August in Santa Cruz often brings fog right up into the redwood forest where I live.
It's odd to wake up to a grey sky after the hot, clear weather. My garden is happy with the slighter coolness, and not going as blowsy. A few giant sunflowers will bloom in the next week or so. Morning glories, zinnias, and the second wave of roses are cresting; poppies are slowing down. Most of the poppies were white with a violet heart, but I got one the color of a faded pink skirt. They only lasted a day or two. The agave is amazingly beautiful, with tons of flower buds, not yet in bloom.
Between writing bouts, I have been working on my first "pre-sweater" project, the Arachne Shrug from Deborah Bergman's The Knitting Goddess. The shrug is basically sleeves and a back, as most shrugs tend to be, so there is no shaping-for-armholes or other scary things. It's been a lot of fun, but this book is strange in that its author seems to have vanished from the world of knitting, and from publishing altogether. She also published a nice inspirational journal before The Knitting Goddess, and it's a shame there is no more work I can find from her. The Knitting Goddess was one of the first books in the current popular "wave" of knitting which went beyond an instruction manual--yet Deborah Bergman never went on to publish anything else, as far as I know, and has shut down the website for the book (and a lovely website it was, nicely designed--it can still be found on Internet archive sites). It's odd when authors just disappear, though--Ms. Strega can only hope that Deborah is happily knitting someplace, safe and sound, and living on the profits from her books.
Not much news to report from the Ponderosa--I am working on "bridging" chapters together at this point, and am working on a part of the book I have been avoiding for
five years. That's always a bit of a triumph for me. I'm finding there is very little in the way of glamour about writing a book--challenges, yes, exhiliration, the
gift of creativity and the bits of wonderful magic that go along with that, but so much of it is simply the ability to plod along trustfully--at least for me. If I plod long enough, I will end up with a finished book.
And that is that for tonight.
