Welcome to my blog Upstate Girl, (a.k.a Follow Your Bliss Part II), I am an independently published author. This blog is all about writing and the stuff that inspires me to write, the joys and obstacles that come along with the writer's life, and my fascination with the psychology of people and what makes them tick...the human condition, as is...and my love for words, playing with them and making sense of them...and I throw in a few photos from my acre of the world just to make things pretty...sometimes there are things I have no words for, only pictures will do.

*Copyright notice* All photos, writing, and artwork are mine (
© Laura J. Wellner), unless otherwise noted, please be a peach, if you'd like to use my work for a project or you just love it and must have it, message me and we'll work out the details...it's simple...JUST ASK, please.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Digital Sketchbook...


Grape Vine and Leaf, 11/25/2011
White Leaf

Grape Vines

Mock Orange Leaves

The Tangle on the Fence

Peony Leaves

Hosta Leaves

Hosta Leaf

I've been up and down, and all around...the turkey turned out perfect, the dinner was a spread of all spreads, I out-did myself again...Thanksgiving is thankfully come and gone...I'm resting quietly today, taking a load off to hopefully stay out of FMS flare-up land...this is always a "dance" that I must step lightly along and gently...trying not to set off that wretched bomb that ticks under my skin, in my connective tissues and joints, in the cartilage between my ribs, and in my head where there's something going on in the wiring of my brain that sends wayward signals or something...

Whatever...does anyone really know what Fibromyalgia is? (Other than a gianormous pain!)

I'm just damn lucky that I'm on the upside of whatever it is and I didn't have a flare-up start in the midst of all of the prep and festivities...I did all right. I can't complain...and so here I am, I'm surrounded by sleepy kitties and a snoring dog, so I'm pretty close to nap time myself...it feels good to have the option to not do a damn thing today!

Hi, Popeye! What a perky pair of ears you have!
Monday the stitches come out and the "fancy" collar goes away...we can't wait!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Post-op Popeye...


Well, our little poop-deck kitty made it through the surgery to remove his damaged eye...he's livin' it up in a high collar and good pain killers, he's got a long recovery ahead, but his quality of life is going to be so much better than what he had when he first emerged from underneath our front porch, half-starved, suffering from a terrible eye injury and infection...he would've died. I hate thinking about that reality...saving his life is priceless.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Friday...


Vacancy, 11/5/2011
 Here are a few images from my digital sketchbook...these are photos I took on November 5th when I traveled to visit my father in the nursing home, this is the Jackson Potato farm on Route 31 in the town of Tyre near the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge...it's flat land, fertile black soil that has been farmed for generations, I have always enjoyed passing through this long stretch of road, watching for migrating birds...Canadian geese, snow geese, swans, and ducks.

Dirt road going into the field

The wall

Looking in

Looking up

The Remains

The empty building

I've been bedeviled by FMS all week long...muscle spasms, aches, tingling limbs and skin, sharp, prickling pains in random places, random numbness here and there that comes and goes, dizziness, nausea, exhaustion...the usual, but unusually intense (my legs and arms are like lead, I feel like I've run a marathon)...it's been cranked up an extra notch, "turned up to eleven"...the "how come" of it can be analyzed to death, I can blame it on a dozen things from the weather, to diet, to stress, to grief, to over doing it, to not doing enough, to nothing at all since it must be all in my head...it is what it is, a flare up...they come and go no matter what I do or don't do, the damn thing happens whenever and I'm a mess, emotionally and physically...it's frustrating.

In spite of it, I go forward...tho' on occasion I allow myself "time out" when I need it...hot baths are a must!

We have officially adopted our little stray friend, Popeye, who came to us unexpectedly on October 28th...he's currently recovering from a very bad infection, and will be having surgery to remove what remains of his ruined left eye on Tuesday, November 15th...we're keeping our fingers crossed that all goes well, and he will be getting better soon!
 
Popeye, our little one eyed kitty
The picture I'm including here is from a couple of days ago, he is improving every day...the bright shiny green eye that remains is very expressive...he's a quiet, contemplative little fellow wearing yellow, loveable, and is very fond of gently head butting me in the mouth first thing in the morning (he's been living in the bathroom since his arrival.) He's been coming out to meet the other kitties for the last few days, and today, since I've been home all day feeling poorly, I let him out to roam freely, mingling and napping...he's shy and curious, the boys have become accustom to his smell through the door and have had brief, nose touching meetings, so they quietly welcomed him, and accepted him without much fuss...probably the easiest integration of a new kitty ever! I'm guessing they know on their level of awareness that he's injured and sick, so they've been on their best behavior...although a few cases of bushy tail has gone around, the boys haven't raised a paw or growled...not even a whisper of a hiss in response to any of his warnings...they've been good boys!