Here’s to hope.

I still mail cards out to friends and family during the winter holidays. Our new Postmaster of Noti was visibly shocked when I handed him 42 cards to postmark. It was the most work he’d done all week! Anyway, the cards provide a great excuse to send out The Funny Farm News, a little publication I’ve been writing since 1992. Unlike many holiday missives all about the kids, the grands, and who died, The Funny Farm News is a brag sheet about what we’ve been up to all year, along with lots of photos and a yearly wildlife report. While I’m not going to post the FFNews here, anyone curious about our antics can read about many of them on Marvin’s blog: Wildcat Man.

A couple of black bears walking on our daily hiking path, captured by our wildlife camera.

Anyway, this year I decided not to send everyone last year’s discounted store-bought cards. I got the idea on YouTube to make paper and embed it with flower seeds. Then I’d paint each one with a design and message. I took a few photos of the process, so here they are. There was a blender involved as well. The entire process was great messy fun and a satisfying waste of time.

Cut up insurance bills and Medicare advertisements

Mould and deckle, made by Marvin

Freshly made paper drying

Design practice

Mass production

I love the raw edges!

Printed instructions

I’ve already heard from a few people I sent these to. I was a little worried about the mess they’d be faced with when they opened the envelope, as the seeds tended to want to pop off. But nobody complained. One friend said she was going to keep it forever! Maybe the seeds will sprout in her keepsake cabinet.

In other news, I finally heard from the publisher who was going to publish Ee-Oh-Lay, What Do Birds Say? in spring of 2021. I had written to them several times over a two-year span, asking what was going on, and there was no response. The last letter I received, in October 2021, said they planned to send proof copies to all the review outlets and the book would be published in spring 2022. So of course, when spring 2022 came and went as well as spring 2023, and no book, I figured the reviewers all hated it and the publisher had sacked the project. And for whatever reason, decided not to tell me. I couldn’t even look at the art anymore. I removed all the blogs I’d posted about the book. I moved on to new ventures and tried to put Ee-Oh-Lay behind me.

But, this fall, as I resumed working on Autumn Spawn, I started thinking how beautiful Ee-Oh-Lay could look illustrated in fabric art! In November, after still not hearing a peep, I asked for the rights back on my book. The immediate response was that the book would be released on December 1 of this year. Well that didn’t happen, but at least I was assured that I would be kept in the loop from now on. So, sigh, here’s to a small glimmer of hope. There’s not much else I can do at this point. I’ll keep you posted.