Blogging feels like giving the world a peephole through the walls of privacy we normally keep open only to family, friends and allies. Good facts or bad say so little about a life with its underpinnings of pain and joy, dreams and striving. But, here goes. Peep away.
I live in a unique log home that, atop its rocky plateau, eyeballs a highway snaking through granite hills before disappearing out of site. Other windows in this large house show us the plethora of conifers, and the occasional arbutus with their peeling, orange bark, and sadly some scraggly, ugly, Gary oaks that someone decided weren’t just indigenous, but were in many instances protected. Beyond our trees are hills and more hills, the ones from the bathroom so evenly rounded they are reminiscent of a lady’s breasts. Through the deck sliding glass door, on days when cloud is not, across the top of the trees, you can see snow-capped mountains peaks. It is on this lovely backdrop that I gaze as I decide what a character might retort to his antagonist. It is here that I think about writing.
However, if you were to look in the filing cabinet behind my desk or the five storage boxes keeping me company in my spacious office (all rooms in this house are deliciously large which poses a disturbing problem for my husband and me in the inevitable downsizing), you would find evidence of a different life in computers starting long before most people knew what computers were or could do. My computer work has blessed me, satisfied my need to create order, and been a great joy. I like to think that what I created and those who use(d) my systems are blessed and joyful too.
Back in 2004, I decided, sort of out of the blue, to enrol in a local University Arts Department with the intention of completing a degree in creative writing. Our daughter was just wrapping up her own BA, our two boys had been career-bound for some time, so it was time. I continued to consult full time, creatively juggling my hours, my wife-time, my many duties, to accommodate classes. As my second degree, aeronautical engineering being the first, I only needed thirty credits, which allowed me to complete the degree in five years.
When I am not clicking away at the keyboard, I play Lego with the grandchildren, or my husband and I take them for walks in the “big trees”, or by the water. I think I enjoy gardening, and I like to see myself as a gourmet vegetarian cook, though that might be a bit over generous. I do regularly bake my whole-wheat bread and have done ever since a dear friend shared her recipe with me back in the 70’s. I make blackcurrant jam and mango chutney for my husband, marmalade for the kids and recently taught my young grandson to make chocolate ganache. Both my sons, as boys, and my daughter helped me in the kitchen and are now capable cooks. You need to tempt kids early on, I told them, with easy dessert recipes and build from there. Anyone who can cook is empowered. Just like anyone who can write.
So, that’s my opening blog to say hello to you readers. Now you can picture me in my cedar-walled office clicking away on the keyboard, husband in his office tying fishing flies and the grandkids bouncing on the front room play mattresses.
More to come.