Hey everybody! Look at this. I actually uploaded a picture. At least I think I have. Guess the truth will be in the pudding as the old saying goes when I try to publish this post. What’s with this truth is in the pudding saying anyway? Do people say that because some pie maker bragged about their delicious custard and then some doubting eater said he wouldn’t believe it was good until he tasted it? Maybe I need to go out on the net and look up the roots of that saying. Or could be I have the saying all wrong. Sometimes I do that. Mix up my old sayings with a bit of this one stuck in with that one. Sometimes the twisted result actually almost makes sense.
But back to my picture. That’s me in the middle flanked by my agent, Wendy Lawton, on the left and my editor, Lonnie DuPont on the right. It was taken in front of my new mantel in my new room that turned out to be a great place to entertain guests when they were visiting here a couple of weeks ago. You can’t see it but right on the other side of the room there’s a table and chairs with windows all around where we ate and enjoyed the view while we were chatting non-stop. Wendy was entranced by the ironweeds that my husband had tried to get bushhogged the week before they came so things wouldn’t look so wooly and weedy, but ran out of time. That was just as well since Wendy loved them so much she walked down to the fence to take pictures. To her they looked like wildflowers, not weeds. To Darrell, they’re weeds that not even the cows will eat. Guess that’s why they’re called ironweeds – too tough for the cows to chew.
We have an artistic flower arranger at our post office and she’s always got a beautiful vase of flowers on the counter. Makes standing in line at the post office not so bad. Last week it was ironweeds and black-eyed Susans. Very, very pretty. I keep thinking I’ll take my scissors when I go walking and cut me some of the purple blooms, but so far I haven’t. But it is funny how we can admire some unfamiliar (to us) flower when we visit a new area that the people there think of as nothing but a pesky weed. Of course my grandson loves the ironweeds. He likes to knock their stalks down with a stick – the taller and bigger the ironweed the better.
Actually I usually admire the weed flowers. I’m a fan of dandelions with their bright sun spots of spring-is-coming hope in March and April. Daisies growing out in the field cheer me up with their bright flowers. And this year we had a hayfield of Queen Anne’s lace that smelled delicious. Whether the cows will like Queen Anne’s lace flavored hay remains to be seen. How about you? Do you have a favorite flowering weed?
There’s a little over a week to go before I draw for the winner of my book giveaway. An autographed book would make a great Christmas present if you already have a copy. So send me an e-mail from my website or comment here and I’ll add your name to the pot. The winner will get a copy of The Believer and their choice of one of my other books.
I got a comment on my last blog entry asking about my Hollyhill books and whether the story would go on. I had so much fun writing about Jocie and her family and friends and there is still a lot to tell because the reader was right. Jocie’s story is only just beginning. So who knows? That may happen. The other thing that may happen is that I may start a Hollyhill blog. Perhaps Wes’s Hollyhill Book of the Strange. I’ll have to give that some thought and see if I can find some more minutes in my day. But first I have to finish the edits on my next summer’s book, The Seeker. Gonna do that tomorrow, God willing and the creek don’t rise or the computer go down.
Thanks for reading. Hope you have a great Labor Day tomorrow. Enjoy.