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| Fragment, (Old Chimney Brick) 6/28/2011 (previously posted at From my acre of the world...Tumblr site, 7/3/2011) |
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| Fragment, 6/28/2011 |
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| Fragment, 6/28/2011 |
I love the variety of colors and textures of old bricks, their surfaces eroded by time, they’re so beautiful to me. The old chimneys of our farmhouse were taken apart when we had the new roof put on the house, there were four of them originally, three were no longer in use or attached to anything and falling apart, when the last one started to lean a few years ago, we had to take it down to replace it with a nice new brick chimney…I’ve saved the old bricks, line gardens with them, their fragments fill bottoms of planters for drainage, I re-use what I can…occasionally, I’ll find a chunk or two under a bush or tucked in the weeds, it’s a mystery to me how these things travel, but they do get around the acre…
I've been working my way through the final chapters of
Drinking from the Fishbowl, plagued by self-doubts while not working on it and then perfectly happy with it while I am...typical, nothing new. I've become snagged on the last chapter, have practically re-written it in the places that needed work and suddenly what was once a fragment of a thought took on a life of its own, and I'm on the fence about cutting out original material, which is still valid, but does it belong to this chapter any more? If I cut it out, will I miss it? It's funny how I've cut this book to ribbons over the years, and cringed at cutting things that I fear that I will miss, only to find that no, I don't (maybe the more recent cuts made last Fall I still look for.) Originally, it was my plan to have this book ready by Fall 2011 to publish, but it's not looking likely, after this latest go around, I've made up my mind to set it aside for a month or two, work on something else...(so she sez)...or I could start over and get back into the thick of it while it's still fresh in my mind and I think I know what I want to do (cutting more from it!) But...but...but... ugh, I can make myself go crazy fussing over it. I've been taking it slow with this one, it's size has always been a troubling factor...it's currently hovering at about 525 pages (standard ms double spaced, 12 point), where before it was closer to 800 than it was necessary, so I've taken it in hand and compacted it to a more manageable size, but still, it is a handful.
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| Layers, 7/3/2011 (posted on From my acre of the world...) |
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| A hungry caterpillar, 7/3/2011 |
The acre has been busy with life, things growing and little barn swallow peas fresh from their pods lined up on the power line leading to the garage, learning to fly, growing their swallowtails...lots of flutter-bys, and the baby crows, although fledged and as big as their parents are still fussing and demanding, whiny little things! (Pitiful baby cries.) The Pileated woodpecker loves our half-dead tree on the corner of the back driveway entrance, I watched him this morning hammering away, throwing wood chips around (for once he didn't take off when I came along with Max!) Poor Max was having wood chips fall onto his back while he sniffed the bushes under the tree. Unfortunately, I never have my camera with me when the big bird is around, one of these days I'll get a photo...well, shoot, I thought I had more photos of the garden, but I guess I haven't downloaded them yet...another post for another time...
A few hours later...I just finished re-reading the last chapter of Drinking from the Fishbowl and after a few adjustments, a cut and paste from here to there, I think it's done . I'll read it again in a few days to let the dust settle...but I believe it's how it should be- oh happy day!.
