I can’t start this by saying I’ve been busy. Or at least, not busy in the sense of being out and being social, though there have been trickles of social events, even if they don’t look like they did in the past.
Mardi Gras was a blast and I had zero hangovers (I’ve only been drunk once this year and it was the night my grandmother died, so there’s that). It was all about being with my friends and loving this city. I walked way too much and paid for it for days after with agonizing pain. That seems to be the way of things lately. Chronic pain that is scarcely touched by the meds I’m on, and I imagine that anything more would put me into opioid territory and I don’t want that. However, I did push myself this past weekend by running the last race I had signed up for early last year when I was still optimistic physical therapy was going to “cure” me. Alas. It was a beautiful run despite continuing to pay for it in pain days later.
Otherwise, all my energy of late has been going into my novel, including reading books on some of the subject matter and a book on novel structure. That really helped me break down where all the action is happening in my story and is pushing me closer to inserting scenes where they belong and really tying my characters together. However, as I’ve started writing index cards detailing each character, I’m regretting choosing an ensemble cast as opposed to two leads and the rest barely fleshed out bit parts. It’s a lot of moving parts to fit together. So any words I’ve had, I throw there.
I’ve finished up a bunch of interior projects on my home, and I’ve planted some bushes and a tree in my yard, which was a blank slate that I’ve spent 2 years planning. If I keep everything alive through to the autumn, I’ll be planting irises and roses then. I’m fighting thrips on my jalapeños and fungus that appears to have originated from the fertilizer I added to a number of my plants but I’m fighting both with neem oil. Hoping everything gets healthier, though I have lots of new growth on my jalapeños. I even managed to get a few blooms on my venus fly trap, whose name is Solitude. Everyone names their plants, right? The jalapeño is named Matilda. My newly planted Meyer lemon tree is Molly and the American beautyberry is Sophia. Sophia has unfurled loads of leaves since planting and even my new gardenias, Gertrude and Gladys, have new growth. We’ve been getting a little rain lately, which is helping them all settle in. It’ll be at least two years until I get a good lemon harvest to make endless amounts of lemon curd, preserved lemons, lemon garlands, etc. but in the meantime, I think I’ll get a decent beautyberry harvest this autumn so I can make jelly. Otherwise the berries aren’t tasty for humans, except one could make beautyberry wine, but that is not a task I’m planning on trying this year. I may plant blackberries in the future to have a plentiful supply of fresh berries to munch on.
So, that’s been everything. I’m just that elder queer lady who spends all her time with her plants, her writing, her pets, and making magical things in her kitchen in the most magical city in the world. I could ask for nothing better.