Paksworld

There’s a lot of chilly weather around, including down here in the middle of Texas…before the front hit, early yesterday morning, we were having a fairly balmy 50-something-degree F. night.   By dawn, we were down some degrees, and by early afternoon, when I was trying to hang out laundry in a cold wind, the laundry was freezing to the clothesline with amazing speed.  (Smelled really good when I brought it in, though!)  What, I hear some of you wondering, does this have to do with the Paksworld books?   Well, last night I was working on a scene set in winter in Lyonya, with the POV character and others out in the cold wintry landscape (when originally working on this section, before the revision weeks, I was almost in synch with the time of year–days shortening, etc.)

So brief forays into the windy cold, especially today, remind me of the sensory bits that are so easy to forget inside.   Some smells carry best in warm moist air; others carry well in cold air (wet or dry), etc.   We don’t have snow on the ground (but I’ve lived where there was some) but the lily pond is freezing and the horse trough froze over, reminding me to consider the water sources for my characters.  Which, working on the scenes in warmer weather, I hadn’t except once.

There’s a brilliant male cardinal outside my window, in slanting sunlight, pecking a wildlife feed block.  I notice the feeding platform is otherwise empty–so I’d better go back out (I think this time with a jacket on–two layers are not really enough in this wind) and replenish the feeding area.