Writing Children's Books is one hell of a job and I am sure J.K, Rowlings knew that all too well. Still she managed to write Harry Potter with a small child on her lap or perhaps in the crib next to her when the kid was asleep.
There are days, when it flows really nicely and inspiration is on my side. Some days, however, are dreadful and uninspiring. Those are the days when I am desperatly on the lookout for a Muse helping me to get the flow going.
I guess every writer has the same problem and I am really writing this to test the new Amazon quick link widget.
Guess I could use Organic Gardening as a guineapig, but hey who cares...as long as it works.
Well, let's have a look at it now and see if the widgets link to Amazon. If they do I will be very proud of myself;-)))))
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Visit to Meadow Farm
Earlier in my blog I mentioned that I would find great things to do in Richmond and than write about it so other people (if anyone should ever read this!!) can go and see them as well.
Meadow Farm is one of those places and I learned about it from my friend Martina who had been there many times and it seems so had everyone else. It was just me who did not know about it. So much for discovering Richmond. Well, it looked like I had some catching up to do and therefore went there two days in a row!!! On the second day, Sunday, I took my boys and we took a TOUR of the place. The tour consisted of walking from chicken pen to sheep pen to pig pen and of course horsy paddock and not to forget the vegetable garden, which looked more like a barren wasteland. Andi our guide still managed to find some hardy herbs and gave us great tips of how to prevent mice from entering your house by planting rosemary and lavender close to wherever the cute rodents have their little doors. Might just try that with our permanent house guest who refuses to eat the yummie stuff we put into the traps.
Andi also introduced us to Frosty the lamb, which was hand raised as it had been rejected by its mom. Needless to say the lamb is looking well and will go nicely with the home grown rosemary when the time has come;-)
We where also able to admire a praying mantis nest, which really looked like a dried up leaf, but according to Andi housed about 20 of the lovely creatures. On our tour, we where joined by another family and Finley quickly made friends with the two girls. He borrowed the youngest one's stroller and had a ball pushing it through the farm yard. Steve put a Rugby ball in it to remind him that he is actually a boy;-)))
Meadow farm has largely been keept as it was in 1860 and the aniamals and plants all derive from those days. This does not sound right!! The animals and plants are not really that old, they had of course fathers and mothers and grannnies and great great...bla, bla bla...!!!
Nice place for kids and I bet really great in the summer when they do all kinds of courses and lessons and people can help shear the sheep, every Saturday in April if I remember correctly.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Why I didn't make it to the Super Bowl party!!!
You just know it is still very early in the morning when your bedroom is pretty dark and there is no noise outside apart from maybe a confused finch or sparrow. The streets are quiet, because it is Sunday and everyone is sleeping...everyone apart from my husband!! And I know this, because of that hand, creeping across our King Size Bed (reason for having such a thing is so he cannot reach me unless having to really make an effort:-)))) starting to poke me , probably with the intention of getting me aroused. AT 6 IN THE MORNING...you've got to be kidding me!!!!
Of course I pretend to be fast asleep...even snore a little - for dramatic effect. Not working. I snore a little louder. Still not working. Now I get angry and tell him to f... off.
Anyway, I really don't want to go into any more details as this is already quite bold. However, this is by no means the end of it. As I try to find a way back into my lovely dreams, Finley starts crying. Well, it was no real crying, but annoying enough to end my Sunday sleep in once and for all!!!
So I drag myself out of bed and turn the TV on. No Dora, damn! I guess she is still sleeping??? Luckily there is other stuff on. Of course there is...this is bloody America. There is no test picture after the nine o clock news like there was in Austria (at least when I was little), here we have round the clock cartoons...yippie!!
I proceed to make our favorite breakfast, porridge, which at 6.30 am tastes exactly like it looks. No...I meant cardbord;-))
Now, with Finley watching...stuff and both of us finished with breakfast, what next? I, of course, need watching cartoons like a hole in the head and decide to make a carrot cake. What else can you do on a Sunday morning with a five kilo bag of carrots? I don't know what posessed me when I bought that!!! Hoping the noise of the machine will wake Steve, I start to grate about 20 cups up carrots, 3 of which are required for the recipe. In the end I use about 5 cups for the cake. Needless to say - it is very, very moist!!! It was in fact so moist that I thought it was still raw when I tasted it at lunch time..perhaps it was a little. Steve's fault! He was in charge of taking it out of the oven, because I went back to bed.
Right, I went back to bed and so did Finley. We both had like a full day's work behind us and where ready for a nap.
And so I crawl back into bed, sinking deep into my lovely foam matress. There was a lot of catching up to be done. Half way into dreamy land, I get hit by a sledge hammer. I could almost see our next door neighbour standing on the other side of my bedroom wall holding the biggest hammer above his head...big develish grin from ear to ear!! Why, why do people not honor Sundays...God did, or did he not say: 'Hey guys, we have been working really hard...renovating this place. We did all that plumming and drilling and lots of other noisy and nasty things that drove Ingrid crazy all week long. Hey, lets have a break and not work on Sunday!!!!!'
No!!! Of course not!! We work on Sunday too, and make sure Ingrid does not get anymore sleep.
Well there you go. No more sleep for me. Finley, however, who does not have any problems sleeping trough sledge hammers during day time, but wakes up every time I tiptoe past his bedroom door at night, got his pre lunch nap.
After that we all decided we needed some fresh air and drove out to meadow farm where we looked at...a whole lot of stuff and animals. It was really nice, but I was too tired to fully appreciate it and therefore there will be no further mention of the farm until tomorrow, after I had some sleep and remember all the things Andi (the guide) told us.
And there you have it...my mini diatribe on why I did not make the Super Bowl Party!! I feel so much better now and I really hope the Americans win;-)))))
Of course I pretend to be fast asleep...even snore a little - for dramatic effect. Not working. I snore a little louder. Still not working. Now I get angry and tell him to f... off.
Anyway, I really don't want to go into any more details as this is already quite bold. However, this is by no means the end of it. As I try to find a way back into my lovely dreams, Finley starts crying. Well, it was no real crying, but annoying enough to end my Sunday sleep in once and for all!!!
So I drag myself out of bed and turn the TV on. No Dora, damn! I guess she is still sleeping??? Luckily there is other stuff on. Of course there is...this is bloody America. There is no test picture after the nine o clock news like there was in Austria (at least when I was little), here we have round the clock cartoons...yippie!!
I proceed to make our favorite breakfast, porridge, which at 6.30 am tastes exactly like it looks. No...I meant cardbord;-))
Now, with Finley watching...stuff and both of us finished with breakfast, what next? I, of course, need watching cartoons like a hole in the head and decide to make a carrot cake. What else can you do on a Sunday morning with a five kilo bag of carrots? I don't know what posessed me when I bought that!!! Hoping the noise of the machine will wake Steve, I start to grate about 20 cups up carrots, 3 of which are required for the recipe. In the end I use about 5 cups for the cake. Needless to say - it is very, very moist!!! It was in fact so moist that I thought it was still raw when I tasted it at lunch time..perhaps it was a little. Steve's fault! He was in charge of taking it out of the oven, because I went back to bed.
Right, I went back to bed and so did Finley. We both had like a full day's work behind us and where ready for a nap.
And so I crawl back into bed, sinking deep into my lovely foam matress. There was a lot of catching up to be done. Half way into dreamy land, I get hit by a sledge hammer. I could almost see our next door neighbour standing on the other side of my bedroom wall holding the biggest hammer above his head...big develish grin from ear to ear!! Why, why do people not honor Sundays...God did, or did he not say: 'Hey guys, we have been working really hard...renovating this place. We did all that plumming and drilling and lots of other noisy and nasty things that drove Ingrid crazy all week long. Hey, lets have a break and not work on Sunday!!!!!'
No!!! Of course not!! We work on Sunday too, and make sure Ingrid does not get anymore sleep.
Well there you go. No more sleep for me. Finley, however, who does not have any problems sleeping trough sledge hammers during day time, but wakes up every time I tiptoe past his bedroom door at night, got his pre lunch nap.
After that we all decided we needed some fresh air and drove out to meadow farm where we looked at...a whole lot of stuff and animals. It was really nice, but I was too tired to fully appreciate it and therefore there will be no further mention of the farm until tomorrow, after I had some sleep and remember all the things Andi (the guide) told us.
And there you have it...my mini diatribe on why I did not make the Super Bowl Party!! I feel so much better now and I really hope the Americans win;-)))))
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