DISCOVERIES....

I've spent quite a lot of time this last week in the garden. Mostly because it really really needs it (it is so OVERGROWN). As I potted around I made some discoveries.

Some plants I'd cut back were happily rejuvenating. Some were flowering.

I dug over half the veg patch, adding manure, dug that through. I've put plastic on parts of the other half, (hoping to kill the oxalis that has decided that patch is home).

This is one of those actions that will take a little while to deliver the goods.

We also cut down the climbing roses on the side of the garage...well he got out the saw and zoom zoom, I merely came along and pruned what remained. Other half then got some wires on the wall so we can hopefully train the roses into some semblance of order.

I also weeded and mulched the bed below with a couple of ideas of what I'd like to plant there.

This is something that will look pretty average for quite a few months. Hopefully we'll get a bloom or two over summer but maybe not.


Another part of the garden I've worked on is my hellebore drift. I began with a very few plants (from his aunt and uncle) but over time there has been babies and it's beginning to look how I imagined it would.

I think in another few years it will fill out nicely and my drift of hellebores will look pretty damned good.

Last week, while procrastinating doing stuff other than the stuff I should have been doing, I looked over some old files.

I came across some poems and short stories I had long forgotten about. A few I thought still had potential so set them aside to be WORKED ON.  (I have a LOT of pieces waiting to be worked on but it's good to have a plan)

I also came across the novels...yes novels, plural...that I've written over the years. One of them, a YA novel, I began to read.

Before I knew it I had read the entire manuscript. I then began to rejig a few things, added some more. I had to edit a few sayings that made it clumsy (amazing how quickly slang  or a song etc can date a piece of work)

As I was working, I made the discovery that I really like it.

I remember writing it, remember the months, years I spent on it. I think I bravely sent it out once, got rejected and heh that was it.

So, I'm polishing and about to send this baby out again.

So much of our writing takes so long...months, even years... without ever seeing the light of day. We work really hard, and so many times there is nothing tangible to show for our efforts. Yes I have a file on my computer. Easily deleted, easily forgotten.

I'm wondering how many other pieces wait to be discovered in my old files, ready to be polished and sent out.

Given it's chance to shine.

Vicki