FAREWELL TO APRIL

April is my favorite month. I wait for it all year and now it’s over.

Photo courtesy of the Netherlands Flowerbulb Centre (www.bulb.com)

In Virginia, April is when gardens burst into bloom and birds reappear.(birdhouse by Ruth Welter, www.artfulcreations.biz)

I rush out first thing in the morning to see what’s new and I check again at dusk.
Things happen fast in April.

The weather is usually pleasant and the bugs haven’t arrived yet.
Soon it will be hot and humid and gardening will become a chore. Growing June's fresh veggies is hard work. Watching April’s tree peonies bloom is bliss.


This week, after finishing a story for Custom Wood Homes about an amazing house on a Wyoming ranch, I've turned my attention back to launching my new Waterside web site.

It should be up and running within a week and you will be able to pre-order autographed copies of Waterside Cottages on the site.I checked Amazon and saw that they listed the book’s cover price as $24.99 and their discount price as $16.49. Since the blad lists the price as $30 (not $24.99), I called Kim, the sales coordinator at Gibbs Smith, to ask which was correct.

Alas, it’s the $30 price. (Kim was glad I caught the mistake and was going to call Amazon.)

Even with my author's discount and wholesale price, I’m not sure that I will be able to match Amazon’s price. Dan suggested that I order them in bulk from Amazon to autograph and resell, but with mailing envelopes and postage, my web price would still be slightly higher.

I promise to sell the book for less than $30, so stay tuned.

My new web site will feature fun themed slide shows,

decorating features,(Photo courtesy of Jaima Brown)

home tours,
must-see destinations,
cottage craft projects,beachy recipes, and great stuff to buy.

I’ll let you know the launch date soon. The Book Blog will continue to feature posts on decorating, gardening, ramblings and my next book project.

I'll also be posting Waterside Cottages: Behind The Scenes-- a chapter-by-chapter look at the stories and photos that didn't fit in or didn't belong in the book.

*** BLOG DU JOUR ***

If you love starfish and other underwater oddities visit Echinoblog. Don’t expect decorating ideas. You’ll find photos worthy of National Geographic and posts that rival a chills-and-thrills adventure series here.

INTO THE WOODS

Check out the new issue of Country Best Log Cabins.

My article on historic log cabins is available on line.

Click here to read the article and view the interior!

DOUBLE DELIGHT

Deer, squirrels and rabbits love to snack on crocus and tulips.
Daffodils however aren’t on anyone’s menu.

Every Fall after viewing the latest offerings from Dutch bulb importers, I add more varieties of these spring-flowering gems to my garden.

(Multi-flowering Geranium daffodils)

Last Autumn I planted about 60 double-flowering types.

(Ice King)

This week, the flowers burst open with spectacular results.

(Tahiti)

(A few are mysteries. This beauty is neither pink enough to be Replete nor orange enough to be Orangerie but it's lovely.)

(Blonde Beauty is my favorite. It looks perfect in the garden or in a vase)

Not every one of the varieties I ordered looked exactly like its catalog photo, but all added visual diversity to my garden.

(This split corona one doesn't look like any I ordered but it's gorgeous)

One of my favorite new additions is 'Decoy'. It isn't a double but its dark red-orange trumpet color is striking!

I’m not the only one enjoying the garden. Yesterday, I had a party for my mom’s 91st birthday.
The weather was lovely and we spent time outside. Instead of pin the tail on the donkey, we played can you find the asparagus. Winners got to pick their own.

The girls are happy campers, too.
They love picking insects out of the creeping phlox!

ROLL THE PRESSES

Asian elephants have a gestation period of 645 days.

African elephants are pregnant for 640 days.

My book from pitch letter to press has been in the oven about 820 days!

And for the past three weeks, Dan and I have been going over the final proof pages.

We’ve carefully checked every photo, caption and resource on each of the book’s 160 pages.(From Chapter 7)

It seems like a lifetime since I submitted the idea to Gibbs Smith in January 2007.

(From Chapter 9)

Now, as I sit here typing this blog entry, the book is being printed.

(From Chapter 11)

You can see a preview at
http://openlibrary.org/b/OL16960057M/Waterside-cottages

(From Chapter 13)