Book Giveaway: Thirty Minutes over Oregon

Sounds like an excellent read!

Writing and Illustrating

Author Marc Tyler Nobleman has new picture book titled,THIRTY MINUTES OVER OREGON. It is illustrated by Melissa Iwai. It hit bookshelves yesterday. Marc has agreed to share a book with one lucky winner. All you have to do to get in the running is to leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Just let me know the other things you do to share the good news, so I can put in the right amount of tickets in my basket for you.

Sharing on Facebook, Twitter, reblogging really helps spread the word for a new book. Thanks for helping Marc and Melissa!

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

In this important and moving true story of reconciliation after war, beautifully illustrated in watercolor, a Japanese pilot bombs the continental U.S. during WWII—the only enemy ever to do so—and comes back 20 years…

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I know I’ve been absent lately

But I have good reasons…mostly involving writing and being forgetful. 🙂 And I will probably be even busier on the writing front (or the marketing front) because of this:

All ready for a vacation…from social media!

Social media is much like school: there are so many relationship intricacies and nuanced interactions to sort through and master; too much time is spent building a good image of yourself (or at least an image that you want to project to the world about yourself); and there are vast amounts of information to read and be tested on, though grades on social media are not lettered (unless you count the letters in the names people might call you).

So, just like with school, it’s good to take an extended break once or twice a year…a summer or winter vacation, or both.

Me, I plan to spend quality time with my 50-pound pail of coconut oil trying out new soap recipes during my July break-from-social-media.

See y’all in August (maybe…unless I enjoy vacation too much)

Note to self: stick with the 25 lbs buckets next time; I have the arm strength of an 8 year old and 50 pounds is almost 50% of my body weight…

How does the garden grow? June 2018 edition

This pictorial garden tour is specifically for my friend Pamela C. who loves to teach young children about the joys of growing their own food.

The driveway leads down from the house to the main road. We come first to the greenhouse where the cucumbers grow wild and the tomatoes are getting to be a decent size.

Behind the greenhouse is the “north garden” which was bigger but hubby has since decreased its size. Then we look into the “main garden” which has 27 approximately 10’x3′ beds. See the gorgeous grapes growing on the fencing?

There are lots of volunteer veggies that have sprung up on the paths. Hubby tends to leave them so we can harvest extra stuff.

We’ve already had a number of eggplants. They are SO good!

The panoramic photo of the “main garden” doesn’t do it justice.

The long curved bed is the “south garden.” Hubby usually grows things in there that take up a lot of space, like various squashes and melons. He’s also planted corn there and this year, he has tomatoes in the fenced part, too.

The apple trees have a blight and aren’t looking so great this year. But that’s how it goes. I don’t know that we’ll get a ton of peaches like we did last year either. They usually go in cycles of productivity.

So there ya have it! That’s how we grow much of our own vegetables…enough for the summer and enough to can/freeze/dry a bunch more for the winter.

Pro tip: the secret to keeping down the weeding work is lots and lots of mulch (hubby uses grass clippings for his mulch…free resource)

Bye, bye, birdies (or £*@€ those raccoons)

On top of all the horrific things happening in the world, raccoons killed two of our chickens last night. One of them was Bulgaria, my favorite. I’ll miss her zen personality.

This is a photo of Son1 holding her. She had a habit of lying still on your palm like she was a piece of rock. You didn’t have to restrain her.

The other hen was Scrawny. I didn’t know her well but I’ll miss her eggs  😬

#100dayproject a gift from the sea

Day 14…picking up like I hadn’t left it for over a week. *sheepish grin*. This is another dual purpose piece, done to celebrate the birthdays of Facebook friends. And it’s not even #MerMay anymore.

#100dayproject day 13 bears and squirrels and drawings, oh my!

This is a testament to how bad my internet (Wildblue/Exede….but really all satellite internet) is. I’ve been trying since 8:30pm yesterday to post this picture. Much to do about a little doodle.

 

 

Still life with yarn

When you’re trying to finish up yarn and don’t know know much is left in the ball, you might end up with anklets instead of mid-calf socks. Still cute though and I love my own knitted socks.

#100dayproject Day 12 Memorial Day

I started sketching a cat but then decided to commemorate the day. Painted with Inktense blocks on 5.5” x 8” Strathmore Visual Journal

 

#100dayproject day 11 #mermay unintentionally

I wasn’t going to draw another mermaid and I wasn’t going to spend as much time (all freaking morning) on it as I did (and neglected my writing and exercise). But there ya have it. She wanted to be drawn.