Friday...

Conditions here are drifting back toward seasonal normal now. A lot of the snow has melted, but by no means all:



Back to writing...

-GRG

Saturday...

Been a busy week, more with the garden than with the book. New pictures presently - just wanted to say "I'm still here!" We might have snow Wednesday...

-GRG

Monday...

Hmm, running late today and it looks like I forgot Friday. Ah well, still here, busy, etc. Weather is changing - high around 50 F day, currently 42 F and partly cloudy, so I'm expecting a hard freeze tonight, which should take care of most of the rest of the garden - everything but the beans is already harvested anyway.

No additional writing the last two days but I spent some time yesterday and this morning researching what was actually going on in Roman Britain during late 1st century CE - actually fits in pretty well with what I've written so far. Time to get some more forward progress now on the story...

This lot's from last week:



Back to work...

-GRG

Wednesday...

More writing, more gardening, more fine autumn weather - nothing much different. Roses are still putting on a fine show:



Word count on the new book is now 24,247 words. I'm still arguing with myself about the title, but in the meantime here's a cover mock-up I'm using on LibraryThing:



The stone circle is Drom Beg in Ireland.

-GRG

Monday...

After two nights of mild frost, the vegetable garden is pretty much done for the year. I haven't harvested the last of the beans yet, and the potatoes and jerusalem artichokes are still to come (I'll dig them after we have a killing frost), but otherwise it's a time to admire the rowan berries and the remaining roses and asters, and start the last clean-up. Cadfael rose:



and Glamis Castle rose:



Still plugging along on the new book. Word count's up to almost 22,000 now. As I mentioned on LibraryThing, I've posted a teaser for comments.

Back to work...

-GRG

Friday...

A touch of frost last night. I was expecting it, and harvested most of the rest of my vulnerable crops (peppers, eggplant, squash, tomatoes, basil, and the last cucumber). Not much damage that I can see so far except to the zucchini leaves, but the next few nights are supposed to be colder. Still haven't picked all the beans - we'll see how that goes.



Writing continues to go well. I'm up to 19,000 words now - about 50 pages. Steady does it, or as the Welsh proverb has it, "contestant tapping cracks the stone."

-GRG

Wednesday...

Autumn color is starting to develop on some of the trees, especially the ash trees, and on the Virginia creeper. Garden harvest is coming to an end, with possible frost this weekend. Weather's finally cooling down a bit, too, which is welcome.



I'm still knocking out 1,000+ words a day on the new book most days. Yesterday was a bit of a strain, because Welsh classes started again, which meant I had to write in the afternoon instead of my preferred evening slot (when there are less distractions, such as lawn mowers, weed whackers, etc.). Still, I managed it. I'm amazed at how smoothly it's going - it's just a matter of pushing myself to turn in that regular 1,000 words. And some sections are more tiring to write than others.

Back to work!

-GRG

Monday...

The asters are at their peak bloom now, and the bees are going crazy. I have to remember to water them early, before they fully open, so I don't disturb so many bees.



We were busy Saturday with ADF at Front Range Pagan Pride, and Sunday I was writing. Still good progress on the new book. In fact, I'm going to go work on it now...

-GRG

Wednesday...

Wednesday already! I've been busy with the book the last couple of days - over 1,000 words a day, which is fast for me. Now if I can just keep it up... Weather's still warm - too warm for this time of year, though not setting records. I picked the three remaining ripe pumpkins today lest the squirrels get them; the three younger ones are changing color, so may have time to ripen fully if the weather holds.



Back to work now...

-GRG

Monday...

The new book is coming along slowly. Title still seems to be a bit uncertain - I may use something other than "The Druid's Son" after all, and leave that one for Gwernin... Got a little writing done over the weekend, in and around other things.

The finches are busy with the sunflower seeds now, but one took a little time out yesterday to take a bath:



Weather's still warm and dry - I actually am getting zucchini again, although they're growing slower. Still, the longer before serious frost, the more beans will mature, not to mention the last three pumpkins which are only now starting to change color.

Speaking of changing, I'll be changing the template on this blog soon, but wanted to tinker with it a bit first to give people a warning - I hate going to sites which are suddenly completely different!

Back to work now...

-GRG

Friday...

An early post, since I'll be busy today. Yesterday morning we had our first frost. This is relatively late for Denver, where we often get a hard garden-destroying freeze in early September followed by another month of irritatingly mild weather. Yesterday's frost was light - I had a small amount in the coldest spot in my yard, but saw frost in some other open spaces and on roofs while I was taking my dawn walk. No damage to the garden, and I had protected the eggplant/pepper bed with plastic just in case. The reading by my back door was 34 F.

Managed to get some more writing done on the new book the last couple of evenings. I've got to get more regular about this. I don't find it easy to start a passage - rather like diving into cold water - and will do all sorts of things to put it off (like blogging!). Once written, on the other hand, editing is easy. I'm also doing this one without an outline, another departure from past practice. Things come as they come. I like the results so far.

The autumn clematis is in full bloom, and smells wonderful:



Back to work...

-GRG

Friday...

And a cool autumn morning (40 deg. F. by my back door at dawn). Lots of dew on top of last night's showers, so nice and damp - good for photography, too:



This morning I harvested my first pumpkin. It's going into the pot along with some pork and other good stuff for tomorrow's feast.

Back to work...

-GRG

Wednesday...

...and the weather is changing. It was clear at dawn, but now the clouds have moved in, and the forecast is colder and wet. No frost likely here yet, but the snow level may be down to 10,000 feet in the mountains tonight, which means Mt. Evans will have a new white hat in the morning.

I've been involved in a lot of miscellaneous activities the last couple of days, but now it's time to get back to writing. One more picture from Estes Park before I go:



Now, back to work...

-GRG

Friday...

As I noted on my LibraryThing thread a couple of days ago, something strange is currently happening with my writing: I now seem to be working on two books simultaneously! The first one, of course, is The Druid's Son, which will form the fourth book of the Storyteller Series. But the other one... well, it's a sort of prequel, not narrated by Gwernin, which forms the background to the main book. The working title for now is Son of the Fox. If this is confusing - well, I'm a bit confused myself at the moment!

On other fronts, the weather has finally settled into a seasonal normal range for Denver - much nicer than the last part of August! A couple of pictures: first, autumn-blooming clematis...



...and second, the rowan berries are getting ripe:



Back to work now...

-GRG

... and heavy frost

Just a picture for now.



-GRG

...and Wednesday...

A considerable change in the weather here - rain mixed with snow yesterday, and much colder now, with more snow forecast for tomorrow. I wish I'd had time to photograph some of the heavy frost this morning. Mae'r gaeaf wedi cyrraedd yn wir - winter has definitely arrived!

Yesterday I was amusing myself by creating another new page on this site to showcase the maps from the first Storyteller trilogy. I'd like presently to put one up with photos of some of the locations involved, too - probably selected photos with links to Flickr sets. But that's another project for this winter. In the meantime, here's one more rowan tree picture from last weekend.

Monday...

One more fine weekend before winter weather arrives, and I got a few pictures of the rowan tree:



Forecast for the next few days is for much colder weather and a chance of snow. Very overdue, but happily most of the leaves are off the trees now, so not much danger of breaking branches. The rowan is an exception, but she's flexible, which is one reason yesterday found me on a ladder trimming branches on the power line side...

Thursday is Veteran's Day and a federal holiday, so I hope to get back to writing at last. Cold nasty weather is just what I need now!

eta: I just realized I didn't have any Irish links on the Resource page, so I've added a selection of my favorites.

-GRG

...and Wednesday...

Mid-twenties in my garden this morning, with ice on all the standing water. Anything left outside will have had it. Yesterday the wind was so strong that it blew my hat off as I set out on my morning walk. Still cold and very windy today, but tomorrow should be a bit better. Time to clean up the remains of the vegetable garden and make it ready for winter. One more view of summer in the coldframe:



No writing over the weekend due to garden prep, but that cold indoor time is coming.

Monday...

A busy day at home, which unfortunately didn't include any writing. Autumn came down like a hammer this morning with a cold front which dropped the temperature 15 degrees in less than an hour. I spent a lot of the day getting the plants into the cold frame and the rosemary into the garage. Also made another batch of plum jam... autumn's here tonight.



The geraniums will come indoors in about three weeks, before the serious cold hits. In the meantime, summer's in the cold frame...

-GRG

... and Friday

I'm late today due to several things, not least that I've been doing more work on aldertreebooks.com and also giving out free e-books for my LibraryThing promotion of Flight of the Hawk. I've also just started a new e-book giveaway there for The Ash Spear.

The weather is finally changing - colder and greyer today, and likely to get more so over the next week. Time to finish rearranging the cold frame plants and reorganizing the garage so the rosemary (and eventually the geraniums in the cold frame) can come indoors for the winter. In and around this, I hope to get some writing done, too. At least I won't be tempted to spend the afternoon on the patio watching birds and drinking wine...



-GRG