Just add water
Lots of things arrive late: spring, the mail, airplanes, babies and, yes, even me on occasion.
And so here we are well past daffodil season and lilacs are in bloom. Welcome to May and welcome back to the Café Girl Chronicles. I rejoin you refreshed, re-energized and with a renewed approach to my writing.
I haven’t exactly been idle. During the past several weeks I have been working on an outline for a screenplay for Any Color but Beige – a little at a time. Piano (slowly) piano (slowly) as my Italian friends like to say. And I can do this because the only deadline I have to meet is my own.
It’s not a bad thing to let your brain lie fallow for a while. Treat it like a garden. Turn the soil every so often. Add new thoughts, philosophies and concepts as fertilizer. Prepare it well and harvest the ideas that come.
In my case, I’ve planted a few seeds that are already bursting through this fertile soil of my mind like unruly wildflowers in a meadow. To be a good writer you also have to be a constant gardener. Sometimes friends tend your garden for you by showering you with little drops of encouragement, just enough to get you started. And so it is with me.
Ever since I arrived in South Africa a week ago, my friend Julie has been watering the garden daily, checking for signs of life. This is the same Julie who precipitated the idea that I could write a book. (See Chapter 25 in the book). So it’s only fitting that I sit at her dining room table overlooking her verdantly wild and natural South African garden bathed in sunlight and start writing again.
photo: © istockphoto.com/manley099
Cafe Girl Chronicles 
Glad to hear you’re back at your keyboard. And very envious that you are in South Africa!
It’s terrace season…we need a nice catch up over a glass of vino. Drop me an email with your avails for next week. And if Suse can make – that would be great, too!
Welcome back! I have missed you. Bloom, baby bloom!
And I’ve missed you back! You are the sunshine in this writer’s garden! You make me grow…
Yay! Great to read you again! I’ve missed you! Hope everything else is going well for you. Riccardo & I think about you often, when are you coming to QC? – Love, Helen xxx
Hi Helen,
I miss you guys too…look for me this summer for sure! Love Red. Are you coming down for any of the festivals?
Naanh, don’t think so. Rick still travels a lot – though in less exotic destinations as you do (Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Alberta, Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey…) – and he drives up to MTL for business almost every week. Staying home on the week-ends is a luxury for him. I too have been crazy busy since January. I’m hoping to go back to a less hectic schedule, as I want to paint! My brushes are calling me.
You are welcome anytime my friend! Your B&B awaits you! Let me know when you get back.– xxx H.
What a lovely re-entry to your blog. You have been missed.
Thank you Kathy. I’m happy to be back! I’ve missed writing for the Chronicles and I’ve missed the interaction with my friends. It’s so nice to know that folks are still following and faithful – even after a prolonged absence.
still waiting to hear about paris….let us know when you are back and avail.
I can tell you all about it over lunch.