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Sunday, March 27, 2011

Bickering - featuring Cilla and Tovah

I was having a pretty heavy and painful day today, not lightened by the fact that the weather decided to snow dump six inches of horrid white stuff on my baby tulips and iris {and my hopes of an early spring. Ha.} and blow 30 - 45mph winds all day. Oh, and my plans to go to the theatre to see Rango were crushed as well.
 Long story short, I needed an escape. Thank goodness for characters with great senses of humor.
 This is also a tip of the hat to the Sherlock Holmes movie{'09}, which I love :)

“Well, that’s a new one,” Cilla said, pulling a long, slippery squidge of riverweed from her dripping hair. “Jumping off Clifton bridge, well done old man. I would never have known you were afraid of heights,”
 Beside her Tovah made a distinctive “cha” noise.
  “What?”
He pulled off his boot and tried squeezing the water out of it. “I didn’t say anything,” he muttered. Then he gave a short hysterical bark of laughter. “When have I ever said anything?”
 Cilla blinked. “I’m not sure I follow you, young mutton.”
 He turned to face her, the laughter gone and only the hysterics left in his eyes. “Oh yes you do. Why I ever follow you on your silly adventures, I’ll never know. I must be mad. Or maybe just eternally optimistic the this time, this time nothing bad will happen, this time...”
 “You’re referring to the goat incident, I take it?”
He glared. Cilla sometimes wished she had such dark eyes so that she could look so formidable when she gave someone the evil eye.
  “Yes, I am referring to the goat incident, and every incident in between,”
  “So you’re complaining about my ability to lead a successful escapade, is that it?”
 “Complaining? Complaining? Cilla, I call this log to witness that I never so much as opened my mouth when you decided that the quickest way home was through the poison oak thicket,”
  “That wasn’t entirely my fault. We hadn’t even begun our woodland learnings,”
 “I’ve never complained when your farret -”
  “Mink.”
 “- mink - steals my clothes to make a nest; Or when you spiked my waterbag with tamarind* -”
 “That was meant from Jarvis,”
  “- Or when you threw that fruit at the bailiff because you thought he was insulting. You had the whole bloody village after us! We could have been drawn and quartered!”
 Cilla cocked her head with a lopsided grin. She wasn’t going to deny it.
 “Or, or, or! Do you want me to go on, Cilla? We could be here all day but for your benefit I will continue...”
 Thankfully he did not but went back to removing river water from his person with a short sigh. “I must be going insane.” he muttered.

 For awhile Cilla just sat admiring the sun in the green treetops, a blissful smile on her face. Water had never bothered her, even now when one ear was full of it, it didn’t dampen her spirits. Exciting adventures always seemed to give her an afterglow, despite gloomy Mr Soggy Trousers behind her.
  “Insanity may have something to do with it,” she said. “A great deal in fact. But I can think of another reason,”
 Tovah grunted.
 “You’re my best friend.” She smiled and stuffed the wad of riverweed down the back of his shirt.

*a laxative herb

{Needless to say this is all strongly copyrighted: No text may be taken, in whole or in part, without my permission. So to any pests out there: Write you own story, you lurking rats!}

I'm not sure if this will find a place in the actual book {at least an edited version - this is completely first draft}, but it was a relief and joy to write something so lighthearted and unimportant in terms of plot. I often love reading these sorts of parts the best and am sad that so few writers find time in their extensive pages for a few back-and-forths that may not have any value as far as story development, but are endearing to the characters. Not to mention it's realistic. I mean, at least for me. I would definitely try and spike some one's water with something nasty if they were nasty enough. Hehe. I guess really Cilla is just a more extroverted me. I say extroverted because she can talk to people much easier than I. And she acts on her impulses when I usually listen to reason. Usually.

-Gwyn

Be on the look-out for guest posts coming soon!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Freedom

I feel like a bird let out of is cage.

A horse set free to run and run after a long winter in the stable yard.

A dog that just remembered what it's like to swim.

While I'm not any of these animals, I am a girl with a driver's license.

 And with this beautiful weather bearing up my spirits on its wings, I can help but run and jump and laugh in the sunshine. I grab the keys to 'my' little junker '89 Toyota pickup, camera, and co-explorers {aka Hammie and Hooey} and hit the road.

 How exhilarating it is to go cruising backroads, the windows down and the wind in your hair, an endless sky above you.

I now know what Adam Young means when he sings
  When violet eyes get brighter
and heavy wings grow lighter
I'll taste the sky and feel alive again.


 The road touches the horizon miles away and nothing seems impossible. Indeed, I fancy I even flew! ... when I hit that pothole at sixty. Hey, my nick name is Little Miss Leadfoot :)

The world seems new and my inner explorer is wide awake. I feel like I've finely thrown off the garment of   winter like those coats and jackets I've grown to despise over the course of six months. So I've also chucked winter out of my header, which you've probably already noticed.

 But life really is an open road, readers, boundless and far-traveling. God's given you the keys, so there's no sense in sitting on the shoulder. He's also given you an accelerator, because you're not meant to live in the past. So take the wheel.
 Adventure is out there!

-Gwyn
find my photos of this escapade here

Friday, March 11, 2011

Flood waters

I debated awhile whether to post this on Big Sky of here since this is really more of a photography post, but you haven't heard from the Celtic Cowgirl in awhile so....

a new favorite photo of mine -- no editing required!
After what seemed years of temps under 20* and snow and wind and nastiness, we have suddenly gotten a pocket of warmth literally over night: Went to bed -- 5*. Got up next morning to 50*
 But, hey, I'm not complaining! 
We have had at least six inches or more of snow, but all that's melted already. But the ground is still frozen so.... well, see for yourself.
run-off joining the main flow
May I remind everyone that we normally have no water in our creek bed -- it was dammed up years and years ago and has been dry pretty much ever since. Well, not so much right now.
the creek bed is about three to four feet across dry. this is more like twelve.
Stunned at what I saw out my window, I did the natural thing: grabbed my wellies {okay, so they're actually just high-water snowboots, but that doesn't sound interesting.} and the camera and set off to explore these uncharted waters, Hammie at my side. 
It has completely overflowed and gone round the dam and has continued to carve a path back to its old route -- right across the flat pasture!
look at the way it carved out this bank. there's always been a sort of bowl, but now its a fall!
Ham and I followed the flow to the edge of our land where it meets the larger Hay Creek, which is on full churn too. All the while we were being followed ourselves by this little bugger:
This chickadee would peep and chirp at us; flitting from tree to tree and generally making a nuisance of himself, for he wouldn't hold still enough for a photo. This is the best I ever got of him.
A Bald Eagle also flew over our heads. I think she must be planning a nest or something because I've seen her around more than once. Usually Bald Eagles just pass through occasionally since they usually live near streams and lakes and such for the fish. And we've got no fish. So I wonder what she is planning...
big birds, aren't they?

froth. froth-froth. frothfrothfroth. i think i found a new found a new favorite word...
I nearly fell in taking this photo. Haha. The froth was pretty cool though, and there was a lot of it.
Coming back I noticed a lot of dog tracks heading towards home. I thought that was very odd since our dogs don't go out that far without us. And they had to be new to have survived the warm weather so well... Then it hit upside the head. Well, duh! What have you been listening to every night but coyote cries! That made me feel stupid since it took me a good while to figure it out. But there it is.
bubbles!
I love adventuring. :)

-Gwyn