Northport, Alabama
I’ve always loved hydrangeas for their nostalgic charm. Throughout the south, you can find them flanking wide front porches, even long after families of left and the original planters have died, leaving their properties to the hydrangeas and daffodils that persist in blooming year after year.

The most common hydrangeas around here are blue, and this one at the corner of my porch usually is, but this year its petals are cream and pink. No doubt, the pH of our soil has changed. Hydrangeas bloom blue when the soil is alkaline, cream when the soil is neutral, and pink when the soil is alkaline.

Lately, I’ve been working with my office door open, and I’m falling in love with my house all over again. I think a lot of it is because of Cowboy. I have a reason to come home, a purpose in waking up. This afternoon, I took him for a two-mile walk around the railroad trestle and really enjoyed it. He loves romping through clover, and is in pig-like bliss when he sees mud puddles. Needless to say, I have a very dirty dog tonight.

But I think dogs are like children — you shouldn’t have them if you’re dead set on them being proper all the time. They need time to play and be babies, time to explore the world at their own pace, time to develop into the adults they were meant to be. So while we’re clicker training “relax” this week (rolling over to his side from a down position), we’re also taking time to have fun.

It’s good for me, and it’s good for him. I’m working hard lately, redeveloping the main website, with the intent of heavily marketing locally — weddings, tourism, and portraits. I’m working on another story for the Monitor. I’m uploading images to iStock I’m busy writing, and marketing fiction.

For the most part, things are going pretty well. I’m having a good spring and looking forward to summer.

Music: Writing Mix: Aidos by Bexar Bexar, All of a Sudden by Quadra, Ameno (Trance Mix), Between the Lines by Quadra, Beyond Being by Conjure One, Brokedown by Quadra, Building Steam with a Grain of Salt by DJ Shadow, Bulletproof by Morcheeba, Celestial Annihilation by Unkle, Desperado by Quadra, Down Slow by Moby, Echo by Joe Satriani, Four Corners by Ginseng, Friction by Morcheeba, Hands Away by Interpol, Here, Now by Ginseng, In the Air Tonight by Nonpoint, Nightwalk by The Steve Morse Band, Opening Theme by Scott Bomar, Sad and Lonely by Secret Machines, Smell of Desire by Enigma, and When Johnny Comes Marching Home (fife and drum version).

Posted on May 17, 2008 by Carmen K. Sisson tagged Alabama, flowers, hydrangea, Northport, writing