Ontario: "beautiful water"

Mitchell Lake - learning to swim in an Ontario Lake means being brave!

Ontario in the summer - cottage life enjoyed with lots of cousins

Ontario in the winter - bundle up and get ready to toboggan!

Ready for the Cairngorm Christmas Dance

Swaziland, some time ago..............

Campus kids, busy building

At Khukulameini

Mankayane High School

Busisiwe & Bongi

Piggy back ride from Auntie Ruth

Turtles versus Nickels

Totoro cake

My eldest son keeps a small plastic turtle atop a rock in a small aquarium, in solidarity with Peter Hatcher.  It should be noted that, in this case, his little brother has never swallowed a turtle (disclaimer: so far).

He did, however, manage to swallow a nickel on his second birthday.

We have a lovely 11"x14" commemorative X-ray by which to remember the occasion.

My most pressing question to the pediatrician, after (of course) "So he's okay? We just wait for the nickel to, ahem, re-emerge?" was, "Can he still have birthday cake this evening?".

The answer, as obvious from the above photo, was yes, he may indeed have cake.  As did we all.  

Spencer

Spencer

When I say that I write when our family cat allows me use of the keyboard, that's actually the case.

We adopted Spencer a few years ago, and one of the "reasons why we should get a cat" presented to me by my family was that he could keep me company during the day, while I was at home working.

Now, he is self-appointed, and most appreciated, guardian of the household.  Strangers are carefully and suspiciously monitored through the banisters.  Not all meet criteria.

And, while there are several keyboards available, (not to mention comfortable cat perches, sofas, warm radiators, breezy windowsills, cozy stacks of towels warm from the dryer - all of which he does avail himself), he often chooses to situate his rather hefty self atop my laptop (and only my laptop - even though it's the smallest and thus offers the least amount of warm keyboard room on which to sit).

He manages, through deft paw strokes and random rear-end adjustments, to send messages on Skype, attempt to reprogram certain settings, and to perform searches online.  We guess that he's looking for more Japanese catnip twigs, but his spelling is rather poor and so we're not sure.  Perhaps he has loftier plans.  Perhaps he thinks he's my editor and is trying to offer suggestions.  Perhaps he wants his own blog..

However, sometimes I am permitted free and unhindered access to my keyboard.  And so, sometimes, I write. 

Four equally spaced seasons, and yet..............

Pink Cosmos

During the revision process, some questions arose.  One reviewer was curious as to why summer's beat differs so dramatically in style from the other three books.  I was surprised by that also.

I wrote summer's beat first, and that's the way it wanted to be written.  That's how summer wanted to be expressed. 

Then when I started writing about autumn, and it came out in another style, I thought, oh, every season is going to be different. But then winter and spring followed the same path as autumn.

So my only explanation is that my best writing flows (not easily, though, and there's always a whole lot of editing going on) and I have to let it.  Plus, despite the fact that each season is totally unique, summer, from a kid's point of view especially, is special.  Summer is experienced in a different way.  And summer wanted to be written about in a different way.