April Monthly Blog: Spring has Sprung

tree with spring blossoms

It’s spring and I begin to think of growing flowers. This is a yearly crush! Each year I fancy myself having pots and pots of flowers growing with wild abandon. However, this is far from what happens. In some past years I’ve gone to a gardening center and purchased whichever pots of flowers had beautiful colors – this without concentrating on shade or light issues and how much watering each needs. Some of them plotted to die as soon as I took them out of the car, others waited a courteous amount of time and then sadly wilted. I am a terrible plant mother. I suspect that the plants have passed my name around and they see me coming and plot to make me unsuccessful. But each year I am not deterred from thinking about plants. I imagine them growing on our balcony and vining up to cover the posts of the balcony. Oh, how lovely each is. The colors vie with the sky’s rainbows, and I feel breathless with their beauty. Thank goodness I have an active imagination! Plants you are safe. I will simply dream of you and not fuss with what I should do with the leftover soil.                 

Talking about pretty colors … My physical therapist and I accidentally tore one of the exercise bands that we use. It popped in her hand and the end of the band jumped up and smacked me in the face. It didn’t hurt, just surprised us. This made me promise Abby, the PT, that I would buy new bands. The ones we were using had come from the California Rehabilitation hospital where I “vacationed” for two weeks a couple of years ago. It never occurred to me that they wear out. I looked on Amazon and sure enough there was a selection of exercise bands. I had no idea that they came in pastel colors. We’d been using the standard green, red, and yellow. The ones I sent for come in pink, pale blue, and pale yellow. It makes me feel reinvigorated to use “girly” bands. How funny.                 

I’m now trying to get the cozy mystery I wrote on the Kindle platform. The attempts made me feel like taking Prevagen and Balance of Nature (although I do like watching the commercials, most especially the Balance of Nature one with Kathie Lee. Her dog is quite cute) at the same time. I uploaded chapters one through ten and then realized that there was no chapter page insert for chapter eleven. I tried to make my own, but it wasn’t right. Then I turned to the book cover. OMG! What a disaster. I’d get a bit of the Canva art that I’d created onto the page, but it didn’t cover the spine. When I’d get the spine and back covered the title wouldn’t show. Then I called one of the companies that publish books and asked what they charge. Nope, that wasn’t going to work. I’d have to watch the 25 short videos Kindle has posted so that you can follow their directions (Does this give Amazon a clue that their instructions are beyond complicated?). Finally, after Tahlia listened to me wail, she said that she’d do it for me. Bless you and Thank you. 

                 See you April 28th at our online meeting! We’re reading The Mistress of Bhatia House. 

Have a cozy beginning of spring —

Fondly, 

Karin