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Saturday, July 31, 2021

Yarrow and Friends

  Today was the final day of the Midwest Writer's Workshop. Even so, there were five sessions, and I took a quick mile walk between two of them. I just went down to the corner to take a look at the patch of yarrow that seems to hang on to some of its magenta DNA, never quite (at least not yet) getting back to the white of its wild ancestors.

It was growing with Queen Anne's Lace and Chickory, but I couldn't seem to frame one picture with all three colors (white, blue, magenta). Here it is with the Queen Anne's Lace.
yarrow and queen anne's lace


And an even less satisfactory picture with the Chickory. There are so many stems of the English Plantain gone to seed that they really get in the way. yarrow and chickory

So the artistic half of my brain remains unfulfilled. The side that wants to know everything reminded me that I recently read you can make tea from the yarrow leaves. Here's what they look like. They are rough and ferny. I brought home a handful, and they are now drying. I'll let you know what I think of the tea. yarrow leaves

The conference has been great. It was for all writers, not just mystery writers. But almost all the sessions had information I could use. I need more time to process it all.

And it's always great to meet new authors and network. I realized that one of the faculty was an author I met a couple of months ago in the Pages Promtion event, and then promptly forgot her name. That won't happen again. We are side by side in this Zoom window, so I took a screenshot. This is Angela Jackson-Brown, an author and professor at Ball State University. I've ordered her most recent book through the library, When Stars Rained Down, and can't wait to read it. two people in a zoom meeting

In other news: I'm trying to keep to my writing schedule and am about half done with chapter 54 in Dead Mule Swamp Singer. Chapter 53 was one of the really short ones, so it almost doesn't count. I'll try to finish that before bed.

I also reviewed my shelved children's book project, Moose in Boots, in light of the workshop on picture books. It's not a bad thing to let something like that sit for a while. It's not as wonderful as I thought when I wrote it. Needs some serious editing. But I'm starting to think about it again.

See Revert

4 comments:

vanilla said...

Nice pictures, even if you aren't totally pleased with them. We used to always see Queen Anne's lace interspersed with chicory along the roads. Between expanded tillage and herbicides, not so much any more. Still see QAL, but haven't seen any chicory to speak of. I have but one stand of yarrow left in the yard and they are white. Used to have some pink ones, but alas, no more.

The Oceanside Animals said...

Lulu: "Does Queen Anne know that she has her laundry scattered all around the field?"

Ann said...

I have a small amount of white yarrow in my front flower bed. Most of it has been choked out by something viney that has gotten in there.

Sharkbytes said...

Vanilla- Interesting that your chicory is disappearing. Since it will grow almost anywhere, I find that has piqued my curiosity.

Lulu- I guess she has a LOT of lacy laundry!

Ann- Interesting. It's pretty tough.