May Days

Now that the threat of frost has finally passed, I'm enjoying lots of spring flowers that I've been able to cut and bring indoors. I'm hoping for a bigger and better cutting garden this year. I've planted more lilies, dahlias, snapdragons, and gladiolas. A few of the perennials I planted last year have already tripled in size, offering up more blossoms for bouquets. 

Spring at the nursery has begun to ease up just a bit. We’ve hit the peak of busyness, and we’re beginning to coast downhill. While I look forward to feeling less frantic (and having Sundays off again), I know I’ll soon miss those spring days where there’s always something that needs to be done as opposed to the slow summer season, standing in one spot most of the day deadheading and trimming back plants. The inactivity gives me more time to live in my head, which is a scary place to be sometimes. But it could also be an opportunity to ruminate on things I’ve written or want to write and ways to better to tell my stories. 

I have some good news and bad news today. The bad news is that I won’t be staying in that lovely beach house in Mexico again next winter. The good news is that Tim and I are in the process of purchasing a beachfront condo in the same town, Chelém Mexico! We looked at our options for beach houses in the area. They were either too far back from the beach with too few windows or in need of major repairs. This is a new building with five units. Four condos are downstairs. The second floor is all one unit. This is the one we have purchased. The living/dining/kitchen area is open, and there are floor to ceiling windows from one end of the room to the other. We get to keep a lot of the furniture, but Tim and I can’t wait to spend some time there this summer making the place our own. We just signed the contract on Friday, so we haven’t officially closed yet. Tim flew down last month to check things out before we made an offer, so I have a few pictures (and one I stole from the listing) to share. I’ll have plenty more when we’re both able to go back in a couple of months. Our plan is to rent it out every year from March to December, then I’ll live there through January and February. So get your passports ready; I’ll share a listing once the property is available for rent.

In other news, I just got my second vaccine today, which means that 3 out of 4 McKays are fully vaccinated!! We all got the Pfizer vaccine. Tim had a low-grade fever and felt a little puny afterwards. Pierce didn’t seem to have any ill effects. I have my fingers crossed that I’ll feel fine tomorrow. 

I’m still writing and editing. The editing process is slow and tedious. If you were hoping to see a book from me this year, I think it’s safe to say that it will not be published in 2021. But the longer this takes, the better the book will be. K.K. is helping to make my pretty good stories into great stories. I’m excited about what we’ve accomplished. I have 5 essays I can consider as final drafts. My editor suggested I try getting some of them published, so I’m submitting my writing for publication again. It could be months before I hear whether or not my essays have been accepted, and I can only get those one or two yeses by pitching to a lot of people. This work isn’t fun, and it will be tough to add to the pile of rejection letters again. But my editor and I think that getting these essays published will help my cause in getting a complete manuscript published some day. 

That’s my Spring 2021 update. Get outside! Get vaccinated!