Making Excuses and Giving Directions

I'm actually working hard this weekend spitting and polishing, so while I have my next post in mind, I'm saving it for now.

Instead, I'll direct you to Meanderings and Muses where Kaye Barley graciously requested I 'guestblog'. Check out my post there and read some of the other guests' posts as well as those Kaye wrote.

Enjoy yourselves, and I'll have my new post here soon.

Lookee What I Got: Fabulous Blog Award!!!

Now, you just never know what’s going to happen in cyberspace. Kaye Barley of Meanderings and Muses has just awarded me a Fabulous Blog Award! Considering how much I respect Kaye’s taste and discernment when it comes to good writing, this is indeed an honor.

Kaye is known at Blackwater as “my-friend-Kaye-in-Boone-whom-I-haven’t-met-yet”, a status I hope to change as one of our girls goes to Appalachian State next year. Anyway, Kaye was always a frequent poster on DorothyL (a LISTSERV of mystery lovers – writers and readers alike, named after Dorothy L. Sayers). I loved what she had to say and how she said it. But I never knew where Boone was. Until we moved from Tennessee to North Carolina and I saw road signs for it.

When Kelsey was getting ready to apply to App State, I screwed up my courage (having never done this before) and emailed Kaye to ask her for some information about the college. Her reply was so warm and gracious and welcoming! A friendship was born. When Kaye wrote her first piece about Bouchercon, I was among those who urged her to start her own blog, and the rest is her-story.

There is just something about Kaye that makes her near and dear to your heart, no matter how far apart you are, or if you’ve never even met her. And that quality comes through in her writing. It makes you just want to sit down and listen to her ‘chat’. She reminds me of Fannie Flagg, actually, but maybe a little softer around the literary edges.

Anyway, this all goes to say that I value this honor and I’ll try to pass it on properly. For that is a requirement for accepting this award. And there are a few more. You must pass it on to 5 other Fabulous Bloggers in a post. (You might find their email addresses on their Profile page or, if not available, post as a "Comment" to their latest post.).

You must include the person that gave you the award, and link it back to them. You must list 5 of your Fabulous Addictions in the post. You must copy and paste these rules in the post. Right click the award icon & save to your computer then post with your own awards. This is not only a nice tribute to the blogger, it widens the reading audience.

Well, like many others, I hate limiting this to 5, but you can always check my sidebar for other blogs I enjoy. Here are my picks for the Fabulous Blog Award.

1) BEYOND Understanding

2) BookEnds, LLC – a Literary Agency

3) Editorial Anonymous

4) Cake Wrecks

5) Poe’s Deadly Daughters


5 of my Fabulous Addictions? Family, technology, music, reading, renovating. (Writing and chocolate go without saying, right?)

Kudos to all the Fabulous Bloggers out there!

There's Wildlife Again

It's spring, and the wildlife is at it again. That is to say, it's resurfacing.

Today, resting on the logs that we are just going to have to move, were not 2 or 3 or 4 but 5 turtles! Three brave souls let me get close before they dropped off into the water. And I was so busy concentrating on not scaring the turtles, and on holding the dogs back so they wouldn't scare them either, that I was totally unaware as we turned toward the lagoon. Up flew the ducks we've been trying to track!

We seem to have a pair (or more) of either green-winged teals or wood ducks that are trying to make up their minds whether or not to set up housekeeping in our back yard. They might, if we don't scare them off. We've seen the wood ducks at least three times. And we've heard what we think are the green-winged teals whistling, especially at night. We're hoping something will decide we're not going to bother them and will take up residence.

Tonight we heard the teals, and also an owl. The bats have also been out, and some little bird keeps rustling through the leaves along the creek. Once the water clears up, I'm sure we'll find the fish are back, too.

This year I hope we will also create a little wild life in the backyard ourselves, as the teens invite their friends over and we invite ours, too. There's been talk of a block party, and maybe this year some family will get to visit. Aah yes. A new spring at Blackwater -- and isn't it great we've got that name to ourselves now!