“So what else is new!” That’s what I hear you saying. Hear me out. Things are also looking good, which means that all the busy times have been worth it.

Books

During my quirky week, I did three presentations: a 20-minute PowerPoint for Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on a Sunday morning, a 30-minute one for Kiwanis on Wednesday at noon, and a 40-minute one for the Siuslaw Pioneer Museum on Friday evening where 150 of the 184 photos came from. That one was really special. They all went well with no glitches, and I sold some books at each one.

There was a nice crowd for Storytime about my new book Around Florence at the Siuslaw Pioneer Museum.

I was on the phone most of the day this past Thursday calling all the venues that carry my book between Florence and Bandon, which is mostly libraries, visitor centers, and bookstores, to set up a trip on Friday. I also called venues on the north coast, south coast, Eugene, Roseburg, and Grants Pass.

Besides seeing if anybody needed any more books, I also was checking to see if these venues would take some flyers and small posters regarding the Florence Festival of Books. They all agreed to take the FFOB info and some wanted books. By 4 p.m. , I was through calling. So I packaged flyers and posters and prepared one box of books, and got them all to the Post Office before 5 p.m. I really had to scramble to get 12 large envelopes and a box loaded and ready to mail. Then I got 13 packages ready to drop off the next day on our trip down the coast.

FFOB

On Monday, I handled the preparation for the meeting on Tuesday, which involved putting the agenda together and running off some handouts. I also went into town in the afternoon and met with Jenna Bartlett at the Siuslaw News regarding the 20-page insert for the newspaper that will come out the Wednesday before and will be our program during the event. I still had one piece of edit to write for the insert plus the list of names of those participating with their table number and the centerfold table layout. Then I drove over to co-chair Connie Bradley’s place and went over the agenda with her (since her Internet was down).

On Tuesday, I wrote the last bit of edit, which was a letter from me as one of the co-chairs giving a  brief history of the event and then going over what’s new this year. Then I finished getting everything ready for the meeting and got there with just enough time to pass out everything before we began. It lasted from 1:10 to 2:15 p.m. Then I met with a couple of individual committee members before making a few other stops and getting home about 5 p.m. After dinner, I got the minutes typed and sent to Connie. Her Internet was back up. She was able to check them over.  After hearing from her,  I sent them to all committee members.

On Wednesday, Jennifer Conners, the FFOB committee member who is the outreach specialist for the Florence Events Center and Connie and I met at 10 a.m. to assign tables to the almost 80 participants. We had a template of the table layout, and then we took into consideration what size table they paid for, who had special requests, who needed electricity, which ones were sharing, plus a couple of special groups. It’s like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. We finished about 12:20 p.m., and I was late getting to the museum where I was supposed to go on duty as a docent at noon. Fortunately, an extra person was on duty that day. I got home after 5 p.m. and after dinner went over everything and made sure we didn’t leave any one or any table out.

On Thursday, I watered the yard before being on the phone  for hours before my madcap dash to the post office. After dinner, I got everything loaded in the car for Friday’s trip.

Charleytown Marketplace is a delightful place to shop in Charleston that carries products produced on the Oregon Coast––including my bridge books.

I picked up Connie Bradley the next morning about 9:30 a.m., and we headed south. First stop, was Dutch Bros coffee: medium cocomo freeze for Connie and a hot medium latte for me. We made stops in Gardiner and Winchester Bay, numerous stops in North Bend and Coos Bay. Then our run out to Charleston also included a stop for lunch at a fairly new place called Millers. It’s a sports bar with good food; we had halibut fish tacos. Then we headed to Bandon where we made six stops.

We went to the museum, a bookstore, the library, two lodgings, and our last stop was Bandon’s new Face Rock Creamery. They gladly accepted our poster before we settled down to enjoy incredibly rich ice cream cones. The creamery is the new cheese factory in Bandon. We also bought some specialty cheeses: Connie was taken with the cranberry cheese spread, and I liked the garlic cheese curds. There are samples of just about every kind of cheese they make, so it’s hard to resist the ones you really like. We were happy campers when we left and got home shortly after 6 p.m.

Bottom line: We got the flyers and posters distributed to all the places on our list plus the creamery and two lodgings in Bandon. And I sold 26 books (plus six I mailed off yesterday) and Connie sold some of her books also.

Yard & winter prep

With the warm and breezy weather much of this past week, I spent today watering everything. I also picked more beans. My bush beans are done producing, especially the three plants where a rabbit removed all the leaves. I thought it was a chipmunk, until I actually saw the rabbit under the netting methodically stacking the leaves in a pile. The scarlet runner beans are still producing.

The rugosa roses are still blooming and some have rose hips enlarging and turning shades of orange and red.

The rugosa roses are still blooming and the largest bush boasts enlarged orange and red rose hips. They are totally cool and remind me of crabapples.

And the tomatoes in the greenhouse are finally ripening at a rate greater than one at a time. I counted seven in various shades of red this morning. The greenhouse now resembles a jungle inside because everything has grown tremendously. When entering, I have to duck my head half way through before standing up carefully. It’s full of lots of tomatoes to pick eventually, but the extra scarlet runner bean plants that I put in large tubs, have produced only a few beans. The vines have spread all over the greenhouse and have pretty flowers, but it was an experiment that I probably won’t repeat.

The greenhouse is a bit of a jumgle, but there are lots of tomatoes turning red now. I love it!

Tomorrow I plan to clean, lightly sand, and redo the Verathane on the front door to the house. Then I’ll clean up the burgundy red doors and fence and gates and prepare them for painting. I should be able to get some painted tomorrow and the rest on Monday. The weather is supposed to stay warm and dry

So I’m still selling books, the flyers and posters for the FFOB are finally out there, and everything for the big day on September 27 seems to be going along on schedule. And some of the flowers in the yard are still looking good, the tomatoes are about to go crazy, and I should be able to fit in my winter prep this year. Busy, yes, but life is good!