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Leave a comment below, along with your email address and a winner will be drawn this Wednesday! 

FOLLOW YOUR COWBOY HEART by Janice Seagraves   

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Chili Peppers Rating: 1

Max struggles daily to hide his psychic gift with animals. Being a hired hand at a local dairy probably wasn't his best idea, but his mom needs the money he brings in. And there's the dairy owner's sexy daughter he can't stop thinking about. Will he ever have anything other than himself to offer her?

EXCERPT LINK

COWBOYS ONLY by Nicole Morgan   

Genre: Contemporary romance

Chili Peppers Rating: 2

Terry Reynolds runs his family’s cattle ranch in Antonito, Colorado. Born and raised on the

one-hundred-plus acre property, it’s the only life he knows. Much to his match-making

mother’s dismay, it’s the only thing in his life he truly cares for.

Andie Donahue has just moved to Antonito after inheriting a small two-bedroom cabin from

her late aunt. She wants a new start and decides this is her chance. After discovering a

dating site has matched her to a handsome cowboy in the same town, she wastes no time

sending the hunk a message.

Terry has no clue why some strange woman has shown up at his ranch, or what the heck

she’s talking about. After running the adorable brunette off, he finds out the truth. Now he’s

faced with making amends for his mother’s meddling. But did he just blow the best chance

he had for love right out of the water? And worse…what does he do now?

EXCERPT LINK

LiGHTNING STRIKES TWICE by Rose Anderson writing as Madeline Archer 

Genre: Paranormal

Chili Peppers Rating: 1

In 1919, with soldiers off to war in Europe and influenza taking the heartiest in the homeland,

a small ranch in New Mexico hangs on the edge of foreclosure. After the granddaughter of a

Yaqui medicine man prays to the ancestors for guidance, a stranger arrives seeking work

and he's is unlike any vaquero they've ever known. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers:

for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

EXCERPT LINK

THE SHADOWS IN OUR PAST by Denyse Bridger   

Genre: Historical Western

Chili Peppers Rating: 3

Enroute home to Gold Ridge, Colorado after their honeymoon, David and Hannah Logan are

attacked by a pair of bandits who plunge them back into a past they shared, but never truly

came to terms with together... It’s been almost a year since the nightmare of violence and

assault tore Hannah from David’s side and left him bereft and angry. When she returned to

him, determined to rebuild what they’d lost, the light of love had come with her. Now, a new

torment threatens to destroy everything, and Hannah’s biggest enemy might just be David

himself…

EXCERPT LINK

LOVE, TEXAS STYLE by Gemma Juliana  

Genre: Contemporary

Chili Peppers Rating: 1

Amy Waterstone must return to the family ranch in Glen Creek, Texas because her father had

a serious accident. Then she learns her father compromised the ranch by taking a loan he

can’t repay from Chase Storm, the cowboy next door. He’s the one man she never wants to

see again. Chase has waited seven years for Amy to come home, and for a chance to

redeem himself in her eyes. They’re both older, but are they any wiser?

EXCERPT LINK

BEAR COUNTRY by Michele  Zurlo  

Genre: Paranormal/shifter  

Chili Peppers Rating: 1

Tasked with scattering the ashes of her beloved aunt at the source of the Big Bear River

high in the mountains, Mallory must swallow her pride and ask Gavin, a laconic, sexy ranch

hand, to guide her.

EXCERPT LINK

PLEASURING PANDORA by Tina Donahue   

Genre: Erotic Contemporary

Chili Peppers Rating: 4

This luscious cowboy's been on her radar for years, but he's never noticed her. A speeding

ticket changes everything, leading to a sultry weekend and no-holds-barred romance -

Texas style.

EXCERPT LINK

WHISKEY'S SWEET REVENGE by Krista Ames   

Genre: Western Contemporary Romance

Chili Peppers Rating: 1

Dr. Miranda Chase didn't want to be home but she'd do just about anything for her dad

including temporarily taking over his veterinarian practice. However, once she met her dad's

client Garrett, she wanted to drop everything and run. Cocky cowboys just weren't her thing.

Garrett Jackson cares more about his horse than himself or anyone else and when a tiny bit

of a thing calling herself a vet blows into his life like a tornado, he's literally knocked for a

loop. He doesn't have time for women.

But, when Garrett's horse turns up missing, Miranda isn't going anywhere. Forced to work

together, they'll learn a little bit about each other or die trying.

EXCERPT LINK

THE COWBOY, HIS COUNTESS, AND HER COMPANION by Suz deMello  

Genre:  Historial (Victorian England)

Chili Peppers Rating: 3

(England, 1870) The Honorable Amelia Haddon must marry, or lose the income that supports

her and her "companion."  Averse to men, she is desperate until an American cowboy

proves to be her unlikely rescuer. But will judgmental society drag this happy trio apart?

EXCERPT LINK

PURCHASE LINKS:

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Roping-Cowboy-Romance-Janice-Seagraves-ebook/dp/B01M0V7X71/

B & N http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/roping-the-cowboy-janice-seagraves/1124825022?ean=2940156959105

ARe  https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-ropingthecowboy-2153890-166.html

Kobo  https://store.kobobooks.com/en-ca/ebook/roping-the-cowboy-1

GoogleBooks https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Roping_the_Cowboy?id=8QQ_DQAAQBAJ

Find out more about the authors of Romance Books 4 Us by visiting them here:

http://www.romancebooks4us.com

Roping the Cowboy #BoxedSet by the Authors of @RomanceBooks4Us #Cowboy #Romance

FOLLOW YOUR COWBOY HEART by Janice Seagraves   

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Chili Peppers Rating: 1

Max struggles daily to hide his psychic gift with animals. Being a hired hand at a local dairy probably wasn't his best idea, but his mom needs the money he brings in. And there's the dairy owner's sexy daughter he can't stop thinking about. Will he ever have anything other than himself to offer her?

EXCERPT LINK

COWBOYS ONLY by Nicole Morgan   

Genre: Contemporary romance

Chili Peppers Rating: 2

Terry Reynolds runs his family’s cattle ranch in Antonito, Colorado. Born and raised on the

one-hundred-plus acre property, it’s the only life he knows. Much to his match-making

mother’s dismay, it’s the only thing in his life he truly cares for.

Andie Donahue has just moved to Antonito after inheriting a small two-bedroom cabin from

her late aunt. She wants a new start and decides this is her chance. After discovering a

dating site has matched her to a handsome cowboy in the same town, she wastes no time

sending the hunk a message.

Terry has no clue why some strange woman has shown up at his ranch, or what the heck

she’s talking about. After running the adorable brunette off, he finds out the truth. Now he’s

faced with making amends for his mother’s meddling. But did he just blow the best chance

he had for love right out of the water? And worse…what does he do now?

EXCERPT LINK

LiGHTNING STRIKES TWICE by Rose Anderson writing as Madeline Archer 

Genre: Paranormal

Chili Peppers Rating: 1

In 1919, with soldiers off to war in Europe and influenza taking the heartiest in the homeland,

a small ranch in New Mexico hangs on the edge of foreclosure. After the granddaughter of a

Yaqui medicine man prays to the ancestors for guidance, a stranger arrives seeking work

and he's is unlike any vaquero they've ever known. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers:

for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

EXCERPT LINK

THE SHADOWS IN OUR PAST by Denyse Bridger   

Genre: Historical Western

Chili Peppers Rating: 3

Enroute home to Gold Ridge, Colorado after their honeymoon, David and Hannah Logan are

attacked by a pair of bandits who plunge them back into a past they shared, but never truly

came to terms with together... It’s been almost a year since the nightmare of violence and

assault tore Hannah from David’s side and left him bereft and angry. When she returned to

him, determined to rebuild what they’d lost, the light of love had come with her. Now, a new

torment threatens to destroy everything, and Hannah’s biggest enemy might just be David

himself…

EXCERPT LINK

LOVE, TEXAS STYLE by Gemma Juliana  

Genre: Contemporary

Chili Peppers Rating: 1

Amy Waterstone must return to the family ranch in Glen Creek, Texas because her father had

a serious accident. Then she learns her father compromised the ranch by taking a loan he

can’t repay from Chase Storm, the cowboy next door. He’s the one man she never wants to

see again. Chase has waited seven years for Amy to come home, and for a chance to

redeem himself in her eyes. They’re both older, but are they any wiser?

EXCERPT LINK

BEAR COUNTRY by Michele  Zurlo  

Genre: Paranormal/shifter  

Chili Peppers Rating: 1

Tasked with scattering the ashes of her beloved aunt at the source of the Big Bear River

high in the mountains, Mallory must swallow her pride and ask Gavin, a laconic, sexy ranch

hand, to guide her.

EXCERPT LINK

PLEASURING PANDORA by Tina Donahue   

Genre: Erotic Contemporary

Chili Peppers Rating: 4

This luscious cowboy's been on her radar for years, but he's never noticed her. A speeding

ticket changes everything, leading to a sultry weekend and no-holds-barred romance -

Texas style.

EXCERPT LINK

WHISKEY'S SWEET REVENGE by Krista Ames   

Genre: Western Contemporary Romance

Chili Peppers Rating: 1

Dr. Miranda Chase didn't want to be home but she'd do just about anything for her dad

including temporarily taking over his veterinarian practice. However, once she met her dad's

client Garrett, she wanted to drop everything and run. Cocky cowboys just weren't her thing.

Garrett Jackson cares more about his horse than himself or anyone else and when a tiny bit

of a thing calling herself a vet blows into his life like a tornado, he's literally knocked for a

loop. He doesn't have time for women.

But, when Garrett's horse turns up missing, Miranda isn't going anywhere. Forced to work

together, they'll learn a little bit about each other or die trying.

EXCERPT LINK

THE COWBOY, HIS COUNTESS, AND HER COMPANION by Suz deMello  

Genre:  Historial (Victorian England)

Chili Peppers Rating: 3

(England, 1870) The Honorable Amelia Haddon must marry, or lose the income that supports

her and her "companion."  Averse to men, she is desperate until an American cowboy

proves to be her unlikely rescuer. But will judgmental society drag this happy trio apart?

EXCERPT LINK

PURCHASE LINKS:

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Roping-Cowboy-Romance-Janice-Seagraves-ebook/dp/B01M0V7X71/

B & N http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/roping-the-cowboy-janice-seagraves/1124825022?ean=2940156959105

ARe  https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-ropingthecowboy-2153890-166.html

Kobo  https://store.kobobooks.com/en-ca/ebook/roping-the-cowboy-1

GoogleBooks https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Roping_the_Cowboy?id=8QQ_DQAAQBAJ

Find out more about the authors of Romance Books 4 Us by visiting them here:

http://www.romancebooks4us.com

Capturing Lost Love by Rose Anderson

Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm somewhat the history buff. Many years ago, my family left the big city of Chicago behind to live in a small rural farming community. There, farm families still lived on the same farmstead as the ancestor who first settled the land in the 1840s. For example: The Thompson's mail got delivered to the house on Thompson Rd. These pioneers also had pioneer cemeteries.

Coming from a place like Chicago, where magnificent sculptures in grand Victorian cemeteries reflected, in death, the opulence in life, I found these pioneer cemeteries held understated headstones that said just as much about the person below it. It took me years to decipher the subtle code (I really get a kick out of symbolism). It all started on Memorial Day 35 years ago. Armed with a bouquet of little American flags, we took our young family to several of these old cemeteries and said thank you to each soldier interred there. It became a family tradition. Since Memorial Day just passed, I thought I'd share a bit of the cemetery code.

The use of headstones is thought to stem from the belief that ghosts could be weighed down. On marble and limestone, a wide variety of pictorial images have been used to commemorate the dead. These icons are designed to communicate something about the deceased, and they not only provide insight into the nature of the person, but say much about his family as well. The artistry found in these older cemeteries really conveys the affection for the lost loved one.  In fact, if you've ever wondered why Victorian cemeteries look like lovely parks, that's because they were planned as rural recreational parks where families could picnic with their lost loved ones. Victorians did death in grand style.

I have a lot of information-- far too much for this post--but I may do a cemetery icon blog post as part of my yearly Symbol Series. For this post I'll just touch upon flowers.


Flowers convey a bevy of emotions. Symbolic connection between flowers with emotion is a cross-cultural thing and their origins are unknown. Even Neanderthal graves revealed pollen suggesting flowers were placed there with the dead. During the 1800s, the use of floral symbolism became so popular that almost every known flower had a symbolic gesture attached to it. Here are some common symbolic flower and plant references:

Acacia - immortality of soul
Calla lily - symbolizes marriage.
Cypress tree - designates hope
Daffodil - death of youth, desire, art, grace, beauty, deep regard.
Dead leaves - sadness, melancholy
Dogwood - divine sacrifice, triumph of eternal life, resurrection.
Fern - sincerity, sorrow
Figs - prosperity, eternal life
Fleur-de-lis - flame, passion, ardor, mother
Flower - frailty of life. Broken flower - a life terminated, mortality.
Forget-me-not - remembrance
Fruits - eternal plenty as in the fruit of life
Ivy - memory, immortality, friendship, fidelity, faithfulness, undying affection, eternal life.
Grapes and Leaves - faith.
Laurel Leaves - special achievement, distinction, success, triumph
Lily - majesty, innocence. Often seen on women's graves. The use of lilies at funerals symbolizes the restored innocence of the soul at death. 
Rosemary - for remembrance
Rose - love, beauty, hope, unfailing love, associated with Mary. A red rose symbolizes martyrdom while white symbolizes. Whether the rose is a bud, flower or somewhere in between indicates how old the person was at the time of death:

• Bud - normally a child 12 or under
• Partial bloom - normally a teenager
• Full bloom - normally in early/mid twenties. Died in the prime of life
• Rosebud, broken - life cut short, usually found with a young person's grave
• Rosebuds, joining - strong bond between two people, such as a mother and child who died at the same time
• Rosebuds, several on same branch - secrecy
• Wreath of Rose - Beauty and virtue rewarded

Tree or Trees - represents life. Headstones shaped liked tree stumps usually signify that the deceased was a member of The Woodmen of the World

• Trunks represent the brevity of life.
• Severed branch - mortality
• Sprouting - life everlasting.
• Weeping Willow Tree -. nature's lament, a symbol of sorrow and perpetual mourning.

Wheat - resurrection or fertility
Bushel and sheaves - often represents the aged. The divine harvest.

You can copy some of these flatter headstone artworks by making wax rubbings on cloth. Rubbings of sheaves of wheat or fingers pointing toward Heaven make interesting wall art when framed. Here's how:

The Best Technique for Headstone Rubbings~

1. Get permission. Some cemeteries don't allow it.
2. Clean the stone. Insure clear and sharp copy use a soft brush to gently remove bird droppings, dirt, moss, lichen etc from the surface. You never want to damage the stone by cleaning it. If you have trouble clearing it off, don’t apply more pressure. Walk away and find another.
3. Tape the fabric to the stone with blue painters tape or us hold it securely with very large rubber bands. I've used light muslin and interfacing. The latter works best. Slippage will cause a blurred or double-image effect. Make sure the cloth covers the stone entirely so that you won't get wax marks on it.
4. Start on the outer edges and work inward. Block in the basic design by using a broad flat edge of your rubbing wax (I melt a small box of crayons and form the wax in a paper cup for this.) Pick a direction that you feel most comfortable rubbing in. It doesn't matter if you end up rubbing diagonally, horizontally, or vertically. Whichever way you start, but sticking with one direction will result in a more visually appealing finished project. Try to use even pressure throughout the entire rubbing process to avoid obvious streaks that will show up when you press harder.
5. Darken the design, fill it in until the color and richness suits you. Some people like very dark rubbings, while others like lightly colored ones. It's a matter of personal preference. 

The next time you have an opportunity to visit an old cemetery, take note of the many symbols. I think you'll be surprised. I've discovered more than 100 in the many old cemeteries in my county. If you have a question about a different grave symbol, just ask. I'll be on and off all day as answer questions then.

>>۞<<

 >>۞<<

Rose Anderson is an award-winning author and dilettante who loves great conversation and delights in discovering interesting things to weave into stories. Rose also writes across genres under the pen name Madeline Archer. She lives with her family and small menagerie amid oak groves and prairie in the rolling glacial hills of the upper Midwest.

Stop by my blog for interesting topics all month long.
Find my links page and free reads too! Subscribe to get my posts in your inbox!

http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

Find Madeline's sweet to spooky stories and Rose's scorching novels in ebook and paperback on Amazon, Barnes&Noble,
and elsewhere.

Rose's Amazon Author Page | Madeline's Amazon Author's Page

Sample my Scorching First Chapters Here

Who's Your Mama? by Rose Anderson

The second Sunday in May is Mother's Day and moms everywhere will go to brunch or receive bouquets and Mother's Day cards. While the holiday is celebrated in the United States and elsewhere, it didn't start out as a hat tip for mom.

In the 1850s when infant mortality was at a high, a West Virginia women's organizer named Ann Reeves Jarvis, held Mothers' Working Days. These social action clubs worked together to fight disease and milk contamination by improving the sanitary conditions in their cities and towns. After the Civil War, Ann Reeves Jarvis saw a need to support every mother's son no matter what side of the Mason-Dixon line they had been on. She organized Mother's Friendship Day for Union and Confederate soldiers.

After Ann Reeves Jarvis' passing in 1908, her daughter Anna organized the first Mother's Day. So impressed by moms and their continual good works, President Woodrow Wilson liked the idea of a day just for mom. In 1914, he officially set aside the second Sunday in May for a national holiday devoted to moms everywhere. It didn't take long before florists, card companies, confectioners, and other merchants cashed in on its popularity.

As wonderful an idea as a national Mother's Day was, Anna Jarvis didn't appreciate marketing on a national scale nor the fact Eleanor Roosevelt (and others) used Mother's Day to raise funds for charities. She actually worked against it by staging boycotts, threatening lawsuits, and deriding the First Lady. She even got herself arrested more than once over it. Seems rather extreme. Perhaps it was because Anna Jarvis had had an unresolved falling out with her own mother. Perhaps she just wanted to acknowledge the ideal mom and not her own. From the start, she only ever wanted a day when you wore a Mother's Day badge to church and thanked the best mom you knew for all she did. No flowers, no card, no candy, and certainly no monies to charities. It's interesting to note the changes to Anna Jarvis' initial idea, and her failed attempt to stop a national holiday, might have actually driven her insane. She died in a Philadelphia sanitarium in 1948 at age 84.

Mama Mia

The American iteration of Mother’s Day has its particular origins as do Mother's Day celebrations around the world. Most celebrate this holiday in the spring. Why? Spring is when all of nature renews. It's mother nature's time of year. From egg laying to birthing, creatures large and small get in on the action. This renewal has always been an important part of our own survival whether on the farm or in our earliest times as hunter gatherers. Honoring mom is a very old tradition.

When I imagine a primordial mother, the first image that comes to mind is the Venus of

Willendorf. She's not one of those slender goddesses in repose in the idyll glades of Ancient Greece, nor is she a sleek-muscled warrior goddess of the old Nordic traditions. Plumped by plenty and filled with fecundity, her wide hips and bountiful breasts declare her fertility and suggest her sustenance. She's the middle aspect of womanhood. No longer maiden, not quite crone. She is the Magna Mater – The Great Mother.

To date, hundreds of similar Mother figures carved of stone and bone and fashioned of clay have been discovered all over the world. Large-breasted or not, most have those wide hips. You can almost imagine the toddler sitting comfortably astride.

Given their great age, it's unfortunate that we can only speculate on their exact purpose. The earliest Mothers are faceless. Such anonymity suggests she was beyond personification. Many wear the scars of motherhood on hips, belly, and breasts in acknowledgement of cycles – the cycles of life and birth – an undeniable symbol of the earth itself.

These Great Mothers, reverently called the Venus figures, span both Paleolithic and Neolithic eras. Some, like the Hohle Fels mammoth-ivory Venus, date back more 30,000 years. Older still are the chevrons –zigzags, M, or V patterns – in 40,000-year-old Neanderthal artworks. These too represent woman and are often depicted beside the wavy lines symbol for water – birth waters.

As a storyteller, I can see that The Great Mother never really left the scene. She became those goddesses worshiped across ancient civilizations. Donning the clothes of each region, she simply modernized. Moms are resourceful like that.

~ More information ~

This youtube video is more than an hour long but entertaining and very informative
https://youtu.be/DKKLOIrQs6Y

Individual figures with descriptions
http://donsmaps.com/venus.html

A terrific poster
http://goddesstimeline.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/MainTimeline.jpg

Two more videos
http://goddesstimeline.com/?page_id=320

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms, aunts, and grandmas, and to all

nurturing souls everywhere. Keep up the good work!

>>۞<<

Rose Anderson is an award-winning author and dilettante who loves great conversation and delights in discovering interesting things to weave into stories. Rose also writes across genres under the pen name Madeline Archer. She lives with her family and small menagerie amid oak groves and prairie in the rolling glacial hills of the upper Midwest.

Stop by my blog for interesting topics all month long.
Find my links page and free reads too! Subscribe to get my posts in your inbox!

http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

Find Madeline's sweet to spooky stories and Rose's scorching novels in ebook and paperback on Amazon, Barnes&Noble,
and elsewhere.

Rose's Amazon Author Page | Madeline's Amazon Author's Page

Sample my Scorching First Chapters Here

Every Shade of Green in the Crayon Box by Rose Anderson

I was just outside with the dog in our usual morning routine and found the sun hidden behind a smooth cloudy sky. I love this defused light. The details of nature pop without bright sunlight and shadows. It's like you're seeing the world through polarized lenses. The new green this morning could literally steal your breath, the visual statement, an exclamation really, is that bold. I was going to sit down with my coffee and write about my yard in the spring. Then I remembered I already did that a few years ago. For today, I've updated and polished it. I hope you enjoy. 

As the story goes, when God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, he revealed his true name. From the moment of man's first inkling of the vast miracle of his own existence, he's tried to put a name to it.  A name is not merely an arbitrary designation or a random combination of sounds. The name conveys the nature and essence of the thing it's been given to. It represents the history and reputation of the thing. But a name by itself just isn't enough somehow. Moses may have been privy to the Name, but everyone else added the adjectives – all-seeing, loving, vengeful, benevolent, and almighty are just a few.

In school, we were taught to avoid overusing flowery language because too many adjectives and adverbs can ruin the reading experience. Well sure, I can see that. When the writer expounds for the sake of expounding, the reader's brain has trouble making sense of it all.
Victorian writer and shameless expounder, George Bulwer-Lytton, left a few memorable tidbits behind. Example: This well-known opener – It was a dark and stormy night...

Funny how no one ever mentions the rest:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets, for it is in London that our scene lies, rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

A century later Ernest Hemingway might have taken a stab at it like so:

After dark a storm came, and sometimes in the wind there was a noise on the rooftops. You could see the streetlamps struggling to stay lit.

A half century more and Cormac McCarthy might have a go:

Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray each one than what had gone before. Like the onset of some cold glaucoma dimming away the world. The blackness he woke to on those nights was sightless and impenetrable. A blackness to hurt your ears with listening. No sound but the wind in the bare and blackened trees.

My mind has this ability to add and extrapolate. In Bulwer-Lytton’s description I can feel the wind but also see scraggly city trees bending from the force. Backlit by the flames of flickering light, I see the slanted rain streaks on the street lamps’ glass panels and see shop shingles flapping like wooden flags. Over all that, I can imagine a dirty, sooty, 1830’s London with poor and ragged souls chilled to their marrow and hovering in doorways. Cloaked and sodden, they turn their backs to the cold and heavy rain.

In Hemmingway’s version I see an overall mild storm with the occasional gust that wants to extinguish the lamps. My mind doesn’t care to fill in or extrapolate here.

Even without the rain and gust-dimmed lights, in McCarthy’s few lines I see desolation. Again, the words are so tight, the image so compact, my imagination says “Enough. I see it.”

I’m ok with all three but I'm sure you can guess the writing my imagination prefers – George Bulwer-Lytton’s.

As a romance writer, I find adjectives and adverbs to be life’s jumbo box of crayons. You know, the super-sized box with the built-in sharpener on the back. These modifiers express feelings both physical and emotional. They give a reference point to interpret with. They describe and evoke. But most of all, they lend a tangible quality to the names of things. They color our world. My mind needs adjectives because I see and hear and feel the colors, textures, sounds, and beauty of life. I need them because I have feelings and one size does not fit all. Spring is the perfect time to go for the jumbo box!


Of all the spring colors, I have to say green stands head and shoulders above the rest. This isn’t a generic monotone color. Oh no, far more descriptors are needed here. The range and scope of spring green needs as many as language and imagination allow. In spring, one must spell Green with a capital G.

If I gave an April tour of spring green in my yard, this is what I’d see:
The newly budded weeping willow tree whips will have filled with running sap and turned a yellowish-green. They’re also nubby with unsheathed catkins, each of which has the slightest reddish tinge. Hosta lily spikes of numerous varieties jut up from the ground in clumps and are mostly white-tipped emerald or jade. Lacy bleeding hearts will appear and their stems are a plump hunter green shot with dark crimson edges. Vibrant yellow daffodils have thick kelly-green spikes. (I must add another adjective here – succulent.) Spring cedar growth is dark, almost a shade of olive, but where the squirrels have been stealing bark for their nests, I’ll see the yellow-gold cambium layer exposed in strips that run in long lengths up the trunks. After all these years the trees seem to take this vernal pillaging in stride.

The oak flowers in their spring emergence are not quite as yellow as the willow. The small bit of umber and brick red interspersed throughout tend to play a trick on the eye unless you purposely look for the green. Any spring rain will darken the bur oak’s corky bark. Each tree would be riddled light and dark with damp and dry places. Spring rains will also waken the pubescent moss and lacy-edged lichen of sea green that innocently grow all over the trunks and wait patiently for summer’s leafy shade. After 200 years, I do believe the oaks could care less.

By far, the most green comes from the lawn. As my house is surrounded by rolling fields, the lawn stretches as far as the eye can see. In a matter of weeks, I'll look out on a dew-kissed morning and imagine I’m in Ireland because the whole of it will be dressed in emerald green. It will stay that way until yellow dandelions take over. Then the mature grass gets so tall it goes to seed and bends under its burden. That changes the color dramatically – more of a silver green. The crabgrass and fescue are darker and thicker, more of a teal green. The small clovers and tiny weeds have their own variations on the theme. Slender blades, newly sliced through the topsoil are the faintest and purest of all the greens in my backyard. Describing the green of my lawn is a hard one because all the many shades collectively defy description. There just aren’t enough words for the job.

George Bulwer-Lytton could have run with this. Cormac McCarthy could certainly describe the emotion of the colors here. I think it might be lost on Hemingway. Or maybe he'd just keep it to himself.

>>۞<<

Rose Anderson is an award-winning author and dilettante who loves great conversation and delights in discovering interesting things to weave into stories. Rose also writes across genres under the pen name Madeline Archer. She lives with her family and small menagerie amid oak groves and prairie in the rolling glacial hills of the upper Midwest.

Stop by my blog for interesting topics all month long.
Find my links page and free reads too! Subscribe to get my posts in your inbox!

http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

Find Madeline's sweet to spooky stories and Rose's scorching novels in ebook and paperback on Amazon, Barnes&Noble,
and elsewhere.

Rose's Amazon Author Page | Madeline's Amazon Author's Page

Sample my Scorching First Chapters Here

Knee Deep in Domestic Alchemy by Rose Anderson

I've just returned from the sunny south where daffodils are already blooming and robins are filling up on fat worms before they head north. Here, well, we just had four inches of snow. 

To many people, myself included, robins are the harbingers of spring. I can picture them hopping through the new grass listening for worms, their round reddish bellies rocking as they dash from one choice spot to the next. Spring travels east to west and south to north. I figure it’ll be two weeks before the birds actually get to my yard. I’m so looking forward to it. Fresh snow or not, early bird or not, I’m restless. Winter is coming to a close and spring is definitely knocking on my imagination. What's more, my house is full of visual clues: things out of place, things stuffed where they don't belong, dust, webs, clutter, clutter, clutter. In the bright light of day I hear, Stop writing! It's time for spring cleaning!!  

My spring house toss is the stuff of legends. It's known as the Annual Purge to family and friends who laughingly get out of my way. lol Even my husband's colleagues ask if I'm spring cleaning yet. For the next three weeks my world stops and every nook and cranny, every drawer, every cabinet and corner are cleaned. This is my renewal. This is how I find myself each year.  

It all started with sad news about twenty-seven years ago. I won't go into details, but it was so sad I wanted to pull a blanket up over my head and sleep it all away. It was the sort of depression that one drowns in while still breathing. My soul-mate/best-friend/husband and I have been together nearly forty years and in that time we've come to know all sorts of things about one another. He recognized something about me early on. He knows I define myself, in part, by my home. This knowledge was used to throw me a lifeline.

Our home has always been an eclectic, eccentric canvas. My style, interests, and collections are blobs of color upon my palette. Up until the sadness hit, we'd only been in this house a few years. The white blah walls waited on "One Of These Days" when time and money aligned enough to decorate. One morning, he sat on the edge of the bed, and said, "I want you to decorate the entire house from top to bottom. I want you to find yourself again."

There was no grand swapping out of furniture and appliances, no tearing up carpet or laying down new tile. Instead I painted murals and filled the house with color. After, I decorated with all the little things that make a home interesting. While I considered the changes to make, I rid myself of the weight of things no longer pertinent to our lives. Oddly enough, my dark thoughts went with them. In what could only be described as domestic alchemy, my mind turned from despairing thoughts to possibilities. He was right, I did find myself again. I've been doing this annual event every year since. It's essential to me. What was once a two week power-stint is now a slower, more thoughtful process, and boy, am I exhausted at the end of the day. This thorough cleaning results in far more than a cleaner house. It's a catalyst for deep introspection. 
 
What began as several truckloads of donations to the Salvation Army, is now just a few bags in the car. This precise organization will last until the holidays come rolling around. Then I'll start to notice those unnecessary things that somehow crept back into my life. I don't know what possesses me to absently stuff this or that, here or there. Just busy I guess. Saving bits is an old habit born of crafting with my kids. I don't even realize I'm still doing it. Heck, it took me five years just to stop saving Campbell's labels after my kids were out of school! 

I'll find a dozen or more wine corks stashed in the requisite kitchen junk drawer. They'll have to go. Six dead batteries? Yeah, they go too. Single socks? They're outta here. Where did all these paperclips come from? Ratty potholders and towels? Gone. Why do I have four pasta forks and two dozen plastic spoons?? Out the door! Cob webs and spiders? You're out too!

While I’m knee deep in separating wheat from chaff, I'll mentally finish the story I've been working on as well as craft blog posts in my head for the entire month of April. And when I sit down to write it all out two weeks from now, my head will be clearer and my house will be decorated for spring. Am I a little premature in my plans, given winter is lingering and the robins haven’t arrived here yet? Nah. The robins will come and the lilacs will follow. I'll be ready.

Stop by my main blog all next month where I'll be blogging the alphabet from A to Z in the annual A to Z Challenge. Subscribe to get my posts in your inbox!

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Rose Anderson is an award-winning author and dilettante who loves great conversation and delights in discovering interesting things to weave into stories. Rose also writes across genres under the pen name Madeline Archer. She lives with her family and small menagerie amid oak groves and prairie in the rolling glacial hills of the upper Midwest.

Stop by my blog for interesting topics all month long.
Find my links page and free reads too!

http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

Find Madeline's sweet to spooky stories and Rose's scorching novels in ebook and paperback on Amazon, Barnes&Noble,
and elsewhere.

Rose's Amazon Author Page | Madeline's Amazon Author's Page

Sample my Scorching First Chapters Here