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#AtoZChallenge: Tractor
Photo © Diane Weidenbenner Have you seen the “American Pickers” show that “follows expert antiquers as they scour the country’s junkyards, basements and barns for hidded gems?” (according to History.com) Well, my friend Sandy and I are the Indiana/Illinois Pickers. We go for country drives and we never quite know what we’ll find. We have followed highways, byways, side roads and back roads in search of the unappreciated or forgotten treasures. One time we followed a dirt road right into the middle of a corn field. No, really! Thus far, one of my favorite discoveries has been this Ford tractor. First, my dad loved the Ford brand. He always bought…
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#AtoZChallenge: Sycamore tree (in celebration of Earth Day)
Sycamore tree in winter. Photo by Diane Weidenbenner. Happy Earth Day 2017! This winter, while walking beside Big Raccoon Creek near the Bridgeton Grist Mill in Bridgeton, Indiana, my friend and I noticed this beautiful, notty white-barked tree. It’s leaves were long gone but hanging from the tree were one-inch woody balls attached by small branches. Upon research with Google, we discovered this beautiful tree was a Sycamore, and the balls were actually the fruit of the tree that ripened in October and broke up into many small seeds throughout season. Sycamore “fruit”. Photo by Diane Weidenbenner. There were still very large leaves gathered at the bottom of the tree,…
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#AtoZChallenge: Nature
Mama fox and one of her kits. A fallen tree is their habitat so we can’t clear it away. Photo by Diane Weidenbenner. My husband and I have .7 of an acre on the north side of a small town in Indiana. It’s an older neighborhood and one that isn’t “hip” anymore. All the chain restaurants, the Walmart, and the mall with Macy’s and Carson’s is located on the south side. We enjoy less traffic up north, and an Applebee’s was built shortly before we arrived. People would ask where we moved to and the follow-up comment was “They just built an Applebee’s up there, ya know!” Yes, we’ve heard!…
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#AtoZChallenge: Life everlasting
Since it’s Good Friday, I’m reposting an appropriate reflection for the A to Z Challenge. Hope you enjoy! I recently talked about going on junkets with my friend, Sandy. One of our favorite sites to explore is an older graveyard. No, we’re not into the macabre and we don’t visit them at night. (We wouldn’t be able to see anything in the dark!) We like to read tombstones and wonder about the people behind (or as it were, underneath) them. The stories are different. We may find families that are buried together at different times. Some of the headstones are worn, overturned or broken but you can still decipher what…
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#AtoZChallenge: Junket
Photo © Diane Weidenbenner My friend, Sandy, and I venture out of town whenever we can when the weather is nice. We’ve gone Amish Hunting, which sounds a lot more painful than it really is (at least for the Amish). We love to discover antique stores, barns, civil war graveyards and farms with lots of great animals including but not limited to sheep, cows, goats or the boutique miniatures that have become popular. We both remember when our parents and grandparents would go for “Sunday drives” and laugh at how we like to do the same. We’ve both traveled out of the U.S. so perhaps this is our way of…
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#AtoZChallenge: Il Paretaio B&B
Photo of Il Paretaio from TripAdvisor website. Many moons ago, my friend and I planned a trip to Italy. We mapped out Bed and Breakfast inns in Rome, Venice, Florence and Tuscany, in hope that we’d have a more authentic, local experience. We chose Tuscany because Karen Brown recommended Il Paretaio as a relaxing choice that also offered one of the top riding stables in Italy. We thought it would be neat to go horseback riding, as well as visit beautiful countryside. Preparation for our trip included us taking English riding lessons at a stable near Elizabeth, Colo. We learned how to saddle up the horses, ride them (posting with…
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#AtoZChallenge: Fur
Oliver, aka “Ollie, has some of the softest belly fur I’ve ever seen or felt on a cat. He turned 12 this spring. © by Diane Weidenbenner If you own a cat, dog or other cuddly pet, you know there is just something sweet and blessed about fur. Recently our dog, Hershey, got banned from the bedroom while my husband, Joe, and I sleep. If we’re watching TV or reading, Hershey is allowed in the bedroom and even (gasp) on the bed. Something happens to him, however, when we fall asleep and he chews holes in our comforter, extracting the stuffing and carrying it around the house like it is…
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#AtoZChallenge: Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire. – William Butler Yeats
I’ve always wanted to be a writer. When I was younger I wrote poetry and received positive feedback. I worked on the yearbook committee in junior high and enjoyed my high school AP English class with Mr. Carter. I would have been on the school newspaper but Mr. Ridgway was the newspaper teacher and he scared me. Mr. Ridgway taught sophomore advanced English. He was known to scare his new students during his initial class of the year to gain their respect. He would find a student who did not establish continuous eye contact with him, embarrass that student by yelling at the person “if you’re not going to pay…
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#AtoZChallenge: A mouse’s point of view
Actual note found in outgoing mouse mailbox. The tenants asked that we add the stamp… Dear mom, My move to Indiana has been great! I found a deluxe apartment on the north side of town. I have many roommates, so I’m never lonely. It’s furnished and we even have daily food delivery, although the variety is a bit sparse. The landlords deliver cheese and peanut butter to us in black plastic food stations. It’s so nice they are covered so our food stays fresh. They seem new but already the front doors are broken. When we eat, one of us has to hold the door open for the others, as…
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IWSG: Chicken or the egg?
What comes first, the chicken or the egg? The question I’ve been asking myself lately in the same vein is, should I go to a writer’s conference this year, to help motivate me to finish my first book, or, should I commit to finishing the book and then reward myself with a writer’s conference? Having the discipline needed to write consistently is something I’m struggling with, so I feel like I shouldn’t invest the money to attend a conference until I’m willing to put in the work. However, going to a writer’s conference (like Bouchercon, Killer Nashville or Malice Domestic), may give me the encouragement needed to move my story…
