Maureen Bush

Apple Blossoms

Probably my favorite time in the garden and my favorite scent: when the apple tree is in full bloom.

Maureen

Experiments in the Garden

Occasionally (well, perhaps not so occasionally) I’ll plant something that’s pushing the gardening zone limits for Calgary. I’ve had lots of failures, but some successes too. Boxwood, which smells like a Spanish garden when the temperature is just right; vining hydrangea, which blooms, a little; and, flowering for the first time this year, two lenten roses. Hellebores, in Calgary.

They opened white, and I was disapointed they were the same colour. I’ve seen pictures of wonderful dusty shades. But each is shifting as it ages. One is white with more and more green, and little red dots near the centre. The other is morfing into green on the inside, and pink on the outside. I love watching the change, the flowers new every day.

Maureen

Contest Winners

We have a winner. Well, two, actually.

The magic spell contest for howweirdcanyouget.com has closed, and I have chosen my favorites. You can see them here: http://www.howweirdcanyouget.com/index_contest_winner_2012spring.html

The entries were wonderful. Besides the spells Griffith chose to work on this summer, there were many more, including wonderful words, like flazer and wizinko, disappearist and reappearist, and gothrow, mothrogh, cashmerish apearis, ruducto, and amobula. Wow.

There were also some stories from young writers that charmed me.

Thanks to everyone who entered,

Maureen

Writing Again

I’ve been away from writing for too long. Oh, I’ve been writing and thinking and reading. But not writing for hours at a time. A daughter in town, friends from Scotland, school visits, a book launch, and ongoing renovations have fragmented my time into moments and bits of work.

(The launch went well, despite a spring snow storm. The tattoos didn’t arrive in time, but there were spiders for a scavenger hunt, and prizes.)

Today I’m settling back into writing, in the hours before and after the counter installation and plumbing disaster. And I feel good. It’s such a pleasure to write, to settle into a story for a little while and play.

I’ve been thinking about what writers do to play, and I think this is it – we write. We might do other things too, but the joy comes in writing.

Maureen

A Fun Week

Tuesday morning I drove through the rain to Cochrane, for a couple of sessions with the grade 4 English students at Elizabeth Barrett Elementary School. Half a class was stolen by a giant gopher, and while most were rescued, a few kids chose to remain as gophers, exploring a new land filled with strange creatures. Then we discovered a class infiltrated by alien androids, who were defeated by the rest of the class with the help of a superhero librarian with a book of spells.

Now I get to wrap up the contest and spend a couple of days hanging out with friends from Scotland, and then on Saturday I launch The Veil Weavers. I’ve been promised a spider scavenger hunt and tattoos. Being a kids writer is so much fun!

Maureen