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.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Spring time...


Shadow and Light, in the old horse barn
Spring is here - yet there is still snow in the air. The violets and colts foot are just now bravely putting out their little faces from underneath the debris of a previous year. The squill is making the grass in one corner of the acre turn blue as the sun peeks out from behind the shreds of clouds and coaxes them to open their little buds that had shut tight for the night...the ground is soggy from Friday's storm, there are twigs on the ground - I have entertained the notion to go around with the wheel barrow to collect them, but then remember that my lower back filed a formal complaint on Friday morning after I spent time in the dentist's chair for a new crown (being in a dentist's chair three times in the last two weeks is a bit much - I joked with the kindly assistant that I'd rather be at the gynecologist, unfortunately, I wasn't in a position to see her face when she quietly replied with her agreement.)
Deer Skull




Springtime and old barns

My slow progress with editing Drinking from the Fishbowl is what it is...methodical. I'm on chapter 23, working backwards, paragraph by paragraph, not necessarily catching grammatical missteps, but tackling where my brutal editing from before had carved out canyons of empty places - Georgia is currently having a revealing conversation with her mother-in-law that is now so vastly improved, that Quinn Muldoon's small role is now as it should be...I'm happy. I'm beginning to feel like Donna Tartt, taking 10 years or so to finish a manuscript. (I'm looking forward to picking up her new release this fall!)

The Little Monster, in his cute phase (it didn't last long!)


We've acquired another cat a month ago, his name is The Little Monster, and he truly lives up to that name. He's a TNR (Trap n' Release) that imposed himself on us during a raw weather spell, and then I got bit while feeding him, so we had to quarantine him for 10 days, and he's been in our bathroom living in a large, comfortable cage ever since. We think his neutering was recent, he acquired all the tomcat features and attitude, so he might be awhile working out all that testosterone in his system...I've read it can take up to two months before we'll notice a change in his aggressive behavior. Since we brought him inside and started the TLC with hefty doses of PATIENCE, he's slowly becoming a "good kitty". He's unpredictable. Sweet and purring one minute, then gnawing on the nearest appendages with a twitch of his restless tail. He's cute, but not so cute, we're concerned that he might not get on well with our resident boy cats who are all neutered and sweet...if he doesn't adjust and get along, we'll have to find a special forever home for him with someone we can trust.
Rusty Remains

I'm getting to know my new camera (SONY NEX 7) that I bought with money made from the sale of my paintings to ProLiteracy. Gosh it's nice...tho' I'm annoyed with myself that I need to wear my reading glasses to see if I have the image in focus...(naturally, I tried to blame the camera for the blurry photos.) Dang it takes some mighty pretty pictures. It's shocking how many images I can accumulate just walking around my acre. I still try to post an image daily on my Tumblr site http://laurajwryan.tumblr.com/ 

Frost on Last Year's Debris

March Ice

Shadows and Light, concrete

I'm still traveling back n' forth to my parent's house to clear it out, it's taking forever, but slowly things are dispersing, AND I KEEP FINDING MORE PHOTOGRAPHS! I've been spending time in our father's darkroom clearing out and organizing all of the bits of this and that, packing up things to keep, throwing out what needs to go. I expect to make one major move of larger items.

A tin-type photo of an unidentified relative with an amazing ruffle of chin whiskers - I think he's from Mom's side of the family, likely Gram VanDusen's side of the line (Brewer/Farnsworth/Woodworth?)

Questions come up such as: "What does one do with baby teeth?" I haven't found mine yet to know.

Would it be weird to keep my father's old bridge? (Just sentimental reasons.)

How the devil will we get that pink upright piano out of the cellar? (How did they get it down there in the first place?)

Yes, I did say it is pink. Painted pink, somewhat faded over time. It was once a player piano.

Another question - who in their right mind would paint a piano pink - and why - why - why - why - why (so many questions that fail to have answers - it makes my head hurt.) Before we move it - I'm going to photograph the shit out of it.

None of these questions need to be answered - I'm just sticking them out there just because...dealing with the past is just fascinating at times.