Flutterby

 


I caught one!  I was taking pictures of the flowers and a monarch landed on one of the echinacea flowers and stayed there long enough for me to get a not-blurry photo of it.  See?




 

The daisies and bee balm are still blooming like crazy and the Japanese beetles seem to be done nibbling on the daisies.  Or maybe they got blown off in today's wind.



Purple coneflower, that's the common name for echinacea.  I've been trying to remember all day and it finally came to me.






More blueberries ripened so I got to have a tiny snack of them today.  I see a few more green ones so I'll be keeping my eyes peeled so I get them before the birds do.







I'm surprised I didn't find the butterfly on the butterfly weed but I guess monarchs don't know the names of flowers.  I think these little florets are very pretty.


I spent the afternoon working on the manuscript again, writing a little scene to finish a part, then rearranging parts that were out of order.  This is a first draft so there are lots of little repetitions and awkward phrasing that needs fixing.  I like this manuscript much better than the one that I've been putting on here.  It took me reading it in bits to realize that Tropical Obsession is really a pretty crappy story.  I like pieces of it but overall, meh.  Hopefully the next one will be better.

Here's as far as I've gotten on the Raindrop dishcloth.  I started knitting faster this afternoon when I realized that I'll be playing yarn chicken with the white yarn I'm using.  I think I'll have enough to finish the dishcloth but it might be close.  It doesn't make any logical sense to knit faster when you're running out of yarn but it happens, doesn't help, but it happens.

19 July--Barbara Malcolm, Tropical Obsession.

Mona opened the curtains over the patio door of her studio apartment a few blocks from the sea.  If she stood in the corner, she could see a tiny sliver of ocean between two houses across the way.  She put the coffee on to brew while she showered.  Her hair had gotten long, and she wore it tucked behind her ears most days.  She did not miss the salon haircuts she got in her old life.  Keeping up appearances on the island meant not having on dirty clothes instead of being frantic about having the latest fashion.  It was a relief to just be her own person, not Jack’s idea of how she should look.  She had sold her resort clothes online, keeping only the most basic items which matched her new lifestyle.

She had stayed in the villa on the beachfront for a couple months, until Jack’s rental time was up.  By then she had gotten a job doing the books for a small resort on the island, so she found this studio apartment upstairs over a neighborhood market.  She could afford it on her salary, and it suited her just fine.  With the money she had stashed away in the States she bought a third-hand car that got her to work and back and to the expat Art League and Literary Circle meetings with Susan and the other friends she had made on the island.  She had also started going snorkeling with George and Dimitri and their group.  She was not the only woman in the group, and she was fascinated by the life of the coral reef.  Once she felt more settled and had a cushion saved for emergencies, she planned to get scuba certified so she could go down to the reef and stay there to see the small creatures that hid in the holes and recesses.

Shortly after she started working for Black Grouper Inn & Cottages she proposed putting together an association of other small resorts that would allow them to maximize their advertising budgets and combine orders that would let them buy in bulk and save money.  The owners were intrigued and gave her the go-ahead to solicit other small hotel and resort owners to set up the association.  Soon there were half a dozen members and Mona had a thriving bookkeeping business along with the advertising and bulk ordering food and supplies.

Her friendship with Susan Clemment went a long way toward helping her rediscover her self-esteem.  Susan did not mince words, if you asked her opinion you got it.  Mona liked that but it took some getting used to returning the favor.  She had spent so many years watching what she said to Jack, it was hard to break the habit.

Mona did not go to Curacao to attend Manning’s murder trial.  A few reporters phoned when the news reached the States and there was a photo of the two of them coming out of a restaurant in a tabloid, but she just kept saying “no comment” and eventually they stopped calling.

Detective Inspector Rooibos stopped to see her once a week or so and they had supper together a couple times.  Mona was reluctant to go out with him, thinking that he was only interested in going over Jack’s murder and what led up to it, but Rooibos turned out to be well-educated and a charming supper companion.  He was an avid mountain biker and had suggested that they take a ride together.  Mona could ride a bike but was not sure she was up to riding the hilly roads of the north end of the island.  Rooibos assured her that they would go to the flat, southern end of the island for her first ride.  She was thinking about it.

THE END

Today's toss was the second last case of booze down the drain.  I can't tell you how I enjoy dumping those bottles.  It makes the basement smell like a distillery but it's so satisfying.  Weird, I know, but I can't help myself.
--Barbara