SPRING AND A SNEAK PEAK

Has spring arrived in your neighborhood? Right now, we have spring temperatures, but this is Texas. The saying is true, “If you don’t like Texas weather, wait three days.”


Still, I’m hopeful. Perhaps you noticed I’ve put the spring redbud photo back as my header. My friend Celia Yeary said the snow scene made her cold and she requested I put the redbud photo back up so she wouldn't freeze when she visited the blog.

Daffodils are in bloom, and the redbud’s buds are swelling. Unfortunately, the elm and cedar are pollinating. Ahhhhchoo! Cough!

Hero and I watch our bird feeders
and bird houses from our breakfast table

Spring is my favorite time of year. It holds such promise! The blue birds are nesting in our birdhouses. Baby bunnies are appearing. Our grass has greened up (and the weeds) and early flowers are blooming. Dandelions and vetch do count as flowers, right?



Darling Daughter 1 brought me a
starter plant of this wild rose
from her wild rose hedge.



Several rosebuds are on my Earthkind roses. Roses are my favorite flower. All in all, I’m a happy gal all spring.

Farmer's Market = Work!

This year, Hero and I plan a small raised-bed vegetable garden, about four feet by eight feet. A few years ago, we planted several acres of vegetables and melons for us and to sell to the farmer’s market. We don’t want to sell produce now. Yikes, is that ever work! What we want is food for our table. Good, fresh, organic food.

Similar to my blue ribbons

In past years I won blue ribbons at the State Fair of Texas for my canned jams, jellies, and veggies. Okay, only one blue ribbon for green beans, but several for peach jam, grape jelly, cinnamon crabapple jelly, and blackberry jelly. Seeing my jars on display with a blue ribbon was exciting.

My worst experience was the year we had a bumper crop of pomegranates. My sister in Fresno puts the juice in ice trays to use with a sprite or seven up. She also uses it in pumch. Hero and I decided that was a great idea and we'd  extract the juice for jelly and to drink. Bad, bad idea. We had no idea how that juice stains! And it sticks to everything! We cleaned our shoe soles and mopped the kitchen four or five times, but our shoes still made sticky whop whop sounds when we walked. I think my sister only works with a few pomegranates at a time. We went way overboard. 

Better than winning a blue ribbon at the fair is seeing my books for sale. I love writing, and love having people tell me they enjoyed my books. It’s an addiction but there is no Writers Anonymous or 12-Step program. So, I’m hooked on writing. I’m only a week or ten days away from publishing a new western historical romance on Amazon Kindle. Here’s a sneak peak at the cover.

Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s from Jimmy Thomas and Novel Romance Covers. He’s a very popular cover model and I’m sure you recognize him from many book covers. Both independent publishers like me who publish on Amazon Kindle and Smashwords as well as large publishing houses use his work.

Obviously, the book is titled BRAZOS BRIDE and it's the first of the MEN OF STONE MOUNTAIN series. BRAZOS BRIDE is the first of a trilogy of three brothers and is set in 1870 North Central Texas on a ranch beside the Brazos River. Stay tuned for the launch date.

Thanks for stopping by.