{"id":817,"date":"2021-08-03T14:02:04","date_gmt":"2021-08-03T19:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/?p=817"},"modified":"2021-08-03T14:02:04","modified_gmt":"2021-08-03T19:02:04","slug":"checking-boxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/2021\/08\/03\/checking-boxes\/","title":{"rendered":"Checking Boxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scene revisions completes in past week: three.\u00a0\u00a0 Scene revisions still to be done…????\u00a0\u00a0 All so far have been more complicated than just weed-whacking away excess.\u00a0\u00a0 I read it, re-read it, re-read it again, finally realize that it’s a multiple-layer problem, and devise ways to fix it.\u00a0\u00a0 What kinds of things are complex problems?\u00a0\u00a0 Characters not in character,\u00a0 motivations that make no sense, motivations lacking or not conveyed with precision, scene creates new branch that doesn’t go anywhere in this book…that kind of things.<\/p>\n

Timeline work in the past week…narrowing the gaps, but not completed.\u00a0\u00a0 Timeline work includes getting events attached to the “Official Timeline”, checking that they not only actually go on that date\/hour, but that they’re not overlapping something they shouldn’t overlap, and that all internal transitions connect what they’re supposed to connect.\u00a0 For instance, a scene thought originally to belong on (fake date)\u00a0 Saturday the 4th of March, that should be happening after what happens on April 6th, but before what happens on the 9th, can’t just be stuffed in on April 7 and left there.\u00a0 Because INSIDE the scene people may mention dates, happenings, etc. that now conflict with the later date, from comments on weather to people…where they are, what their plans are.<\/p>\n

80-acre news…late last week, in a thicket near the north horse lot, I heard a bird song I had not heard before except in a recording years before (my choir director’s auditory training for the choir really helps in other fields!!!)\u00a0 I was sure it was a vireo, and not our “common” vireo (white-eyed) and suspected it might be a black-capped…dug out Sibleys and an old but excellent local wildlife guide for several counties in this area, and then went online to listen to every possible vireo call in our area.\u00a0\u00a0 Definitely not White-Eyed,\u00a0 or Bell’s, or Red-Eyed.\u00a0 It could’ve been one of two: Black-Capped or Warbling, and to me sounded a bit more like Black-Capped, which was almost extinguished but is now recovering, according to Texas Parks & Wildlife.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I could not see the singer clearly due to poor light conditions that day–and lots of little birds were zipping in and out of that thicket, feeding on the juniper berries\u00a0 of a juniper on the south side (I was on the north side, with a fence between.\u00a0\u00a0 Also no camera or binocs with me that day.\u00a0 And later, when I came back out with those, the birds were gone.\u00a0 No birds in those bushes & trees at all–the sun had finally come out, bright and hot. and they’d moved.\u00a0 However, either the Black-Capped or the Warbling Vireo would be a new species for our place.\u00a0\u00a0 Hopefully they’ll come back next year.<\/p>\n

Also–this past week the ironweed started blooming, its saturated purple and height striking as usual.\u00a0 A fair number of butterflies, including the big Tiger Swallowtails, a few monarches, Giant Swallowtails, lots of the commoner species.\u00a0 Many grasses started yellowing due to heat and no rain until Sunday night when we got a big hard rain, followed by softer rains off and on through the day and a final tenth of an inch, gently, last night.\u00a0 Just over an inch altogether.\u00a0 No runoff, no increase in flow in the main creek, but suddenly the wilting grass is back to upright and green.\u00a0 The deep-rooted tallgrass members (Big Bluesteam, Little Bluestem, Indiangrass, Switchgrass, Lindheimer Muhley, etc.\u00a0 are doing fine–they have deep roots and hadn’t wilted at all.\u00a0 Mexican Petunia is also purple, a softer purple, and was refreshed by the rain yesterday.\u00a0\u00a0 Maximilian Sunflower, the big native sunflower, has formed the wide mounds that will soon send up flower stalks, each with multiple sunflower-colored blooms on it..\u00a0 The native trees all look happy; the bur oaks we’ve planted have thickened and even those late leafing out after the freeze came out later and are now well-leafed.\u00a0 However, the big old post oak just on the other side of our north fence, has no acorns\u00a0 coming along on it this year.<\/p>\n

I’ve made my 1\/3 weight-loss goal this week (have now lost just over 20 pounds).\u00a0\u00a0 Not counting week one, the average loss per week is 1.6 pounds, nicely in the safe range where I wanted to be.\u00a0 There are variations, in both directions.\u00a0 When I went out to do my “land walk” today,\u00a0 I took along cellphone, keys, camera, binoculars, liter of water & ice, and was wearing short but thick rubber boots…total of about 14 pounds , which yes, I felt<\/em> going up-slope in the sun.\u00a0 Back when that weight was on me all the time…I didn’t enjoy walking out in summer at all.\u00a0 Expect to lose another 5 pounds by my next dental appointment toward the end of this month and hit the halfway mark of this project early in October.<\/p>\n

Vultures and (?) other birds, after leaving their cellphone tower perch, hunt for a thermal to help them rise way up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Most of these are turkey vultures with naked red heads and “fingers” on their wings.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

North horse lot still green in August, thanks to unusual rains.\u00a0 R- hauling manure to stack in south horse lot.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scene revisions completes in past week: three.\u00a0\u00a0 Scene revisions still to be done…????\u00a0\u00a0 All so far have been more complicated than just weed-whacking away excess.\u00a0\u00a0 I read it, re-read it, re-read it again, finally realize that it’s a multiple-layer problem, and devise ways to fix it.\u00a0\u00a0 What kinds of things are complex problems?\u00a0\u00a0 Characters not Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,16,29,10,5],"tags":[17,51,7,21],"class_list":["post-817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-80-acres","category-life-beyond-writing","category-revision","category-the-writing-life","category-vatta","tag-life-beyond-writing","tag-nature","tag-the-writing-life","tag-vatta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":821,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817\/revisions\/821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/elizabethmoon.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}