P is for Patience

P is for . . . ?  To see if your Alphadello guess is correct, click here.  Too bad the word Impatiens doesn't start with a P.  This week has been all about patience, as one thing after another breaks down at work and long projects reach the inevitable slump my writer-friends call "the wasteland that is the middle." It's the middle of the summer, the middle of the year, and the middle of the process. The initial enthusiasm has mellowed, the exciting race toward the end hasn't started, and the project is just running on plain old self-discipline. We repeat our motto to each other: onward and upward! 

Hot off the Press

Are you ready to guess again?  Here are the latest Alphadello entries--a flower beginning with N and one beginning with O.  To see if you're right, click the picture.

 The latest entries from the War of 1812 blog involve a general who would later send my ancestor into battle (July 14) and a ship that I saw in real life just a few weeks ago (July 21), just a block or two from home!

Keeping Up

It's comforting to know that journalists sometimes had trouble keeping up with their work, even 200 years ago. From last week's War of 1812 blog entry:

Want of help, and various other occurrences, has prevented the issuing of the Gazette until this late period; and we must beg the indulgence of our subscribers, in these critical times, if its appearance is somewhat irregular.  (Kingston Gazette, July 3, 1812.)

To those of us who sometimes neglect our blogs, that's a comforting thought. On the other hand, the Gazette editor had a pretty good excuse. Even though he'd been in the newspaper business for seven years, he was just 22 years old. He'd been married for all of ten days, he was serving in the militia, and war had just broken out. Pardon me while I go and lie down.

Meanwhile, here's your latest Alphadello clue. Can you guess what "M" stands for in today's installment of the Garden Alphabet?  To check your answer, click here.

More Testing

Flowers at the market in Kingston.

Still testing. Thanks for bearing with me. No need to reply to this...I'm just learning how to use Blogsy, which (aside from having a great name and a completely adorable icon) allows me to work on the blog even when I don't have an Internet connection, and saves me from having to use the infuriating new interface that the Google Gods have imposed on their "Blogger" customers.

Testing Testing

 

Sorry for the hassle. I'm testing a new blogging app. If you have any trouble viewing this post (e.g. text too small or picture too huge, etc.), would you kindly let me know? And if you don't receive this post, please contact me.

Hahaha. Just kidding. I was just checking to see if you were paying attention.

I now return you to your regularly-scheduled whatever-you-were-doing. More soon!

P.S. How do you like this SKY? Amazing, eh? I took this photo from my window a year or two ago. That little dot is actually a bird, not a dust speck.

Flight of the Royal George

I'd been looking forward to this War of 1812 re-enactment for weeks, but when the first tall ship appeared I started madly taking photos, accidentally left the "video" button on, and ran out of space on the memory card.

I know there's a way to fix that by pressing some mysterious combination of buttons on the camera, but have YOU ever fiddled with technology while cannons are going off and people are yelling "Ooo!" all around you?

It took me a minute to realize that I had the next best thing in my bag. I grabbed my sketchbook and started scribbling.

It was a great event. Here's the best photo that I did manage to get. I'll spare you the jumpy, washed-out, useless two minutes of video!

Learn more about the Flight of the Royal George here.  (Typing that sentence made me feel as if I was at work, doing an entry for the library's War of 1812 blog!)

Bad Blogger

I knew I was running behind with my Everdello posts, but it wasn't until I played catch-up that I realized how far behind. It's been more than a month since my last entry, and I've done a bunch of new posts on the other two blogs, but did I keep you up to date, as promised?  Did I, did I?

Well, here goes the catch-up. First, can you guess the four Alphadello "Garden Alphabet" entries from their thumbnails above?  To see if you're right, click here.

I won't ask you to guess the War of 1812 entries. That would be too tricky. I'll just say that the project keeps surprising me. Each week I go into it thinking there's nothing interesting to say. Then, inevitably, some little crumb starts to call to me and off I go, galloping after it. Just be glad you're not my office-mate!  She has the patience of a saint. Anyway, here are the most recent crumbs from that blog:

• War Hawk Henry Clay Wants to Get the Show on the Road  
• Kingston Celebrates the Birthday of "Mad King George"
• In Their Own Words: Four Points of View, on the Eve of War 
• "Life Goes On": Shopping, 1812-Style  
• "WAR IS DECLARED"

Thanks for sticking with me. I'll do my best to post shorter Everdellos, more often. I've got some Canada Day sketches to share, as well. Those will be coming up soon. No. Really. I mean it.