The weather has been mild for this time of year, but we may get a bit of snow tomorrow night. A sort-of-white Christmas? Maybe. In the meantime all seasonal good wishes to anyone who reads this. I am hoping to get back on my writing schedule next week, but we'll see!
Still plodding through chapter 4 ("The Third Man"). Gwernin is negotiating with his wife for permission to take his older son Ianto with him on his summer travels, and Neirin is showing signs of taking over the story (he does that). It will be interesting to see what happens when they all get to Ireland, but that will be a while yet.
Winter has settled in here in Denver - a little snow the last two nights, gone by late afternoon. We'll be celebrating Midwinter Saturday. I am looking forward to the days lengthening again.
The last three days have been mild, but we should be getting snow and colder weather again tomorrow. That should be good for writing.
Finally a little writing - chapter 3 is more or less finished at last. Now things should start moving, as Gwernin and company set off on a new adventure. The first part will be similar (but not identical) to the beginning of The Ash Spear - a sort of mirror, but twelve years later, involving the initiatory ritual called "the dark path". We'll be seeing Gwernin's friend Neirin again for the first time since that book. Hopefully he won't take over the entire story line, as he is prone to do!
Most of last week's snow has melted, but not all, because the weekend was very cold. It's definitely winter now. I'm looking forward to getting out of November - it's been a month with too many losses over the years.
A cold grey morning with snow predicted tonight. The last two days were mild and sunny - what we call "the warm before the storm" - but that's over. I spent part of them doing garden stuff - planting crocus bulbs before the ground freezes, coiling a hose, giving the rosemary plants a last couple of days of outdoor sun. Now it's time to stay indoors and try to write. I have at least been considering plot and plot problems from time to time. Now it's time to put words to them.
A good friend (Elis Owens) with whom I had worked on the local Welsh language course for the last 24 years died abruptly last Thursday night. I heard about this in an email two days later, and was just beginning to recover and start to write again when my Gray cat was hit and killed by a car yesterday morning.
The combined loss is almost more than I can stand. I keep reminding myself I have 3 young cats and at least 2 more books to write. But I've never felt more suicidal in my life.
Winter is settling in, with cold nights and heavy frosts the last two days, but we're still getting mild stretches. I need to use some of the milder days to do yard work, especially plant some bulbs and repair the cold frame. Ruay caught a mouse in the yard the other day, but I took it away from him and exported it. This led me to set the live traps in the garage, and I've caught two there so far. I need to get them out now, before the population explodes like it did last year.
Winter is here. Over the last weekend, I got about 8 inches of snow, followed by overnight lows in the low teens F. A lot of the snow has melted so far, since the ground wasn't frozen, but it's still taking its time. I got all the garden tasks done beforehand; geraniums and rosemarys are in the garage, a few other freeze-tolerant plants in the cold frame. Still lots of garden cleanup to do, but no hurry now.
I've actually got some writing done this week. It took a bit of thought and re-reading of things after such a long break, but I'm hopeful of making fairly steady progress now. I've almost finished chapter 2 at last, and have been mentally grappling this morning with what comes next. The next few chapters will take Gwernin et al to Ynys Mon, where Taliesin's student Mael is going to undergo the initiatory experience called the Dark Path. Some of this I'll be cribbing from The Ash Spear, but some will be new and different. After that - Ireland again.
Our retreat is finally over, and I hope to start writing again. Certainly I made no progress for the last week though - prepping to hold it at my house had kept me very busy, and I spent most of the weekend managing the Zoom sessions. After that it took me a few days to recover. Next year we expect to be back at La Foret, with more room and facilities, and that should be easier. We will also be a week later in October - the third weekend rather than the second, in part to avoid some conflicts which developed this year. Since we'll be so close to Samhain, I'm hoping our overall topic will have some aspect of that season.
Before next Wednesday I'll also have some end of the season garden work to do as well. We've had several light frosts, but things are about to get colder, so it's time to move the sensitive plants into the garage for the winter and harvest the rest of the beans.
On with the work!
