Springing Forward

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal

This is a wild hyacinth from years past. It’s too early for it to be in bloom yet this year, but sometimes we have to anticipate the good things coming. Actually those leaves behind the hyacinth bloom are some of the flowers that bloom earliest – twinleafs. You can see where they get their name. The blooms of that plant have delicate white petals and they come and go quickly. Some years I see them and some years – if I don’t time my walks right – I just see the fallen petals and the lush leaves. The wild hyacinths stay in bloom much longer.

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It’s not spring yet. We have to wait a couple more weeks for the official start of that, but we’re reaching for spring and our eyes are on the lookout for proof – blooming flowers. I almost stopped in the middle of the road the other day when I saw crocuses. That would have made an interesting insurance report. Having to admit I got rear-ended because I wanted to see a flower. Of course after this winter, the insurance adjuster might not have held me at fault.

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We’re springing forward to daylight savings time on Sunday. I’m going to have to reset my head to get up earlier. Not easy to do. But I do enjoy the early morning hours when the house is quiet and I can imagine writing a thousand words. It doesn’t happen that much. I have too many delaying tactics. But with deadlines popping up all around me like those wildflowers in the woods will be doing soon, I need to come up with get to work tactics instead of the delaying ones.
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What about you? Do you drag your feet when something needs doing or do you jump right in there and tackle the job? I’ve been tackling an editing job on the page proofs of my next Shaker book, The Blessed, due out this summer. There were some problems I had to work out. Some mistakes I’d made. I hate it when I mess up and don’t catch all my mistakes before the book gets this far in the process of publication. But I’m thankful for careful editors and proofreaders who do catch what I don’t catch. I finished reading through the pages a few minutes ago. I’ve made corrections, straightened out some thorny problems, and tried to make the story one where the words will disappear as the characters play out their story in my readers’ imaginations. That’s the best kind of writing. The kind where you don’t notice the writing.
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Thanks so much for reading. And drive carefully if you go looking for flowers to prove spring is on the way. Guess next week we’ll have more daylight time for our hunt. Do you have a favorite flower?