June Update

A lot has happened since my last post.

My hometown had a derecho storm go through which devastated many historic buildings, left many people homeless and removed trees that have been landmarks my entire life. Thousands of people had no power for several days. We were without power for only 4 and were quite fortunate have only lost a few branches.

The business that my daughter and I have been trying to launch always seems to be in conflict with something else more pressingly important which is very frustrating. Having a creative outlet and making items for other people helps me to deal with all of life’s stress and bumps but becomes an additional stress when I simply don’t have time to focus on it.

And my elderly father has moved back in with us. I wish I could say I was happy about that but the house that was not suitable before is still largely unfinished which means that small inconveniences are giant mountains which seem impossible to overcome. I have cried more in the last two days than I have cried in the last 6 months. The last two years were supposed to be a break for me but you can well imagine how well that turned out.

So wins for June so far. Hmm.

The garden is pretty and thriving because of the cooler temperatures and loads of rain we’ve had this month. I would be quite happy to have no extremely hot weather at all. The daisies we transplanted like their new spot in the fairy garden.

Not quite finished transplanting but haven’t killed anything yet.

The irises are mostly done now but I found a couple of late bloomers under the trees.

Irises are one of the first flowers to bloom in the shade garden

My shade garden is so full of over-grown flowers that I barely have to weed. Perhaps some actual gardeners might call some of the plants that I have in my garden pests but if it looks after itself and looks pretty it can stay. I have mounds of these all over the garden and the leaves smell wonderful. In late spring and early summer they have pink and red flowers on them.

Beautiful “weeds”

These have taken over the back yard. I’m sure they are also considered noxious weeds by some but I find them to be unusual and interesting. Until I have time to plant a suitable ground cover I will let Mother Nature look after the garden for me.

I think the strange pointy parts are seeds but I’m not sure.

Other flowers in the fairy garden. The bees are very happy here.

Bees also love these which fill in any empty spots.

I seem to have more than one variety of them

The biggest win for me is that the peonies have started blooming again. I have a couple in the back yard as well, though I can’t remember what colour they are because they haven’t bloomed in years. I will post a picture of them tomorrow if I can catch it before the stormy weather shreds them.

If you know the names of the flowers in my photos I’d love it if you left them in the comments for this post.

SunPatterns

shadows of cherry tree pre-bloom

Recently had the house painted. When the light is just right in the late afternoon or early evening, there are rainbows and silhouettes dancing on the walls.

Fly on the Wall

Fly on the wall
Climbs courageously tall
Then buzz for a moment
Smelling something so potent
A whirr stops his flight
But try as he might
He cannot escape that
Which causes him to splat
With a whirr and a bang
He is gone.
Emma Walder1990

Scrapbook from Yesteryear

While looking through boxes of old photos and letters this week I found a diary written by the Grandmother I never met and a scrapbook which I presume was also hers.

Today’s Quest: Sleep

Was up late writing but became inspired by this to go to bed instead. 
A ball of fluff wound neatly in a round
His essence is much easier to capture when he's sleepy
Oblivious to the camera by his head.

Listen to What I Mean Not What I Say

I want to be alone 
Without being lonely
I want to be away from you 
Without being apart

I want to make mistakes
Without being at fault
I want someone to show me the way
Without telling me what to do

I want moral support
Not a list of what you can't or didn't do
Emma Walder1996 

Photo by Du01b0u01a1ng Nhu00e2n on Pexels.com

This Is My Best Side

Good Morning Again!

Welcome back to the land of the living

I've been awake since the birds started singing

Time to get out of bed

Pay attention to me

MEEEEEE!

No, no, not the camera

That's not what I want

I want to be fed

Ahh, but if you must

Let me turn my head a little to the left

Memories of Gardens Past

Photos from an old camera

Can’t Wait Until The Lilies are in Bloom Again

Day lilies from my Mother’s garden

About Me

When starting this blog I knew I wanted to write but had no idea what I wanted the title to be. Most of the social media accounts that I already have are related to the media/games/music/series I was interested in when I made them. I also have a few related to the pen name I was using when I was writing regularly. I’ve put some of those at the bottom of the blog.

To figure out a title for my blog, I wrote down a summary of what I wanted my blog to be about in Notion and then tried to come up with witty names that I thought best summarized what I wanted my blog to be about. I read other blogs. I talked to friends and I watched tutorials on YouTube. If you haven’t started a blog yet, I don’t really recommend getting too invested in what people say in tutorials. I was so overwhelmed by all the information and so discouraged I almost didn’t start at all. It’s actually taken me months to get here.

If you want to write. Write. If you want to make a blog. Make a blog.

Do the thing.

Don’t be like me and second guess every decision you make. Don’t watch every tutorial under the sun. Many of them are either sponsored or opinion pieces and not actually tutorials at all. Of course this is also my opinion and you can ignore me too.

So where is this ramble going?

Ah yes! Titles. Starting things. Being Brave. Having Courage.

Awkwardness. Chaos. Fear. Getting in your own way. Sentence fragments.

I put all my ideas into Notion because it helps me organize all the random scribbles I have scrawled everywhere into a coherent thought. And it’s pretty. Then I came up with a list of what I thought were great, catchy titles. And because I second guess everything, I looked each one up to see if I got any results. Unfortunately, they were indeed as wonderful as I thought and they were all already taken. Being very discouraged at this point, I only had two working titles: something about adventures in adulting or ‘Clumsy, Messy, and Embarrassed’ which is not the greatest way to introduce yourself.

Bring on the thesaurus.

This wasn’t helping with my confidence so I went back to Notion and pulled out all the keywords to describe what I’m good at, what I’m interested in, and what I like to talk about. I added the new words to describe my feelings and took this list to a name generator. I tried my usual go-to site for writing or usernames https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com, which has a massive variety of name styles. Although many of them are not in English or any commonly spoken language. I ended up using https://www.name-generator.org.uk/blog/ which has a specific blog name generator where you enter your keywords for what your blog is about and then it gives you suggestions. Some of them were very witty and also very taken. Some are clearly written by a bot with a sketchy sense of the English language and how puns are made.

So you might be wondering how I got from adventures in adulthood and self depreciation to the current title. Well…

I got a bit carried away and distracted with the name generator.

My daughter and I want to open a shop of things we make in the not too distant future. In the coming weeks I hope to showcase some of our creations and document our journey to shop opening, so if you would like to join me for that stay tuned.Some of the things we make are frogs and fairies and little mushroom people. I added frogs, mushrooms, and fairy to my keywords and The Mushroom Fairy Journal was born.

Did you have any interesting experiences when you started your blog? I’d love to hear how other people came up with their name.