The Best Prize

Here I sit, with dirt under my fingernails.  I smell of dirt and sweat, and my legs are stiff from a long horseback ride yesterday and multiple treks to the woods today. 

I wouldn't trade that feeling for the world.

(However, I also wouldn't trade the feeling of a nice cold shower in summer.)  

I spent today doing what I love - farming.  That is, if farming means chasing chickens and lugging sheets of rotting plywood around and smelling the lilacs by our border.  

snowshoe - my garage sale chicken, currently molting.

i cleared that path through the wreckage of an ex-fort today.  i would have done more but there were fumes of rotten wood and...maybe....a dead skunk....

It was raining earlier, but now there's a warm, almost tropical breeze blowing in from who knows where.  We got the garden planted, got the chickens into the orchard, my brother mowed the lawn, and I cleared out the stuff you see in the picture above, as well as hand mowing a little.

I feel sorry for anyone who hasn't learned how to love work.    Remember, it will be hard before it will be easy.  You have to just jump right in and get started.  (Even if you're jumping in to a tangle of raspberries up to your waist.)

  

So go on - I dare you.  Go work 'til your back aches, get your hands dirty, tie up your hair and roll up your sleeves.  Work for God.

Colossians 3:23 - Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters [...]

I make that a double-dog dare.

- Ellyn

Quiz Results

Thanks to all who took my quiz! It made my day.  :) And now here are your results.  I'll give you the character you are most like and the next one down, unless you were CLEARLY one or the other.

For those who said "_ or _" for an answer, don't blame me if your answers are messed up.  I did the best I could with those, but mostly marked you down as indecisive.  ;)  The below list of names is in alphabetical order.
-

Alia: Cyrus / Grailyn
Ashley: Chitiri / (followed by a tie between Grailyn and Cyrus)
Book Blogger: Chitiri
Caroline: Chitiri / Ren
Ellie: Chitiri
Emily Ann: Grailyn / Ren
Farmgirl: Ren
Gwyn: Ren / Chitiri
Lily: Tied, Cyrus and Ren
Margaret: Chitiri / Ren
Nela: Grailyn / Chitiri
Nicki T. : Grailyn
Whisper: Grailyn

-

What Character Are YOU Most Like?

1.     I've decided to do something like Gwyn did last year with her book.  This is a quiz on what character from Seaspear you are most like! I'll put the results (along with character pictures) in my next post.  Leave me your answers in a comment, and please put the number of the question beside the letter of your choice.

     This should be fun...

     Oh, also, I've had some people ask me what exactly Seaspear is about.  After the quiz results, I'll share a mini-pitch so you can see.

     

--

1.  1.  You go to a party where pizza is served.  How much do you eat?

a.     Two pieces - you could eat more, but you might get funny looks.

b.     Exactly 7/2 of the pizza.  (3 ½ pieces.)

c.      Just one - you’re not hungry because you’re worried about the hidden meaning in something a former friend said to you.

d.     Two pieces.

2.    2.  You’re made class president against your will.  How do you react?

a.     Look for a way to get around it, and if there is none, you consult several friends and several books for advice.

b.     Go off into the woods and feel sorry for yourself for a while, and then grimly go back to your duties.

c.      March into the office and spout off some elaborate arguments stating exactly why this is unjust.

d.     Ride off on your horse in a storm of temper.  (If you have a horse.)

3.    3.  How would your friends describe you?

a.     Passionate

b.     Caring

c.      Quiet

d.     Smart

4.     4.  What do you think about magic?

a.     It would benefit society and the country, if its users had the right training.

b.     It was misused and you have no interest in bringing it back to your land.

c.      It’s not worth it’s own trouble.

d.     It’s wrong.  Right? The law does say so, so it must be bad...  …Right?

5.     5.  If you went somewhere to relax, I’d find you…

a.     Standing alone, watching the sea.

b.     The library.

c.      On a long, fast, horseback ride.

d.     Playing a musical instrument or sewing.

6.     6.  How else would your friends describe you?

a.     Ladylike

b.     Indecisive

c.      Opinionated

d.     Sensitive

7.     7.  What game are you / would you best at?

a.     Poker

b.     Risk / Clue

c.      Capture the Flag

d.     Scrabble

*clears throat importantly* You've completed the Seaspear Quiz! Leave me your answers.

- Ellyn

Dirty Work

via

Usually after finishing a novel and reading it for the first time, a writer is seeing the world through rose-colored glasses.  Or at least seeing his book that way.  It has so much potential, it could be a NY Times bestseller with a few grammar tweaks, and oh, that one line of dialogue is so funny that it gets the writer in stitches every time.

But after a while of this, the rose-colored glasses get uncomfortable, the lenses fall out, and then that one line of dialogue seems dumb and incredibly shallow.

Creativity makes a good writer a good writer, but when I - oops, I mean, a writer - is thinking about his manuscript, it can turn out to be a bad thing.  Creativity balloons problems to twice their normal size so I - sigh, I mean the writer - can't get in and figure out what really is a problem.

*frustrated frown*

So, you can probably guess where I am with Seaspear right now.  Of course I'm very happy that the first draft is done.  And there are several things that I'm very pleased with - like the way Prince Cyrus's character turned out, and a certain pirate captain.  But my dad took off my rose-colored glasses and brought several things to light that need a lot of work.

I'll keep working.  The first draft is only the beginning.

"Writing the first draft of a story is like giving a wall its first coat of paint.  You always hope that the wall won't need another coat, just as you always hope your first draft won't need many revisions.  But just like with that coat of paint, you're always wrong." - Me


- Ellyn

When You Fall Off the Horse

On New Year's, I made way too many resolutions, as usual - habit of mine.  Some involved working out, eating more fruit, spending more time with my little bros...typical.  But then I was thinking about my confidence on horseback.

-

Confession: I've never galloped before.  Well, not on purpose.  (So the name of my blog may be misleading, but that's talking about life, not...real galloping.)

Confession: Loping Indy in new places makes me super scared.

-

I'm too soft with my horse, and when he acts up it makes me nervous.  I've gotten a lot better already this year, thanks to God, who gave me strength to push myself.

But on January 1, I made a resolution that I would fall off of Indy at least once this year.

The point of this resolution was not so that I would hit the dust - the point is that I would push myself hard enough that I would have the opportunity to fall off of my horse.  Last time I fell off was when I fractured my wrist two autumns ago, and that was when I had to start building my confidence again.

So, today it happened.  Indy has been super feisty lately, and I've had to lunge him every time before I ride.   Today, I only had a little time and so I hopped on with just a halter, nose chain, and lead rope.  It was the hopping on that was the hard part.  I was on a barrel, and Indy kept moving.  One of my rules is that I never get onto a moving horse.  (That is, unless I were to do trick riding or something, which I'm not.)

I finally got on, and fell on his neck while he trotted up toward his pals in the corner of the pasture.  I didn't want to be aboard when Indy got kicked by his certain palomino girlfriend, so I let myself slide off and landed on my feet.

The next time, the same thing happened, except I got on too far back, grabbed Indy's mane, he speeded up, and I got plunked right down next to several pairs of hooves.  Luckily, I was not kicked and didn't land in any of the wrong places.  And I got back on and used the nose chain (that's what it's therefore, after all) to make Indy stand still when I got on.

I felt a great sense of accomplishment for completing this mental resolution.  This is going to be a good year.  

-

P.S.  Check these out - I made them for Indy on his birthday - carrots in molasses rolled in oats.  Mmm!

Memories of Liberty

Memories anyone? I recently picked up this whole series at the library "for my brothers" to watch.  It was truly a gem.  I know quite a few of you enjoyed this when you were younger too.  Aw, hang "younger".  ;) Enjoy!


















- Ellyn

Beautiful Libraries

Books were everywhere.  Piled under the table, in corners, and stacked neatly on bookcases that went up to the ceiling.  The room was messy in a very tidy sort of way.  A shaft of sunlight poked through a large bay window on the opposite wall from the door, and the little window seat was padded with a long cushion of silver and red and matching pillows.  On the round table in the middle of the room there was a globe, a quill and ink, and an open, empty volume that Ren guessed was someone’s journal or log book.  The whole room had a musty, comfortable smell that made Ren wish she were better at reading.

- An Excerpt from Seaspear ©

Today in the oversize section I found a book entitled, "The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World", with pictures by Guillaume De Laubier.  Needless to say, I brought it home and oohed / ahhed over the full color photographs - some in three fold parts!

Here is my favorite - the Benedictine Abbey Library of Admont, Austria.  It's the biggest monastery library in the world.

via

via

Can you imagine sitting down on one of those ladders with a favorite tome (fancy word for book)? Wouldn't it be just ... out of this world? I know I would not be able to concentrate on reading with that huge expanse of tile and that huge mural stretching overhead.  And can you imagine the silence....?

Here is the Abbey Library of Saint Gall in Switzerland.

via

Also very cool.  (Although - and I can't stop thinking this - the ceiling decorations look like some odd mildewing fungus.  But I say this in all due respect...)

-

And here is the Wren Library of Trinity College in Jolly Olde England.

via

via

Mmmm, the sight makes me want to settle down with a Jolly Olde classic by Dickens or Austen.

Although the lack of twisty stairs / balconies is a little disappointing.  I guess the English were too practical for that? :)

What about you - which of these beautiful libraries would you most like to visit?

(By the way - when did I become an expert in European architecture? Never.)  

Yours,

Ellyn