Precious Petite Polished Pebbles

Don't these just look pretty enough to eat?  But don't try it, they are quartz river pebbles I hand-gathered in Alabama and tumbled/polished myself.  The tiniest are 1/4" - 1/2", about the size of TicTac breath candies.  The next largest are under 1" long, about the size of almonds.  I love the variety of colors and textures.  Some are partially see-through, others are opaque. They clink together like glass marbles. This is so much fun!  Now, what to do with them???

Fruition

My dear sister has progressed from self-made carpenter to land-scape artist .  Upon accessing an Internet site for inexpensive nursery plants, she ordered for herself and then extended her generosity in my direction.  I am looking forward to receiving blackberry bushes, cherry trees, elderberry bushes and mulberry trees to plant this spring, the beginning of my own little mini-orchard.  How I love putting up preserves, and in a year or two, how delightful it will be to have easily accessible fruit.

Ranch Attraction

Yes, I'm still working on my New Mexico inspirational novels which I started in 2009?  There were nights where I wrote for hours without stop.  Then the long dry stretch- relocations galore.  It feels good to have settled down to country living.  Since Thanksgiving I have been editing-editing-editing Part 1, mulling over Part 2.  Will they ever be ready for others to read? 

I'm still gathering background material...  And wishing I could include photographs, but alas, I've never been to New Mexico- thus no photographs of my own.  While I was asking questions, some erudite expert blasted me for 'writing about what I do not know.'  But how could I deny a story that came into my head, begging to be written? 

The Chihuahua Desert in New Mexico seems like such a bleak, barren place although it does flower briefly when conditions are right.  In my imagination, I smell the red dust, the dry desert brush, the cowhide, horse sweat steaming in summer's glaring sun...  I'm doing the best I can to authenticate the details through research and a few kindly ranch contacts.  How did I ever manage before the Internet?  Microsoft Word?

And I'm still tumbling/polishing pounds and pounds of hand-gathered Alabama river rocks, making quilts, avoiding recreational baking (rueing that pesky winter weight!), and wanting to get back into making scrappy-cropped greeting cards.  With the passing of the holidays, I have been considering the blessings of friendships, and wondering why it's so easy to become too busy to write or call...