Good news, dear pond readers, I submitted a draft for round two of the #ShortStoryChallenge2024 for NYCMidnight. It was a nail biting experience. I wrote exactly 2000 words and got them turned in with forty minutes left on the clock. Welp!
While this is a rough piece and I’m not sanguine about my chances of advancement in the challenge, it was fun. I wrote a beginning, middle, and end of a romantic comedy in about two days. That’s pretty darn good. Best of all, looking at my creative output in 2024, I’m taken aback at the pace I’ve maintained. Three short stories done in barely four months, posts here, crafting jewelry, sewing, and even some cooking adventures that I haven’t shared here yet. For as much as I often feel less-than and inadequate, it is good to have breadcrumbs here to remind me that I’m doing better than I thought.
First tulips of 2024 by E.A. Schneider
Yesterday, the garden welcomed me home with tulip blooms. It was the most colorful welcome and I feel blessed. If you’re interested in seeing more garden pictures and supporting my creative work at Technicolor Lily Pond, there is more to see over here : Buy Me A Coffee: Technicolor Lily Pond
One planted by the Wee Bairn bloomed! By E.A. Schneider
How is your 2024 going, dear pond readers? Any creative projects you want to share? Please, leave a comment or question below and thanks for stopping by the pond today.
Greetings, dear pond readers! It’s April and it is time for a new chapter at Technicolor Lily Pond. I have decided to introduce some paid content here at the pond using Buy Me A Coffee: Technicolor Lily Pond.The goal of this is to support the cost of increased image storage here as well as both my ongoing fundraising efforts for the National MS Society and my creative efforts.
Hyacinth in my garden by E.A. Schneider
So what is going to be offered? My plan is to showcase my nature photography and new flash fiction behind the paywall. Don’t worry, no subscriptions are currently planned and I’m still going to be offering free content about eclectic, creative things on my normal twice monthly basis.
Purple hyacinth by E.A. Schneider
What do you think, dear pond readers? Any requests for content you want to see? Please leave a comment or question below and thanks again for stopping by the pond today.
Happy summer, dear pond readers! Hopefully, you are all enjoying enough of the outside to get your vitamin D fix without getting melted by the heat. Good news about our 2023 Good News Garden: it is growing! As I wrote about in past years (Garden Wonders), we put varying amounts of effort into cultivating our garden and have always managed to get a rich harvest of one kind or another. I haven’t been gifting plants to others this year or handing out loads of vegetables but we have gotten some precious yields and the season isn’t over yet.
July 2023 Good News Garden by E.A. Schneider
As I wrote earlier this spring, the Wee Bairn and I once again planted some seedlings in both the outside and inside using a combination of store-bought seed trays as well as various up-cycled materials. Starting seeds using peat moss inside of a gallon milk jug continues to be the most successful method of starting seeds but take-out containers, egg cartons, and berry containers are close runners up. The pumpkins planted by the Wee Bairn in the milk jug are growing as squashes should with vines aplenty; they even have some flowers.
Pumpkins & watermelons courtesy of the Wee Bairn & the power of plastic milk jugs! Photos by E.A. Schneider
As part of my long-term campaign to get the Wee Bairn to eat vegetables, I asked once again what we should plant and in 2023 the answer was a resounding: pizza! While we can’t grow pepperoni from peat moss packed into a takeout fish-dinner container, we can grow tomatoes, peppers, oregano, basil, and parsley. This became the chaos pizza garden pictured in my post, Springtime Joy. The seedlings did flourish extraordinarily well but I waited too long to transplant them into bigger planters and many withered. Tomatoes and basil persevered, however. I’m cautiously optimistic that we will get some to use in a pizza.
Beautiful beans & tenacious tomato plant. That tomato survived the chaos pizza garden to make it to the burlap planter sack. Photos by E.A. Schneider
The sweet peas, carrots, radishes, and sunflowers that the Wee Bairn planted grew beautifully well. Together we harvested multiple bowls of sweet peas to share with family, friends, and ourselves. The Wee Bairn even sampled a single pea pod. It is not a favorite but it did not end in tears so here’s hoping. We were even able to share some radishes with the Wee Bairn’s grandmothers and they were beautiful. Best part? The Wee Bairn even took a giant, bunny sized bite out of a radish and declared it pretty okay, if spicy. Huzzah!
First harvest of sweet peas planted by the Wee Bairn. Photo by E.A. Schneider
The cucumber plants the Wee Bairn & I planted are also still growing. Fingers crossed for pickles again this year. Beans and peppers did not flourish past the initial seedling stage. The desiccated remains were used by a robin family to make their nest in our front yard so that is some consolation. The replacement plants I bought from the local Farmer’s Market are not yet dead. The biggest success on our deck is the dynamic duo of raspberries and chives. Together, they are growing beautifully and we’ve harvested several little containers of tiny but mightily sweet raspberries.
Most recent peas & raspberries harvest. Photo by E.A. Schneider
There have been some disappointments in the garden. The bunnies and ground squirrels ate up all our Brussels sprouts, eggplants, and corn. There won’t be a three sisters garden again this year unless the garden surprises me. The American hazelnut shrubs have been accidentally mowed twice and I fear that may prove too much abuse for even a tenacious plant. I am going to insulate them in cages and hopefully that helps. Lavender steadfastly refuses to grow and the blueberry shrubs did not come back well. C’est la vie. There will be new growth and there is still time to plant new seeds.
This bunny is posing at the Milwaukee County Zoo. Several bunnies like it have wreaked havoc on our leafy greens. Photo by E.A. Schneider
The biggest joy of this year’s garden has hands-down been the flowers. The Wee Bairn helped me plant all of them and is the best, most enthusiastic rain-gauge checker I’ve ever met. While we may not have had the most uniform success at planting food to eat, the Wee Bairn & I have certainly helped feed a lot of bees and butterflies. I will post again soon about our pollinator neighbors but here is one picture to tide you over.
Happy bees feasting on butterflyweed in my yard. Photo by E.A. Schneider
How is summer going for you, dear pond readers? Are you growing anything interesting in your yard or in your creative life?
Please, leave a comment or question below and thanks for stopping by the pond today.
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