Mansfield Hollow State Park

This was a perfect spot to sketch, write or have a picnic.

January has been a productive month and it's not even over.  Three manila envelopes went out the door, all different.  The picture book I started in December is probably the most creative project I've ever done.  It was a lot of fun to write.  I look back on what I had in mind and what I ended up with.  They are a world apart.  I had some questions during our critique session in hopes of not leaving any stones unturned on this one.

Food that cooks itself while I'm busy writing...

I always order the Carnitas De Puerco at Puerto Vallarta because they're excellent.  So, I tried to create a similar recipe.  This is really good, but I still think theirs is tops.  It makes a ton, but the meat can be frozen.  

Crock-Pot Pork Carnitas 
Pork shoulder - trim fat
1 Corona beer
1/4 - 1/2 cup lime juice
garlic - 1 clove
fresh cilantro
flour tortillas
fixings:   tomatoes - sliced thin, onions - chopped, avocado, sour cream

1. Cook pork, beer, lime juice and garlic for 8 hours in crock-pot.
2. Add chopped cilantro
3. Shred pork.
4. Put pork on a tortilla and add the fixings.  Serve with rice or refried beans.

This past Sunday we hiked around Mansfield Hollow State Park and boy what a hike that was!   On the map, we started out on the yellow trail circling the upper reservoir.  I wanted to check out the 2.28 mile long blue route on the lower right portion of the map.  That was a beautiful piece of trail!  My first thought was to go out and back the same way.  Then I thought we'd follow the black and white levee route to the parking lot.  When we got to the end of the blue trail, it occurred to me that the levee ends and we couldn't go back that way.

Walt thought it would be too dark to head back in the woods, so he suggested that there must be another way across that river.  LOL!  The area was not shown on the map.  I was apprehensive, but I was also up for an adventure. Turns out divided highway #6 was the first bridge across the Natchaug River.  As you can see from this map (drag it up a little bit) it was quite a ways away.  We must have looked ridiculous, walking fast and running with a dog along the side of the highway.  On Route 195, we walked several miles in darkness with cars whizzing by.  In all, we must have hiked 12 plus miles.  My New Year's resolution was to exercise every day.  Check!
Moral of story: Hiking around the lower lake is possible, but it's dangerous, illegal and a LOT of work! 

Bigelow Hollow State Park, Union - part 3

After stressing, stewing, floundering, pondering, designing, writing, shelfing, writing, scrapping, and unscrapping, Houston I have a story!  I spent a day working on one idea, but realized that I needed to do more research to finish it, so I put that project on the shelf and went in a different direction.  I spent another day taking a MG WIP and whittling it down to a PB.  At the end of the day, I decided to scrap the whole project.  By sunrise the following day, I resolved to make it work and it is!  I am immensely satisfied with how it's going given the rocky start.  I've been hyped up trying to keep an eagle eye on the word count with books like Lightship and Wolfsnail in mind.  Yesterday, I found Donna Bowman Bratton's post that made me relax about the number of words in a NF PB.  Although I've been focusing on being concise, chopping it down too far would be an injustice to the topic.

I made this last week.  Guys may need to eat about seven of them, but hey, it was a fast healthy dinner.

I'll be Hungry in an Hour Wrap
Roasted veggies - cut up pieces of pepper, onion, squash, and eggplant drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with pepper, oregano, basil (or whatever spice you like) and a touch of sea salt then roasted at 400 degrees until done (15-20 min)
Wraps
Hummus
 
Spread hummus on wrap, top with roasted veggies and roll em' Danno.

These photographs were taken at Bigelow Hollow State Park.  We snowshoed on frozen Bigelow Hollow Pond, but at one spot it was slushy and ice stuck to the bottom of the snowshoes making them much heavier.   At the park, a blue sheet of paper listed the trails and distances.  It was missing one piece of valuable information--the distance was ONE WAY!  Daylight disappeared fast in that park because the sun went down behind a dense pine ridge.  We turned back on a 2.9 miler because there simply wasn't enough daylight.   The needles on the pine saplings in the top photo were so light and feathery in contrast to the rest of the forest.

Hydrangea

All the pieces of my current writing project are done except one. Hopefully, this week I can steal away some time to finish the meat of the thing. It's a powerful package.

Here's another recipe for busy writers. I made this yesterday and loved it. The apricots hold up real well and don't turn brown or mushy the second day.:

Cranberry Apricot Chicken Salad
- Use leftover chicken or grill boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used a grill pan).
- Chop chicken.
- Add chopped fresh apricots, dried cranberries and mayo. Season with salt, pepper and a bit of tarragon
- Serve over lettuce, between bread or eat it straight

I've been shuttling back and forth to the hospital all week. This morning, I picked a bunch of hydrangeas and brought them with me. Would I love them as much if they were pink? The soft blue petals are striking They remind me of fresh fallen snow.

Yesterday, I worked from 9:30AM to nearly 9:30PM checking my work for accuracy. When I finished (ring the bell, I'm dun dun dun dun!!!!), I went straight into thinking mode. I wondered why I worked so hard. My first thought was the tag along the right side called "asylum." Then I thought about drive and what makes a person driven. Without looking at any research on the topic, here's what I came up with. To be driven to meet a goal a person needs:

1. A specific goal - With nothing to work toward, your efforts are scattered versus focused.
2. Belief that you can meet this goal - I call this mental toughness. Marathoners say this is a huge part of their runs.
3. A realistic goal - If the goal is unreachable, it's not going to happen.
4. An important goal - The goal must be important to the person.
6. A deadline - This is what pushes a person toward a goal at a faster rate than they would normally move.

I still have questions. Why is this article so important to me? Why did I push myself to finish it all in one intense chunk of time? The editor didn't give me a deadline, I gave myself one.

To fuel my writing fire, I didn't spend much time on dinner. Chipotle Black Bean Burrito's were Mexican, healthy, veggie, fast and yummy. Perfect for busy people.

I noticed a paper of mine is now on Google Scholar where you find research papers. I don't know how long it's been out there, but I kind of liked the company it's keeping. That set me off wondering how it got out there. The publisher submits it.

The bunny is back again searching for a garden to flourish in. It has yet to find one. Maybe some day soon.