Ah, sweet respite! I have taken a break from editing and writing for the past week. I did mundane things like mow the lawn, clean the garage, putter in the gardens, and (gasp) read a few books. It's been WONDERFUL! Don't get me wrong, I love to write, but when one writes day in and day out and edits others' writings, well let's face it, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. I needed to play hooky for a while. Smell the roses... soak up some sunshine... go fishing... you know, stuff like that.
Taking a mini-vacation from any kind of work can recharge your batteries. And to be completely honest, my batteries were so low they were almost flat. To a writer that is deadly. Sure, you can still write... it's the discipline... but most of what you write with flat batteries is probably destined for the round file. It generally lacks punch and joie de vivre. There's nothing worse in my book than laboring over a passage half a day, only to look at it later and know that what you have produced is crap. It was time to quit wasting my time... time to "tiptoe through the tulips," as it were.
Sooo, I spent some time in the Texas out-of-doors. I talked to my furry and feathered friends that frequent my back yard. I have a pair of eastern cottontail rabbits that blithely ignore me as I wander about the yard doing whatever it is that needs to be done at the moment. One is an adult female, Babbit, and the other is still in bunny stage... about half the size of Babbit. But, bring out the mower and pffft! they are gone.
On our Texas sage one can often see Ruby-throated, Calliope, Black Chinned, and Broad-tailed hummingbirds vying for the nectar in the tiny crimson flowers that cover the bushes. That is when they're not fighting over the blooms on our Ceratonia (carob bush) in the front yard. A pair of Lesser Goldfinches have appropriated one of our small fountains as their personal bathing facility. The female particularly enjoys her "spa time," splashing about and sending water flying in all directions.
A mated pair of Mockingbirds has declared the backyard their domain as well. They are particularly drawn to our Pride of Houston bush that has already flowered and is producing tiny green berries that will turn orange when they ripen. This, of course, is why the Mockingbirds have staked their claim. It's their winter food supply, and woe unto that errant bird who tries to steal even one berry.
And then there's our cadre of bees and wasps that simply adore our Morning Glory bush. Yep, I said bush. It's from the Yucatan and it gets to be over twelve feet high before the end of the growing season. It just started producing the giant white bell-shaped flowers the little stingers find irresistible. The thing is, after visiting the plant, the little buzzers get downright mellow and fly funny. Now I know the Maya used the plant's sap as a poison for arrows and its root to extract a hallucinogen, and I'm starting to wonder if the bees and wasps weren't getting a bit of a different kind of buzz from the pollen.
Come to think of it, I'm feeling pretty mellow tonight. I think my batteries are nearing full recharge.
