Day 6: Linda Dawn
I set a goal to write 5 minutes in Nov. My plan was to write when I got up in the morning before getting on with the day. As you may well know that is easier said than done. Not discounting needing to pee, as I get older it seems to take longer and longer to get settled into the day. This morning, for instance, I was going to write about the vivid dream I was in on awakening, instead find myself telling you how and where I write.
I write at my computer desk which is in the bedroom of my small walk-up co-op apartment in down town Toronto. I live across the street from the University of Toronto Bookstore in the heart of Canada's largest University. As well, I am close to 7 major hospitals, between 2 men's shelters and near the Centre for Addiction Research and Mental Health. There is a streetcar stop outside, a subway 3 scant blocks away at Queen's Park, the seat of Ontario's provincial government.
Outside my windows is a well kept courtyard in which I have a small perennial garden. I'm going to plant bulbs - daffodils and alliums later, if it doesn't rain. They are the only bulbs the black squirrels that frequent us don't like. Despite the myriad life surrounding, my home is a lovely little oasis once you're through the gate.
I still write on a hard drive with a monitor and all. When this one dies I'll move to a lap top. For expediency in this Nov. challenge I decided to build an MSWord file and just write into it by date rather free-form. This morning is the exception as I'm writing this directly to Zoe via email and taking more than 5 minutes!
It's Wednesday so the landscapers are here cutting the grass, trimming edges and I hear their sounds along with those of a helicopter overhead and one of my neighbour's doors shutting. I can smell the peelings from vegetable soup I made yesterday, because the compost is sitting beside the door not far from me waiting to go out. I can taste the fresh fall day and want to get on with it. How do I write? Whatever comes to mind at the time. Have a great day!
What a vivid picture and sense of place you conjure, Linda Dawn! Thanks so much for sharing this, I loved the landscapers, helicopters and smell of vegetable peelings. I really felt like I was there with you. You have given me a little glimpse into a specific time and place and transported me to the middle of downtown Ontario for just a second, all the way from Spain. Wow, now there's magic for you.... ;)
ReplyDeleteThank you Sara L. Where are you in Spain?
ReplyDeleteZoe pasted in a photo of the UT bookstore. Don't think I'll get to the bulbs today. I can't seem to get away from the computer and other inside tasks. "Boston"beans baking. Love that fall smell. I always seem to crave being a homebody in Nov....