Sultry September

While the eastern states have been getting hit with incredibly bad weather all this year, Denver has been breaking or matching high heat records that make trees wilt. Old sol decided to give us a brief break at the beginning of this month- particularly around my birthday in the first full week- but it’s been back to 90 + days for about three weeks and only broke today with primarily 60 degrees. Our high today was 72. I’m looking forward to winter about now. Phew! I was ready for a break!

     Meanwhile, I’m dealing with an early grape harvest- the earliest I’ve ever known since Mom grafted a piece of Grandpa Walters vine from the old country in the yard. That comprises one large section of prize-winning grapes from Burgundy which stretches across 100 feet of fence line and I’ve already grabbed a sizeable enough batch of those for myself to make a gallon of juice! It is great tasting, full-bodied and sweet as can be without a single granule of added sugar! Concorde grapes like these are loaded with antioxidants and give you energy along with improving vision! The other 75 feet of vines are newer additions added more than a decade and a half past. If you happen to be lucky enough to live in the Athmar Park section of Denver you can mosey on over here and get some for yourself. Just make sure you call me first to let me know you’re coming. Bring a raccoon trap with you and I’ll give you a gallon of juice free. No kidding. Wascally wacoon!

http://evelyns-nailsforlife.blogspot.com

 

     Top agenda for me this summer was finally getting my hair done and needed it badly when I had it done on my birthday. I don’t know how anyone else feels about it but getting my hair overhauled gives me a new lease on life. It’s right up there with teeth whitening, a new handbag, new car or a whole new wardrobe! For others it may be getting a full set of nails after having them off for a long period of time but for me, that’s business as usual, of course. It’s one of the constant perks of being the best nail tech on the planet, if I have to say so myself. It speaks volumes that I wouldn’t consider getting my nails done by anyone else unless I’m out of town or in another country. Pedicures are another matter. When you have to massage your own feet something gets lost in translation.

     At any rate, I’m up to my elbows in too much to do, once again. Sometimes that’s great but along with the heat I’ve lost momentum and back in the proverbial molasses trying to paddle my way out. Before this week’s up I’m going to have all the invasive, dead or out and out tree stumps removed from my yard to make way for some changes and brand new additions to the yards. I want to do a small kitchen garden next year and I need bare and fallow ground for that! I tore out weeds this year as tall as myself all over my property and I’m still bagging them! This is no joke. Last May all my free ground was bare except for soil and it is once again but I’m going to have to figure out a way to protect whatever I plant. Those flower bed carpets don’t work, by the way. Just a warning! 

      Survival of this summer has entailed trying to figure out how to get a bunch of reading done so that I can get on with my castle writing. I feel stalled when, as a matter of fact, I’m really just trying to fit too much into a day and that never works, you know. There are only so many hours in a day and reading used to be the bulk of it. Now I have to try to read and peruse books like Windsor Castle: A Thousand Years of a Royal Palace  (which is 526 pages of text, diagrams, photos and paintings the castle contains along with magnificent trifold page maps of the upper and lower wards) in a matter of days with one hour left per day to actually sit down with it. All I can say is that hour is golden and wouldn’t give it up for anything. Finally, a book that does justice to a Norman castle!    

      I think I’ll hire someone to pick those grapes. How does a dollar per pound picked sound? Like Peter Piper picked a peck of grapes? I thought so.

The Castle Lady

Expectations + Prayer = Real Results

 

     If ever I could say that a year just flew past me while I was trying my best to harness time, it was last year. By November I had to look up my records to find out when I had posted my last castle entry on my Word Press blog and was astonished to find that my Hertfordshire entries were posted during the earliest days of March and in a matter of a couple of days! I've been so busy trying to swat problems as they continually crop up that there was no time left for writing much of anything- especially about castles. Even this blog has really suffered for want of some good entries all through 2015. It's all the result of shifting from spending my designated eight hours ( or more) of reading, writing and researching to fitting those activities around a basic DIY day, every day. Nothing in the world is more impossible- with the exception of preventing wars! It's also quite exhausting.

     In the future, starting this year, all those things are going to have to take a back seat to my beloved work. The dishes will always be there. Mops need to dry out. I'll really put soap and my vacuum to the true test in 2016. Maybe someone will bless me with a Molly Maids gift certificate and I can go out to lunch instead ! Well, I can dream can't I ? Better yet, a housekeeper can stir up a white tornado around here while I sit in the eye of it and write my head off. It would be about time, huh?

     I do apologize for what seems like neglect but really is not. My heart has been right there- buried in the photos and videos and new books on castles and England. I'll have you know it's very frustrating to me when I can't get to my pet project. I even get withdrawal symptoms and pull out all my castle videotapes and the photos I've taken during my castle trips. I'm wondering if I ever had to have brain surgery, when they opened up my skull, they'd find it was shaped like a castle.

     All joking aside, upon receiving a revelation from the Lord, I realized suddenly that I have lowered my expectations about life a bit too far and really need to shift up into high gear a bit more. I need to doff the habit of praying and then forgetting all about it. Putting matters in God's hands does not mean dumping everything in his lap. We need to be actively engaged in the process of putting our prayers into action. The verse in James 2:26 is often misconstrued to mean that faith without carrying the matter out by yourself is useless but if the entire chapter is read carefully you find that it's all about bringing your attention to the matter at hand and to raise your expectations. Your faith level is contingent upon how high your expectations are of the outcome of your prayers and supplications to God. You certainly can't build faith without high expectations and you won't receive or acknowledge answers to prayer if you stay down in the well of despair.

     Therefore, I am going to challenge my readership on this blog and from elsewhere to start putting forth stronger faith along with accomplishments, dedication and plain hard work. Giving in to disappointments and discouragements can become habitual and they only weigh us down and put a damper on every effort we make towards goals, plans and dreams. God would not have any of us thinking like that and I'm not saying it's going to be easy but if you keep your faith and expectations high it can only help you. It certainly doesn't help to let all the negative naysaying and bad reports take center stage. That's nowhere.

     In order to live a full and happy life we have to take charge of it and there's no better way than taking the opportunities which allow you to shoot strong and high towards those things you feel will make a difference. I feel that way about my castle work and I'll never quit until I have accomplished exactly what I've set out to do. It's a long road but I love travel...

     So, expect to see a whole lot more castles on http://thecastlelady.wordpress.com in 2016 on south England and perhaps even more often on this blog which has always been my catch-as-catch-can forum. Of all my blogs, this one tends to force me to take stock and then forge ahead. In other words,

 

           

It's Springtime in the Rockies !

Just like these bears here I have finally had my fill of winter. Even though this has been a longer and colder winter than I have ever experienced in Denver, it hasn't been without its drama and tenacity. I'm a native so the changeable weather is a norm for me which I have always appreciated. Even our weather can get tiresome, however, and winter is not an exception. Let's face it, does anyone really like shoveling snow, bundling up like an Eskimo just to go to the store or knocking icicles off one's nose? Verily, I say 'no' to all three. It's a blast for about three seconds, at best and then you just want to go back inside, drink some hot cocoa (or herbal tea) and curl up with a book!

     Happily, this month has changed into something more along the lines of Spring with rain instead of snow and the outdoors is growing and blooming ! I can hardly believe it. Yesterday's morning weather however, started out with a good rain soak, followed by freezing sleet then by 10:30 a.m. it looked like we were in for a blizzard. When I walked at 10:20 a.m. the sidewalks were just wet and I got by wearing a Mack. It was actually invigorating. By noon the sun was coming out and the snow, sleet and most of the rain had evaporated. It looked to be a nice day. Now you can't even tell it did anything at all but the lawn looks greener and the air is bone chilling cold. I walked outside to put out the garbage and almost froze in the process. That's just a one day sampling of Denver weather this time of year. We're really different.

     All told, I just want to get on with spring. A little bit more of soft rains and we'll be good for the junction into a rip-roaring hot summer by July. By then I'll have accomplished an incredible amount of writing and other work and I'll be able to enjoy a summer with a bit more reading than I accomplished last year and perhaps head for England by the time my birthday rolls around. Sounds like a plan doesn't it ? Well, keep your fingers crossed for me and say a little prayer.

     I could use the good words about now.

  

    

Fabulous February

Who would've thought that February could sparkle with busy-ness and excitement ? If Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow this year then he might want to take another look! This entire past week has been a whirlwind of work, new contracts, party planning for Valentine's and a general feeling of newness that I haven't felt for decades. If you actually look at the calendar it will give you a little bit of an idea of what we're in store for and why we feel this way, despite age or difficulties.

     Firstly, it's a perfectly symmetrical month with four of each day of the week ! I wonder when is the last time that happened since it's the only month with the fewest amount of days- leap year or no. Did I just write that ? Whoa ! We also have four major holidays in the same week ! Rest up for President's Day, Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday and Chinese New Year, one right after the other in the third week and that's right after celebrating Valentine's Day the previous Saturday. Be sure to eat your Cheerios with raisins. You'll need the stamina.

     It's really warmed up this week as well. I never thought January would end but usually enjoy the quiet and freshness of January because it's a new start and almost a blank page. Goals will be set, slates will be cleared, cleaned and ready to be wrote upon. Most of my goals have not changed over the years because I took on the mindset of reaching my first decade of the 21st century with making aspirations come true no matter what it takes. I have not resigned myself otherwise but I have taken on a new perspective which will help me achieve more in the long run and remove some stalemates that I have encountered for far too long.

     Resolutions were never a tradition with me but I do appreciate the chance to begin again anew and this year, somehow, feels like a genuine chance to seize my goals and hold on with a renewed passion for my love of castles and forge ahead. All my life I have always achieved what I really wanted and have only failed when I have let someone come in and take over. Rugged individualism has always been my strongest ally and I'm sure it will always be this way.

     Well, I'm off to conquer some more words somewhere else. This might come to a shock for some people but I actually prefer to write in longhand and most of my ideas for writing usually start with pen and blank book or paper. So many castles, so little time.

Enjoy the month !

The Castle Lady

Not Just Words

     All writers cope with the daily dilemma of living life fully or sitting down to write. If you aren't out there getting your feet wet in it, you won't have anything to write about and if you don't take a good amount of time sitting down and writing about your experiences you won't have a true impetus or drive for your craft and may lose perspective of your writing objective. It's called writer's block. Writer's block is a terminal disease I've never had and never will. I have quite a backlog of ideas just waiting for me to get to them. I'm afraid I'll never have enough time to finish all of them. Only writers will really know what I am saying and understand this entry at all. That's the main problem. We're the most misunderstood people in the world but most of the world is unaware of it. They think they know us. We're that lazy slob that won't get a job. We spend way too much time reading and writing everything down. We can't help it. It's in our genes and our blood. 

     In order for the writing life to work well, a balance must be prevalent which is tricky and, at times, fraught with peril, exhaustion and (most times) crushing frustration. Add to that, the drive it takes to succeed business-wise and you will have enough stress and tension to break stones! We don't show it on the surface, however. We're busy writing about the writing experience- or something else. There is always something to write about- it's inevitable.

     It may be very difficult for a world of non-writers to believe that a profession, in which it appears that you sit and type all day, to be anything more than a very cushy life. If they could see the inner workings in our heads played out in their own, they would run screaming from their own body- if that were possible. Most people would not be able to take it, I'm convinced. (All my fellow writers are saying, "Amen to that, sister!") All of this is the basis for a misunderstanding which has never been discussed well enough between writers and non-writers. To understand who and what the writer is you have to read between the lines and visualize. It is like staring through the bars of a cage to see a tiger. A good writer is well hidden behind his world of words and he likes it that way. We may not want to be found. We may not want to be personally understood. Sometimes, we don't care if you read what we write or not. Our motivations are the most mysterious aspect of our profession but not to us. Figuring us out is your problem- not ours !

     This may sound off putting but what I wanted to convey the most in writing this entry, has more to do with the complicated life of being a writer. We may or may not be antisocial but for some strange reason we prefer a blank page and a pen to all other forms of communication and enjoy the fact that we do this better than most people. Given enough time at the keyboard or writing pad, we are in our realm (our kingdom, if you will) and there is a whole world out there to illuminate through the written word. It isn't just words....it's life.

and everyday at that....

The Castle Lady