Gaia: DIVING DEEPER: A Writing Workshop - The Tree House

Re: Magical November Blues #2

http://gospelwriter.gaia.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:22:59 GMT

Yes, actually that's what we called them too, when I was a child, only with a short diphthong on the 'o' of 'rosen' (sort of like 'ou' in 'house', Canadian pronunciation).

I have school and university German, but nowadays I have to look up a lot of words when I'm reading it. And lord help me if I ever have to speak it. :)

Re: Magical November Blues #2

http://GabrieleStehle.gaia.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:59:14 GMT

Hello Ruth, I love hollyhocks too! Wonderful flowers. In Germany we call them Stockrosen. It doesn't sound that good in English (stave roses?), but I think your German is good enough?

Re: Magical November Blues #2

http://gospelwriter.gaia.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:37:35 GMT

Hey! When did you sneak that third one in there? You made me laugh (which can only be a good thing, I think that was the first time I laughed today). Do hollyhocks come in green? They do now!

Oh, and I love the rose-coloured window glass. (Ok, ok, I get the hint, I'm off to look for my rose spectacles now...)

Thanks, gg!

Re: Magical November Blues #2

http://gospelwriter.gaia.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:35:03 GMT

Hmm, looks a bit Christmasy, the second one, I'm half expecting Santa to come tumbling down the chimney, although that is probably a piece of wall and not a chimney at all. I like it a lot---and doesn't the first one just look so drab next to it?!

I love hollyhocks.

Re: Magical November Blues #2

http://GabrieleStehle.gaia.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:20:47 GMT

Leigh-Anne, I don't get Lady Gaga, though I do LOVE her name. What a fabuous album cover you got! This actually looks like one of your heroines, it's strangely fitting to aspects of your writing, don't you think?

Oh God, Sandra, that's one creepy bird! More on the weird side, I'd say... but the kitten is cute!

Me? I feel pretty blocked, creatively. No collage, second day in a row. Birth pains of my new novel beginning and not much else. Picked one of my photographs and try and do at least one thing simply fun today, worked on it to make it more interesting because I found it rather boring. A lot of things that don't work in the way I took it. I manipulated the crap out of it. Now I like it. Am I weird? I'll give you a before and after so you can witness how I went crazy with it.

From 'Hollyhock' to 'Gaudy Hollihock' to 'Green Hollyhock',
by Gabriele, 2009

Re: Magical November Blues #2

http://quietlaughter.gaia.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:10:28 GMT

phew, this is just what I needed here tonight. I am looking for inspiration *ahem* well yes procrastinating. I watched a handful of Lady GaGa videos - no idea why I like her, not usually my kind of music but she is wild and I love that. especially liked 'Bad Romance" ... then I played THE game and came up with a new band name. I am off to write now, then sleep.

Re: Magical November Blues #2

http://sandrajensen.gaia.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:44:13 GMT

great vid, gg!
Andrew sent me this one, which is quite cute (or really weird??!)

Re: Magical November Blues #2

http://ayla.gaia.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:45:12 GMT

Ha ha, that was silly fun GG. I love the shark puppets. Reminded me of old, old Saturday Night Live where the this big shark puppet tried to trick people into opening their door (and then he would eat them of course) - my favorite line was - ding dong (doorbell) - who's there? - Candy Gram ...oh I guess you had to be there, he said it funny. I still say it sometimes and get confused looks from my children.
I've dropped five pounds since Nano started. I quite love it. And you too.

Re: Magical November Blues #2

http://GabrieleStehle.gaia.com — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:55:25 GMT

I need something light now. I've done my writing even though I had no idea where to take it from. I did some laundry first, cooked apple puree out of some apples from our garden, an old kind you don't get to buy anymore. Started writign while it was still cooking, the smell providing material for a descriptive beginning. Now I want to have some fun. Dark day. I need to go out later to bring gym clothes and her by to DarlingGirl. That is good, it forces me to go out and move, do my walk.

My energy is low. Oh, I might need food! :) Ayla, you mentioned this too, some days ago, when I write I forget about food completely. Even if I haven't eaten in a long while there is no hunger and it will not make itself felt for some time after I've finished. Well, that's it. Gotta go and eat something, then out, airing my foggy brains.

Here's something very light and fun. Another one of Craig Ferguson's funny lip sync songs with puppets. Switches my tortured brain waves on a different channel instantly.

HEY, I love you! ;)

Re: Magical November Blues #2

http://gospelwriter.gaia.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:09:23 GMT

Lovely photo, Gabriele, another one to add to your collection.

Andrea, thinking of you and hoping the procedure goes well.

Sandra, there are days when I mean to get out and don't get out. And watch the world go by from my window as I sit at the computer. Not too many birds now, at this time of year, especially since they chopped down all except the pear tree from the yard.

Ayla, I'm with you on the birds, since the birds that are seen and heard this time of year in my yard tend to be crows. They do go on, don't they?

Leaves are more on the ground now than on the trees, wider open spaces, but I miss the greenness, the lushness (well, lawns at least are green now, but it's not the same). Along the street I look out on there are lots of evergreens to take one's mind off the brownness of barren branches. And I say that, but there's a beauty in the leafless trees too.

Re: Magical November Blues

http://jensiper.gaia.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:44:46 GMT

i love the owl and the lion and all of it.

Re: Magical November Blues

http://gospelwriter.gaia.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:28:00 GMT

I keep coming here to read and I keep meaning to post but somehow I never quite manage it. "I'll come back to it," seems to be my modus operandi these days. :)

I absolutely love that collage, Gabriele, lots of empty space, as you say. You mentioned 'Day of the Void' and it reminded me of an image I have on my desktop from the ESA Hubble collection, of dark matter in the universe. The image "demonstrates how normal matter - including stars, galaxies and gas - is built inside an underlying scaffolding of dark matter." Something that we suspect is out there, that can be detected gravitationally, but we can't see it, or say with any certainty what it is.

Like the void, something we can sense intuitively, that seems to underlie or have some effect of pulling together our lives, but we can't see into it.

Re: Magical November Blues #2

http://ayla.gaia.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:30:03 GMT

Even the birds annoy me. We have a huge wood pecker out there and he just peck (bang) peck (bang) pecks (bangs) on the pole barn all day long. Drives me nuts.

Re: Magical November Blues #2

http://GabrieleStehle.gaia.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:50:33 GMT

First things first. It's a photograph, the LeavesBlues. I was wondering where the confusion came from until I saw that I forgot to change that part of the headline. Hahah. Silly me. ;) I love it very much too. Love to play with colors.

Sandra, love birds too. We get a lot of visitors outside our window because out flat is under the roof and some have their nests up here. I have come to love them even more since I have discovered how they change the atmosphere of collages... interesting little creatures. There is an excellent Britsh crime story writer who created a wonderful detective. He's a bird watcher, lives by the water. I love the descriptive parts and all the details around this in his books. Otherwise they are dark, painfully realistic and very well written. Graham Hurley. The character is DI Joe Faraday.

Andrea, not sure about the timing but you might be in for your procedere about right now. Sending some extra love!

Re: Magical November Blues #2

http://sandrajensen.gaia.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:47:08 GMT

Gabriele.. wow. That collage/image is stunning. You should enter it in somewhere..

All I do is reinforcing something that's already there. I make it come out more, let it shine. I think this is what we all do in all creative endearvors, whatever they may be.

Beautifully said. Yes. I seem to remember someone literary talking about this, or maybe it was even Barbara, my freefall teacher, about how we, as writer's, do need to make things larger than life, not caricatures, but exactly how you describe here.

Ayla, oh you make me laugh. I love your description! I Love your son! I love your husband!! I love YOU!

Andrea. I'm thinking of you... god. Procedures. I had a dream about this recently, I think. Crossing all fingers and thumbs I've never had to have one. I'm not sure I could handle it. Sending so much love your way. The empathetic thing. Yes, you know, I think you're right. Dear hubby telephoned me last night. When he got to asking me how I was, hmm, he didn't ask, I told him, i.e. sick again, he sort of went on a bit about something else, and then backtracked and, bless him, tried to say something comforting but I could tell it was a stretch. Anyway, I'm sick so often I know he get's bored of it, but nearly always he manages to sound convincingly sympathetic. Not last night!

I realise I've hardly gotten outside at all. I meant to, today, but now it's dark and drizzling. Not that there's much to go out too. I can go up the road a stretch, to the horrible mad snappy fox terrier (sorry, I do love dogs, just not ones that go for my ankles), or up the other road to the main road past the nasty farmer, or up the third road to a gate, or up the fourth road to another yappy snappy dog.

Instead I gaze out my kitchen window where I've put a bird feeder. I love watching them, they are so funny and cute, checking, pecking, checking, pecking a bit more, checking, their teeny heads twisting this way and that, peck peck, check check, ooh fly away fly away, come back, peck peck, check, peck peck...

Re: Magical November Blues #2

http://pz.gaia.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:10:25 GMT

Mudge dude, missing your mug! Come back soon.

GG, fantastic collage, stunning colours, love it.

Re: Magical November Blues #2

http://drechanteuse.gaia.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:41:55 GMT

If it makes anyone feel better, even my dogs try to stop me from writing. They come and push their way in between me and my laptop, and look at me with their big brown eyes. Of course, the St. Bernard has a more forward approach. He will sit on me like a lapdog to stop me. We all must know that St. Bernards are not lap dogs.

Once, my mom accused me of being an "alcoholic with my computer." At first, I was like "What?" but then I understood, she meant addicted to my computer. She wants me to be a writer, even a successful one, but she also wants me to pay attention to her when she wants me to.

Gabriele, that blue in the leaves is so strikingly unusual. I have had cameras with idiosyncracies before, and I loved it, too. Once you know what your camera is going to do, you can really exploit that feature with your own artistic voice.

So, today I am going in for a small procedure. They are going to explore my upper digestive system, and I am sure it is a really simple thing, but I still feel a little nervous (no wonder after my last operation-gone-wrong.) The worst thing about it is that I ate dinner at 6 PM last night, and the procedure isn't until 12:00 noon. I think I shall be starving and thirsty!

And Sandra, I don't even find that people give me a break when I return home from my 6 1/2 hours of standing on my feet teaching. I have been noticing lately that many people are having trouble being empathetic around me. I wonder if that isn't something in the astrological forecast for these times. I see so very few instances out in the real world where people actually stop and take time to consider another person's feelings or motivations.

Re: Magical November Blues #2

http://ayla.gaia.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:09:34 GMT

GG I want that picture! Poster sized! It's really beautiful.
I just read Sandra above and felt a little better about myself. It's always good to know you aren't alone, isn't it? My son came in last night all chatty for about the tenth time in one day. I wasn't writing anymore but I didn't feel like talking either. He kept saying "You hate me, don't you." He's 24 years old for heavens sake and still reacts to my quiet moods the same way he did when he was 5! I kept telling him I loved him but I wasn't in the mood to talk, I actually even said "I hate talking." LOL - not sure where that came from. And of course he didn't believe that because at times I'm ridiculously chatty, a really Chatty Kathy. I even find myself getting pissed off when Brad calls. He'll say "What are you doing?" I'll say "I'm writing" and then he just goes off talking like I didn't even say I was writing. He pouts too. "Well, I guess I'll hang up. You obviously don't want to talk." This is the man who encourages me to write, almost gets mad that I don't believe in myself enough to try harder with my writing.
This thread and these conversations really helped me to understand that it isn't just "me." That I'm not a bad Mom, wife, Grammy, friend ...I'm just a writer too!
Thank you! xo

Re: Magical November Blues #2

http://sundovt.gaia.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:02:07 GMT

I absolutely *love* the collage gg. Gorgeous! I'm out of synch with all the notes from Nano, and it will probably takes me a couple days to catch up to it all. Loving Poetjo's eraser, it's good to see you guys writing like madmen.

More later.

Re: Magical November Blues #2

http://GabrieleStehle.gaia.com — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:41:48 GMT

Another rainy, grey November morning, almost entirlely leached from the colors of autumn. Hard to believe our sunny walk in the forrest was only two days ago.

I edited one of the pics I took that day and realized something about the process. My camera makes some things look more blue-ish then they are, like pavement, cobble stones, rotting leaves... and I love it for that. I'm not interested so much in 100% realistic and accurate photography. Like in writing, I look for the little extra, something that can be seen and brought out only by me - the way I see things, the way colors speak to me. All I do is reinforcing something that's already there. I make it come out more, let it shine. I think this is what we all do in all creative endearvors, whatever they may be.

Photograph "LeavesBlues" by Gabriele, 2009