Write 15 Minutes a Day Challenge (WFMAD) – Day Ten: Basil & Cherry Edition

I am deep in 18th-century research and writing again, but it’s summer, which means other things are calling my name.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic Like basil.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic And cherries.

I’ve been getting up wicked early (5ish), working in the garden, and then sitting down at my desk by 6:30 am most days. I work until the late afternoon, then turn my attention to things like

Image and video hosting by TinyPic basil. This was my experiment with freezing basil. It was very simple; pick basil, trim stems,

Image and video hosting by TinyPic chop up with olive oil,

Image and video hosting by TinyPic and freeze. In a couple weeks, the late planting of the basil crop should give me enough leaves to make a big batch of pesto.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic And now the cherries are ripe, too.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic BH and I (that’s him on the ladder) picked 15 pounds of cherries late yesterday. There was an Amish family at the farm doing the same thing. They picked waaaaaaay more than we did. I’ll make a couple of batches of jam when it cools down tonight. By this time next year, I’d love to have a solar dehydrator – dried cherries are loverly.

On nights I’m not canning or gardening after dinner, I crawl back inside my book until bedtime.

Today’s goal: Write for 15 minutes.

Today’s mindset: yummy.

Today’s prompt: focus on taste; anticipating it, describing it, watching how it affects behavior. Write about a taste that represents love to you. If nothing comes to mind, write about a taste that represents anger. If that doesn’t work, freewrite about a breakfast in an exotic location.

Scribblescribble…

11 Replies to “Write 15 Minutes a Day Challenge (WFMAD) – Day Ten: Basil & Cherry Edition”

  1. New england

    so you are from New England…some people just don’t understand the whole reason we say “wicked”. my NJ family yells at me when i go down there from RI because i tend to say it a lot.

  2. Mmm. I adore fresh basil. This year I’m growing sweet basil, spicy globe basil (has a slight licorice taste!) and lemon basil (which is divine!). I never thought of freezing it, though – thanks for the idea.

  3. Already gotten in a couple hours and I’m still going strong! Just taking a quick break.

    We just moved from a townhouse to a house with a small yard. I used to have a flower pot garden with basil, cilantro, tomatoes, and mint. But now that I’ve got real, bonafide dirt, I’m gonna carve out a little garden space in the yard. Not sure where yet, plus I’m still getting us settled on the inside. So I may not get to the outside until next year. But I’m soooo looking forward to it. 🙂

    p.s. Dufus me posted as anonymous yesterday. Oops. 🙂

  4. I often judge cultural cuisines by their pancakes. Favorite pancakes: Low Countries cuisine. There is nothing like panakoeken stuffed with ham and topped with pineapple after a long night of wandering the streets (and bars) of Amsterdam. I think this is probably what I need to write about.

  5. So I totally crapped out on WFMAD on Tuesday, and only did a few minutes of rewriting yesterday, but I think I’m back on track. It’s been murderously hot here and using the computer has been out of the question for more than two minutes the past two days (no fan, no air conditioning, laptop in the shop) and it’s hard to write by hand when my WIP (all 70-some thousand words) is on the computer. Still, I’ve been lazy.

    Today was/is good though. Back at it, and it’s flowy, minus the fact that I’m supposed to be writing about winter when yesterday’s temperatures hit high 30s Celsius (think somewhere in the range of 95 Fahrenheit). Fiction indeed!

  6. Thank you!

    This is the perfect prompt for today, and it goes really well with what I’m currently writing!

    Thanks to this blog and WFMAD, I’ve had the courage to write for at least 15 minutes every day (usually more) and get past some writer’s block I had. I usually get up early and write before I start my very long day of summer school teaching and grad school.

    Also, I am obsessed with basil and pesto, so thanks for the great tip!

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