Ceilings and Hallways

Two more weeks until my back is healed, I hope. It's never taken longer than that, so I have hope. It has been a crazy week. But it is summertime and what better time to have it crazy. The following pictures are from the Louvre. I've entitled this post as Ceilings and Hallways. Places that most people don't show off and yet at the Lourve these particular areas were impressive. Ornate and full of character.

I have contemplated these pictures more than the others and I wonder why. I have come up with the conclusion that I feel at peace looking at them.  Other rooms require something from you and so I feel that when you are in them you imagine the people from another time doing those actions. Eating, sleeping relaxing or working. A hallway requires nothing except walking and the ceiling is just there whether you look at it or not.

My writing has continued at a good pace. My editor keeps me hopping. I wonder how she finds the time to read and re-read it and ask questions like - Where did she get money?  Where is the carriage being housed? My first reaction is to say they don't matter. But if she's asking questions then maybe my readers will ask those same questions. And there is nothing worse then waiting to hear answers that are never addressed. So I'm off to figure out how my main character found some cash and where is that ghastly carriage. Or I'll look down more hallways and gaze at more ceilings in an attempt to discover their secrets.

Garden, Rain and London

Went for a walk in the rain last night. It was wonderful. There is a peace that comes from simple things. 

This is a flower blooming in my front garden. I took it from my childhood home before my parents moved a few years ago. This is the first year it has bloomed. Hail and errant basketballs annihilated them in previous years.

Still missing Chip, and Libby is still listless. Poor dog misses her friend.  My back is getting better every day.
And vacation to the mountains of Colorado is only two weeks away. 

Working on the second chapter of my second book. I have set goals for the next 20 weeks -- one chapter a week. I have not been great about reaching them, but inspiration has struck and I'm excited to write something new.  Edits on my first book are slowly edging forward. My editor is going to a writing conference in August and will bring my book with her. We shall see. 

Can't post without  pictures from London. Trafalgar Square and Nelson's Column. The city is full of beautiful old architecture. The building with the clock is from 1832

   

Chip

 Amidst all of the things that life brings, this week we had to put down our dog, Chip. He was thirteen and had lived a full life. But that doesn't matter. We loved him and he was a part of our family. My husband brought him home when my youngest son was eight years old. He had hip displasia, so it was hard for him to walk but that never really stopped him. We started by calling him Chocolate Chip, and from there Chip, then on to Dip which became Dippers, to Skippers to Skip to Old man. He answered to all of them. In the evenings, as my kids pet him, they would sing to him about how great a dog he was. How can one ever replace that kind of love. It can't be done and in a way it shouldn't. Our German Short Hair, Libby is sad. She has napped the last two days and looks everywhere to see where Chip is.

Nothing is new with writing. I'm still re-reading A Series of Scandals. I enjoy it but have very little to report.

So I went through my pictures once again and have posted a few from Paris. The Seine River as we crossed the bridge.

The Palace of Justice. People were lined up to go in.

Marie Antoinette was imprisoned there and it was built in 1240 and then began reconstruction in 1857.


Then there is Notre Dame and once again the Seine River.

Snow and Sunshine

From Winter to Spring in less than three weeks. Snow in the backyard that had our tree break in half and land on our neighbors car to spending the day in the mountains at our favorite spot. 

Columbines, Indian Paintbrushes and Mountain Lupine cascaded on the hillsides. Colorado Mountains are spectacular.  But the area surrounding the campsite is still recovering from the Hayman fire that happened in 2002. According to the Denver Post article written by Johns Ingold "By the time firefighters gained control of the Hayman fire — more than one month after it began — it had charred 137,760 acres in Park, Teller, Jefferson and Douglas counties, a footprint nearly twice as large as Colorado's second-biggest fire. On one day alone, it ran 19 miles. It put up a smoke plume so massive that it created its own weather."

I can remember that summer where ash rained down on us, our clothes, homes and cars  in the suberbs of Denver. The orange looking sun was hidden behind the hazy skyline of smoke all summer long.

 Another hard week with my back still giving me trouble. But even moreso as my sister, the one I traveled through London with lost her mother-in-law. As her husband and two sons along with others escorted their mother/grandmother's casket out of the chapel, my heart broke as her teenage sons broke down in anguish of heart.

It was a sweet service. So beautiful that it hurt especially as white doves were released and then circled around the cemetery until the last bird was released. And then they altogether flew out of our sight. Just as Marlene had.

While we were at the cemetery, we went to visit my grandmas. The three ladies that were cousins to my grandpa that took over raising my dad when his mother passed away when he was a teenager.

And now onto writing, I'm starting to plot scenes in my mind. New ideas are coming again. So I have great hopes of starting the process again. It's hard to start anew when I'm still re-writing the first book. Still mining for the right words to set the scenes the way I want them to look instead of how they actually are.

I have left my greatest news for the last. I have wanted someone from the UK to look at my blog for the longest time. To follow my journey of writing and life. Just this morning my first UK viewer came online. I can only assume they arrived by mistake and quickly left but the numbers are the numbers and someone from the UK opened my blog. Yay!!!