Flash Fiction, A Poem, Garden Glimpses, & an Update

In this post: a mini inspirational story, a poem, plus what's up in my garden, and a blog and writing update.

A sparrow, yet loved and counted.
Photo: Ratanjot Singh.Unsplash.

Little One

The little one watches from her spot in the old apple tree. She peeks through the canopy of bright green leaves and ruby globes. She watches while resting in shady, cool, calm. She stares at the rushing, busy, blurry people. Where are they going? Why so rushed?

People of all sizes and styles, yet all with the same harried, frazzled, furrowed frowns. She cocks her head, then fluffs her feathers: just a little sparrow, yet loved, fed, and counted.

While people rush and worry, she lives, and breathes, and feeds, and flies; before she falls, and softly dies.

In Him.

***

End of Self

Now at end of self,

decided:

Give my all to You.

Lay down each rock,

and burden, sin:

and start each day anew.

***

Garden Glimpses

January here in the southern hemisphere, is a very hot time for both the gardener and the garden. The Western Cape where we live, is a winter rainfall region, so we have almost no rain in summer. We are blessed to have a borehole though, and the pump is situated close to my garden. Although borehole water can often be brackish, our water seems fine for now. The only reason I know this is because it has not affected the leaves of my plants.

I do mainly container gardening, but I do have a few garden beds. I have one near my kitchen, where I am currently growing basil and mint. The basil was a big surprise, as I can't normally get it to germinate in summer. Also, I am very sentimental about this particular herb, as it was my late mom's favourite. By the way, try adding some to your next toasted sandwhich. :)

Back to the containers, which are large barrels as well as smaller ones which my husband cut. I have some spinach, spring onions, sweet potato, baby tomato plants, and other ornamental plants growing in those. I also have a bed alongside these which is currently housing six mealie plants. First time growing those for me!

It makes me happy to have some greenery and veg in my garden at this hot time. Of course, I have to water and feed often to keep everything going.

Well, happy gardening to all the gardeners, and to those who live in apartments, why not grow some basil?

My cat Julius hiding from the world!

Swiss chard

First mealies

Luxuriant spring onions

Julius loves the garden until I take the hose out!

Writing Update

I have nearly reached chapter seven of my latest story, and am pretty pleased with the story so far and with the progress that I have made, especially given that I have mainly been working on it once a day in the afternoons. For those of you who are writers, (welcome!) I am probably going to write about my particular writing process in an upcoming post.

So far, the story is quite fast paced, with some tension, (I remembered to throw problems my main characters' way!) Love is also in the air, which is always nice. Evil and danger lie ahead, but the characters are progressing and getting answers to some questions. I will remain purposefully vague.

At the moment, my main character, Tirsa, is having a well earned rest in a safe environment. My other main character is about to experience some trouble.

Today, I am doing some necessary research for the story, and will probably pick up my story pen again tomorow or Monday.

Here is another excerpt from the story. (Un-edited.)

"Tirsa said nothing. She'd let Lidda assume she was acting like a distracted bride. She doubted whether Lidda or anyone else in her family would understand how she was feeling. They would all be shocked speechless if she spoke her mind: she wasn't ready to get married. Not until she'd found the answers she so badly needed. She knew that once she was married, she would be swamped with duties, and the precious amount of free time she now enjoyed as a maiden would be forever gone. As the afternoon wore on, she ran through her options in her mind. There were only three. She could do what was expected of her and marry Han during the coming wedding season, or she could steel herself and tell Daddo that she couldn't marry the man he'd chosen; that he should consider Lidda for Han's bride. The last option was the scariest one. She could slip silently away from Sybella to go seek the answers she felt sure lay waiting beyond her hill."

"The Searching."

Freebies, downloads and books for bookworms.

Free Stories & Poems to Download.

I have recently published a bookshelf blog on Weebly, (sorry IT folks, it's free :)), mainly for the purpose of making pdf files available for you, my readers.

These consist of compilations of blog stories and poetry, but each volume contains at least one brand new item. So, if you'd like to have all of my stories in one place, and/or would like to read them off-line, (Hello South Africa!) then you might like to pop over to the bookshelf.

Currently, there are four volumes to download, including short stories in both English and Afrikaans, and the story, Changed Lives.

Please forgive any formatting issues.

Enjoy! (Link below pictures.)