I Said I'd Come Back and I Did

 




Although we had enough food for at least two more days at The Clearing we all packed up and went home this morning.  It was a banner weekend.  I live the closest to The Clearing but made sure to leave early enough on Thursday morning to have a quick lunch with my friend KS who works in the office and then get over to the campus to claim the bed I like in Room #10 (the one by the window), leave the Italian Semolina Bread, the butter, and the $8 Walmart toaster in the kitchen, get the fireplace started, and sit alone with my knitting in front of the big window overlooking the three pines and the bay of Green Bay for a couple hours before any one else arrived.  Heaven.

Long about 3:30 people started arriving.  Most came in twos, got settled in their rooms, put the food they brought in the kitchen, and come upstairs to get reacquainted and catch up.  Supper Thursday night was vegetarian chili with a dozen kinds of beans and cashews in it.  Delish.  JB, the leader of the pack of writers, gave out the weekend's schedule, and passed around a roundtable sign-up sheet.  I picked the first slot on Friday afternoon partly because I was so excited to finally have something to share at one of these winter weekends but also so I'd have plenty of quiet writing time to think about people's comments.  The sky was clear all weekend and the temperature barely got above 1 degree above zero but it wasn't too windy so it looked like a winter wonderland, plus as the fireplace minder I set up camp next to it and didn't go outside much because I asked people to bring in a log or two when they came in so I didn't have to bundle up every couple hours and go down to the woodshed.  Very smart of me, don't you think?




About a third of the writers are also knitters so evenings were spent knitting and talking and laughing laughing laughing.




On Friday morning I sat by my fireplace post with earbuds funneling the sound of waves and rain into my ears while my fingers danced over the keys of my Alphasmart--and words came out.  Real words.  Words that joined together into sentences and everything.  I'd been struggling since early November with how to write the scene and somehow sitting there on Friday let it leak out my fingers--and it's not half bad.  I need to do some research to add some trouble for my main character but I feel like my wheels are back on track.  Saturday morning's writing time went pretty well too.

It stayed cold and sunny until this morning when we had light snow and the temps got up to 13 degrees.  Balmy.  I have to admit that I kind of like the cold and sunny better than the warmer and snowy.  (It's the "sunny" part that wins my heart.)

January 7--Josephine Trotter, Lemons and Lime.  "If you're making marmalade where are the oranges?" Deb said, hands on hips.  Martha turned from the sink, suds dripping from her reddened hands.  "I'm making lemon marmalade."  She turned back to washing jelly jars and rings.  "I've never heard of lemon marmalade," Deb said.  "Just because you've never heard of it doesn't mean it isn't a thing."  Deb leaned over and peered into the bowl of fruit.  "There's a lime in there."  "That's right.  I'm putting in one lime."  Martha dried her hands and crossed to the table.  "I think that will be a nice surprise, don't you?"  Deb crossed her arms.  "I've never heard of lemon marmalade."

I confess that's the only prompt writing I did over the weekend.  My roomie was an early to bed girl and my light bothered her so I'd do my nighttime ankle exercises as quietly as I could, plug in the Kindle and my phone to charge, and turn out the light.  I volunteered to take all the trash down to the dumpster this morning as an excuse to walk down to the workshop and come back to campus on the path just for a little quiet time in the woods.  It was lovely.  I followed deer tracks all the way.  Ahh.  This was a most relaxing weekend.  I wish I could do it more--but then it'd probably become old hat.  Ah well, such is life in the modern age.  I'm glad to be home, kinda.
--Barbara