Eostre's Day!

Happy Eostre's Day! Nine years ago on Easter Sunday, a bedraggled, starving, pathetic white cat ducked under our car to escape the Welsh rain. Today she's our sweet, beloved, precious girl. Oh yeah, she knew exactly what she was doing when she chose us.

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Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has a new Ultimate Ice-Blended Mocha made with chocolate-covered espresso beans. Holy crap, that’s good! Even if I’ve already managed to drip some on my white shirt!

So I’m here with Ellenie, trying to write, and it’s goooing verrrry slooooowly (despite the caffeine). Meh.

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We had a lovely, lovely time at The Huntington Library yesterday. It’s a little early for most of the roses, but they have a big museum display going on right now about the history of roses. We were most impressed with the early herbal and rose manuscripts; as we worked forward through history, there was less to excite us. The first and last rooms had troughs of rose petals to sniff, and in the last room, Morgana and I simultaneously leaned in, buried our faces in the petals, inhaled loudly, and then stood, moaning with delight. The docent thought that was quite funny.

We also went into the greenhouse, which none of had done before, which has rainforest and cloud forest and bog rooms. They had carnivorous plants! which made me jump up and down and squeal with excitement. I love me some carnivorous plants!

Tea was fantastic as usual. One of the sandwiches was cream cheese and watercress, but there was a hint of horseradish mixed with the cream cheese. Not enough to cause a bite (although I wouldn’t have minded that); just enough for flavor. Awesome.

We spent a bit of time in the herb garden and then wandered under the wisteria-draped arbor and down to the Japanese garden. Then it was a wander down another path, hand in hand with my beloved, to the new Chinese gardens. We stopped in the Pavilion for Washing Away Thoughts (Di Lü Ting), and I could’ve sat there for hours, just listening to the brook rushing by. It’s a sound I just never hear enough anymore. I haven’t felt so relaxed and connected in…well, far too long.

The only downside to the day that it was in the mid 80s, so we were hot and sweaty and tired by the end of it. (We’d brought lots of water with us, as well as hats and parasols, which helped.)

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Inspired by the babbling brook from yesterday, we finally set up our fountain (a beautiful pale green one that Ken bought in Korea many years ago) in my writing office. Mmmm…

Speaking of writing (did you like that little segue there, huh?)…

• Thursday or Friday I received a rejection from Asimov’s for “Love Makes the Universe Go ‘Round.” I knew it was a long shot, oh well! I’ve already turned it around to Strange Horizons.
  
• Just now came a rejection from Black Gate for “Dreamseer”—one of their glowing “this is fabulous, but alas no” rejections that always leave me so conflicted!

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Currently Reading: Magic Study, Maria V. Snyder
Lately Listened To: I heard “Renegade” on the radio!  ::rocks out::
Recently Watched: The Riches, Neat