And for those of you brave enough to look: I almost stepped on this one while walking around the pond.
Not all that spectacular, really, except the first one (cuz he's so stinkin' cute) and the last one (if you dared to look), but the photos are proof that I've been outside walking.
I have three more days on a ten day prednisone blast (in preparation for a high resolution c-t scan next week); and though it makes me want to eat everything in the house and stay awake all night, I'm delighting in the extra energy and mobility the high dose prednisone has given me - to wander out into the pasture at dawn to greet the little screech owl (who's moved into one of the fox squirrel breeding boxes) before he retires for the day, and to chase the rabbit around the back yard at dusk.
I've no profound commentary to accompany this brief creature feature (I'll blame it on the prednisone), but I do have a few rambling thoughts to share while I'm here.
Heather Holleman's blog Live With Flair is one of my favorites. She never fails to inspire me with her fresh perspectives and insights, and her journal prompts at the end of each post are thoughtful, as well. Heather teaches writing at Penn State and is the author of the recently published How to Write with Flair. Always searching for ways to improve my writing (especially since I know that Heather reads what I write here on Pollywog Creek), I'm working on lesson one from her book this week: Finding Flavor - learning to "eliminate feeble verbs and spice up the sentence with powerful, image-provoking verbs."
Mary Demuth is a well-known author, speaker and writing mentor. She is an excellent story-teller and her works of fiction are deep and compelling, but it is her heart-rendering memoir Thin Places that has most profoundly affected me. I will soon be interviewing Mary about writing and how she encourages and mentors other writers. It is an interview my writer friends and those who love Mary will not want to miss.
Robbi Cary has been my personal encourager and writing mentor for at least three years. We have been together through multiple "critique group" changes, and I am honored to be collaborating with her on one of her beautiful creative projects that will hopefully be published soon. I encourage you to visit and subscribe to her blog Tough Times and Peace.
I read many excellent blogs nearly every day, which makes me hesitant to mention just a few, but I do want to close by mentioning my friend Barbara Thayer and her new blog A View from Serenity Acres. Barbara and I became friends almost thirty years ago when our boys were babies. Once a week we'd get together in one of our homes for Bible study while we nursed our babies, and our toddlers and preschoolers played all around us. Barbara has been a devotional writer and speaker for many years. I hope you will stop by and tell her hello. She loves to make new friends.
