Write On!

Well I'm on my way! I've been working all summer on polishing the content of my creative writing workshops I'm now offering for "profit" here on the Costa del Sol. I've also been developing this logo with an internet logo company and a marketing strategy. So here's the logo, what do you think? I've included both languages since two of my workshops I offer in Spanish as well. If you go to http://writeoncostadelsol.blogspot.com/ you can see the workshop summaries.

This morning I was on one of our local radio stations in English for a full 30 minutes talking about why I've developed these particuliar workshops and my objective of awakening people's creativity and encouraging more people to write for pleasure. Plus we talked about the kids' creative writing workshops I did this summer, one in Spanish and one ine English. It was harder than I thought it was going to be to get the kids' imaginations going and ignite their creativity. I think it's because we don't let kids get bored these days, and often creativity comes from boredom! Try letting yourself get bored, then write!

Next objective: get the publicity out in the local English press, and distribute flyers to the local English speaking clubs and social centres. Wish me luck!

Writers at work! A picture from a lunch break at a two day workshop "Winter Write" I did with a few fellow writers last Feb. Keep your eyes out for a new weekend workshop this year in the Mijas hills over loooking the Med!

The Catalba Tree - The Bean Tree

My grandmother had a catalba tree behind her house, near the back door. I always called it the bean tree, and didn't actually know it's name until I re-read Prodigal Summer by Barabra Kingslover this month.

It stands in my memory as the shade and respite from the hot days that often speckled upstate New York (Amsterdam) summers. Under it we snapped beans for freezing, pealed cucumbers for pickles, pealed corn for supper, played aggravation to alleviate the boredom, or simply collapsed on our backs after hard play for rest and coolness. My mind would drift around its rugged bark, up to its hanging bean pods, through its huge heart shaped leaves, to the filtered blue of the sky; not thinking about anything except the intimate details of that tree. Subconsciously the surrounding smells of cut grass, ripened petunias, old wood, freshly turned dirt, roses, imprinted on my mind. The sounds of bees in clover, flies buzzing, a lone car whirring around the curve, the pressure cooker from the open kitchen window, became permanently recorded in my inner senses. When I smell those things, when I hear those sounds, I am once again 11 years old laying under that bean tree dreaming, drifting, feeling, simply just being.

Oh to return to that house, that tree, to those simple summer days when simply just being was just fine.

TEA - Weekend Wordsmith

Tea, a cup of tea, a cuppa: it all reminds me of the differences between the English and the American. Here on the Costa del Sol, which is like the Florida of Europe, the English make up a large part of our local population. Over the past 6 years I have worked side by side with many English at the only privately run Cancer Hospice in Spain, started by an English woman obvously, and I have been introduced to a culture and language quite unlike my American own.

The English drink Tea, most like it quite strong and stick to the standard tea we might call English Breakfast. Some may drink the different varities offered by Twinings in those lovely tins, but most like their plain, but full flavored (excuse me flavoured) PG Tips which come in round packets instead of square bags with a tag on the end. Everyone has an electric kettle that plugs in and boils water in about 25 seconds so they can get their tea fix in record time. As much as those dainty, flowered tea cups and pots are depicted in typically English scenes, it's definitely the mugs, just like our coffee mugs, that people enjoy their tea fix in.

Now don't get me wrong, they also drink coffee, but after a meal, or mid morning while sitting at an outdoor cafe people watching and usually they accompany it with a brandy. Now that gets me to another English insight. Boy can they drink! At social gatherings they usually out drink me 2 or 3 to one. Most of them don't seem a bit affected either. Now mind you, I do see the weaving, slurring, inebriated tourist on occasion, and am always amazed to see they are often retirement age. Beer and ale by the pints, wine of all colours and origins, gin tonics, scotch, brandies, champagne, boy do they go for champagne, you name it, they consume it in large quantities.

They spell their words differently: colour, organise, realise, favourite,

They use their words differently too: A jumper is a sweater, a lorry is a truck, the bin is the garbage, bin it is throw it out, do the washing up is do the dishes, pudding is desert, car park is parking garage, the boot is the trunk, the bonnet is the hood, brilliant doesn't mean somebody is extremely smart it means someone or something is fantastic, lift is elevator, cue is line, shag means have sex, a biscuit is a cookie, aubergine is eggplant and courgette is zuchinni, have you got? means do you have?, and everyone is darling, love, mate or pet. You get the idea...And don't get me started on pronunciation.....pardon me, could you repeat that please.

So love, go fix yourself a lovely cuppa and have a brilliant time having a go at TEA as the Weekend Wordsmith on your blog. It beats the tele or going to the cinema.

Longings

I've been absent for awhile, longing to get back, but fearing the return to getting lost in this magical world and loosing track of time: time which must be spent motheirng, wifing, (do you like that word I just made up?) developing and marketing my new professional endeavors for the fall, completing the volunteer project I'm involved in, keeping life and a household of four in order, fed and on an even keel.

Oh for those single, selfish days, when the first and mostly only one that mattered was me. I could do what I wanted when I wanted and nobody was waiting for me to hurry up and finish to dedicate some part of me to them; to resolve a problem, prepare or repair something, take them somewhere, or simply spend time and attention on them. I wouldn't change it for the world, but it does bring up these occasional longings to swim into a selfish, single life for a season or two.

LOVE - A Feeling Poem

In my creativity and writing workshop I'm doing with kids this summer, I was preparing the session for tomorrow with the FEELING POEM as shared by Heather at Soulfood Cafe. (A most inspiring creativity and writing sight at http://www.dailywriting.net/ in case you don't know it.)

The idea is to use our senses to describe our feelings like this:

Line one: Name an emotion

Line two: “Smells like. . .”

Line three: “Tastes like. . .”

Line four: “Sounds like. . .”

Line five: Feels like. . . .”

Line six: “Feels like. . .”

Line seven: “Feels like. . .”

Line eight: Name the emotion

On this day of celebrating my love for my husband my sample feeling poem goes like this:

Love
Smells like baking cookies,
Tastes like peach cobbler
Sounds like Mozart
Feels like a cozy chair
Feels like a chill down my spine
Feels like a soaring eagle
Love

Try it! It's a wonderful way to talk about feelings, use your imagination and practice similes and metaphors for all ages! Thanks Heather for sharing your amazing creativity!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MY LOVE!

Today is our 20th wedding anniversary, and as we are not together I leave my love this special message by this modern means.
For our 14th anniversary in 2001, I put a little book together for you, with something I love on a page for each year of our marriage. I came across it recently and decided that this year I will fill in a page for each of the six years since. I will post them here day by day until you are back in my arms. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY LOVE!

I LOVE:
1. Sunsets….Starry nights…. Walks on the beach holding your hand.

2. Long leisurely meals…..Good wine….Fireplaces ablaze with you by my side.

3. Love stories….Romantic movies….Happy Endings…and my own Fairytale with you.

4. The cooling days of October…Autumn’s changing colors….Lazy, rainy afternoons wrapped in your arms.

5. Reading a good book….Telling a good story…Adding new chapters to our own novel of life.

6. Country Music…..Slow dancing….Dancing in the kitchen with you.

7. Strong hugs…..Soft kisses…..Your loving, healing touch.

8. Sensual massages….Hot bubble baths….And all they can lead up to.

9. Scrambled eggs….Fluffy omelets……And delicate soufflés.

10. Outdoor cafes…..'Chiringuitos' on the beach….Tabernas and mesones…..Sharing tapas and the passing of time with you.

11. American football…..Real Madrid vs. Barcelona……And all your volleyball games.

12. A hike in the woods…..The smell of rain…..Thunderstorms weathered with you.

13. Halloween parties…Christmas festivities…..Celebrating our love!

14. Innocent kittens turned into calculating cats…..Lively puppies growing into faithful dogs…Our hot passionate youth matured into our loving family of four.

14+1. Lazy mornings in bed with a book.....coffee......And YOU!

14+2. Travelling to new places....Learning about different cultures....Discovering new, wonderful things that make you, you.

14+3. Watching the moon rising over the sea off our balcony....it's white light twinkling like diamonds on the water....the constant light you shine on my life.

Word of the Week Zoo

Zoo days, in Washington or Madrid, when the kids were small and animals still entertained them. The monkey's antics and acrobatics; the gorilla's menacing eyes..so human looking; the huge hippo eating bananas, skin and all; the pandas..will we be lucky and find them awake?..only once, but they were playful and pleasing on that day; the otters-always my favorites, slipping and sliding in their rocky cascades just like they did when I was little; the prarie dogs entertained my dad and daughter for what seemd like an hour - hard to say who had more fun; the giraffes and elephants together in their enormous differences, elegance and playfulness juxtaposed; birds of prey, their regalness sadly hampered by the humiliating cages, I am only now aware of how I was attracted to them. Lions and tigers and bears, Oh my...yes they were there too......Oh for those Zoo days again, when the girls were small, animals still entertained, and I found much joy, insight and calmness in observing such wonderful creatures and in those simple pleasures of our younger family days.

In reponse to Bonnie's Blog Word of the Week idea! http://weekendwordsmith.blogspot.com/