I’ve had a lot of wishes over the years. Some as simple as “I wish I would stop stubbing my toe every five minutes” to as complicated as “I wish I could build a time machine and go back four hundred years and tell my families to stay in England/Ireland/Scotland and wait if I had a time machine, why would I tell them anything, I’d just stay put and blend in but hang on a second what about electricity and the internet and who would feed the menagerie and…”

My current wish is to find somewhere to live that I can be comfortable, long-term. I’d love to have a homestead-y place, somewhere with space for a milk cow, and a steer or two. Maybe some chickens and a couple of pigs. Somewhere a garden is not a pipe-dream and mess of weeds, but an actuality. Somewhere an orchard of Grandma Flora’s crab-apples, Grampa Buff’s domesticated wild plums, Carrie’s pin & choke cherries and cranberries and saskatoons could be groomed.

Somewhere where the yard is large enough we could spend a summer grooming a labyrinth into the grass, using native field-stone to mark the way. Somewhere that the house is big enough to allow us to have the occasional guest(s), bed & breakfast style. Perhaps even hold Glas Celli Sabbats and Esbats regularly.

It’s a dream I’ve had for a long time, and one that I came close to so many years ago, but depression and family situations didn’t allow me the necessary oomph and time to see them through.

A beautiful place just came up for sale, and it’s perfect for such an adventure. Unfortunately, in the last fifteen years, property prices have gone way beyond our means. This one is 200k over and above what our budget is. Granted, it comes with a second house and far more of an acreage than we’d need, but it’s still out of our range.

But oh, the celebrations I can picture in that yard! I can’t even begin to describe…

Wishes and dreams, and all that.

I’ve missed six weeks of 52 Weeks. I’m hoping now that things are settling down with my mom’s estate and whatnot that I’ll be keeping up better. The writing… well, I’ve almost given up for the month. I mean, here it is the 15th, and my word count is no where near where it needs to be, even for first week, let alone end of the second. Belfire tasks are slowly getting checked off; I hope to have the royalties finalized and the inbox cleaned out by the end of this week. So much! I have to admit to being just a little overwhelmed at the moment. Still, it’s called small press for a reason – it’s a small operation. People that can’t understand that Tracy and I have to take care of other things first sometimes are going to miss out on the rest of the good stuff that comes from being part of Belfire.

And I think that is where I should end it for today. Lots to get done in the house; there is a lot of stuff coming here from mom’s in the next weeks, and sadly there just isn’t room for the ‘interrupted in mid-spring clean’ crap and the estate stuff that I’m keeping.

But that house that I wish for… well, now. There’s space! <|;^) ’til next week… <3 JL