes us back to Sliabh na Calli, where Fráechán will be leading Neirin and Mael through a Druidic initiation much like the one Gwernin had in The Fallen Stones. I now have a good idea of what will be in the next 3 chapters after this one, but not the last (chapter 31) when Gwernin gets home. We'll see what happens when we get there.

Last weekend was pretty warm - T shirt and shorts weather for the first time this year - but since then it's been cool again, with thunderstorms or at least showers almost every evening. The vegetation loves it, but Ruay cat is less impressed. It does give me an excuse to do more writing and less yard work!

 😀