Early Sunday morning, Chekhov’s lady friend Yellowbird passed away in a Seattle hospital; she was 84 and had been suffering from a variety of health problems for the past several years. Then last year, the problems began to multiply, and by the beginning of this summer they grew beyond the typical problems of age; early last week she was diagnosed with a terminal neurological disorder, and by Saturday morning decided to let nature take its course. So the hospital increased her pain medication enough to let her sleep more deeply than she’d been able to do in months, and she passed away quietly in her sleep about 3:30 AM Sunday. Chekhov is taking it as well as can be expected; he had been her primary caregiver for the last few years, so nobody knew better how much pain she had been in, and how much it galled her to be unable to live the active lifestyle, including gardening and creating art, which she had maintained up until quite recently. So like me with Grace, he is deeply sad at the loss of someone he dearly loved, but also relieved that her suffering is at an end. He’s already told me plans to move back into his cottage soon; he’s never officially changed his residence, but for several years now has stayed with her. And I’m glad he’s coming back, because I don’t think he should be alone, and it will be good for both of us to have someone who understands nearby to talk to.
Archive for the ‘Diary’ Category
Diary #851
Posted in Diary, Obituary, Philosophy, tagged Grace, psychology, Sunset on October 20, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Diary #850
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset on October 13, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Typically, I put the shutters back up around the middle of October, when I can see from the two-week forecast that we’re heading back into the rainy season. The main reason for that is, the rains typically precede the cold here, and I don’t want to try installing the shutters in the rain. But this is supposed to be a wonky El Niño year, so I’m not surprised to see a very unusual (for us) alternation of cold and warm, rainy and dry, for the rest of this month. So because the forecast called for light freeze both Saturday and Sunday nights, and rain on both Friday and Saturday, I decided to install them last Thursday. When I designed these, I could handle them alone with some effort, but since my body has been catching up to its chronological age for the past five years, it now takes a lot of effort. Taking them down again in April is much easier because gravity is on my side, but we’ll see how I do putting them back up next October. And I won’t be at all surprised if I start needing help to do it in the next year or two.
Diary #849
Posted in Diary, tagged Grace, psychology, Sunset on October 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »
As I explained recently, I’ve been cooking for those I love for most of my adult life, so cooking just for myself can seem like a chore. And that’s even more true when it comes to desserts; it seems almost silly to bake a cake or pie or cookies if I’m the only one who’s going to be eating them. But since I do like my little treat with my tea and show while unwinding in the hours before bed, it’s either make them myself or buy them from a store, which is far more disagreeable to me than making them. And besides, I can’t let all that fruit growing on my property go to waste. So I’ve started to get into the habit of baking on Sundays; when I go into town for groceries on Monday or Tuesday I bring some of the pie or cake or cookies for Chekhov and Yellowbird, and then I have enough for one piece myself each night for most of the week. Last week I got off-schedule and made an apple pie on Wednesday, which meant by Sunday afternoon there were only two slices left; that inspired me to make more crust and simply walk out back for a few more apples to create another pie. I’ve also discovered that making several smaller batches of salsa or whatever seems less daunting than one big batch, so that’s how I’m doing it now. Changing the habits of a lifetime can be difficult, but when one’s circumstances change it’s also necessary. And though it’s probably harder for me than it would be for someone less OCD than I am, I feel like I’m doing OK. And once I settle into the new routines, perhaps I won’t feel Grace’s absence quite so keenly.
Diary #848
Posted in Diary, Miscellaneous, tagged Grace, psychology, Sunset on September 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Sometimes I feel as though Grace is watching over me. The device in the picture is an apple peeler/corer; it works like a charm for preparing apples to cook, because all one need do is stick an apple on those spikes and turn the crank, and the apple is peeled, cored, and spiral-sliced in about 30 seconds. But a few weeks ago, I noticed I hadn’t cleaned it thoroughly enough when I put it away last year, and in the process of remedying that I accidentally unseated the spring you can see at lower left. In the past, I would’ve simply taken it to Grace’s workbench and she’d have fixed it in under five minutes, but this time I had to do it myself. It wasn’t easy, but I found some close-up pictures on the internet and was eventually able to get it back together properly. At least, I was fairly sure it was correct; the moment of truth came on Sunday, when I picked a basket of apples to turn into mincemeat. The first apple I tried fell apart, showing me that I had adjusted something incorrectly, but a little examination and a second messed-up apple showed me what I’d done wrong, and I was soon back in business. It’s a small thing, I know, but I’m easily frustrated by problems that are outside of my scope of expertise, so when I suddenly see what I’m doing wrong and I’m able to fix whatever it is, I feel as though Grace is there behind me, invisibly pointing out what I wasn’t able to see by myself. 
Diary #847
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset, video on September 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »
If you compare this video to the one I took several weeks ago, you can see just how much happier and healthier the turkey is now that he can roam around outside of the coop, safe from literal henpecking. When I took this video on Saturday, I got a good look at the area on his back which was so bad before, and it seems largely healed now. He still spends a lot of his time near the fence, but that seems to be because he’s learned I throw feed corn over the fence when I come out around noon; after that, he wanders all over looking for bugs in the grass. A few days ago I even heard him in the north paddock, under the apple trees, when I opened up the living room window in the morning. I’ve been trying to catch him when he’s making his gobbling noises, but as so often happens with animals doing interesting things, he always stops when I grab the phone! So you’ll just have to be satisfied with watching him strut, unless I happen to catch a better video before this publishes on Monday. At least now I know how to handle larger fowl (I’ve always wanted peacocks) when they start getting too large for the henhouse!
Diary #846
Posted in Diary, Miscellaneous, tagged Grace, psychology, recipes, Sunset on September 15, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Since last year was a poor one for tomatoes, I ran out of homemade salsa early this year, and had to make do with store-bought salsa this summer. But I had both time and tomatoes last week, so I made a 4-pint batch on Thursday; because I try to tweak my recipes to make too much rather than too little, that actually gave me four pints for canning and another which went straight into the refrigerator for immediate use. Those of you who remember how Grace and I developed the recipe together will not be surprised to hear that it was a bittersweet experience for me; on the one hand I’m not going to deprive myself of good salsa, and using a recipe which had more input from her than from me (because she was the Queen of Spicy Food) is almost like getting a little present from her. But on the other hand…well, I don’t think I really need to explain. And assuming I have enough tomatoes for a 2-quart batch of mincemeat (which does not remind me of her because she didn’t like mincemeat), I’ll be going through that same mixture of pleasure and pain again when I make another batch in a few weeks.
Diary #845
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset, video on September 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »
This is the time of year when the pigs, guided by their amazingly acute sense of smell, start spending a lot of time under the apple trees, feasting on drops. Then in the late afternoon, when they know dinnertime is approaching, they head back to the east paddock, where they know I’ll be bringing their dinners. Last week I heard them through the open window, and managed to catch them heading toward dinner; the fuzziness is due to the window screen because I knew if I took the time to go outside, they’d already have passed. Bonus: y’all get to see and hear Louie being a drama queen when Cicero just looks at him too hard.
Lost Update
Posted in Diary, Fiction, Miscellaneous, tagged advertising, imaginative fiction, Lost Angels, psychology, The Essential Maggie McNeill, The Forms of Things Unknown on September 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I haven’t forgotten that I estimated Lost Angels would be released around June, but long-time readers know that I’ve never been especially good at estimating when my books would come out; The Essential Maggie McNeill came out six years after I first announced I was working on it, and even The Forms of Things Unknown was much later than originally announced. The main reason my books tend to come out so much later than my most hopeful predictions is that I’m not working from an advance, which means I need to prioritize my bread-and-butter writing first. But another part is that I’m a rather moody person (I know you’re shocked at this revelation) and will sometimes procrastinate some step or another for months until I get into the right frame of mind. But this time, I have what I believe to be a better excuse: Chester Brown has been busy with other projects, and since he does these covers for me out of friendship I don’t like to hassle him as though I were some kind of entitled ingrate. But I recently decided to email him to ask if he was still busy, and he replied that he was, but if we waited until he wasn’t the cover would never be done. So he included a rough sketch of his cover concept and I was pleased and excited by it; I shot back a little input, and I suspect it won’t be terribly long before he is done. So I’m not going to make another estimate which will probably also be wrong, but I will say that I think it’s not improbable that it will be out this year.
Diary #844
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset, video on September 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I did realize that a full-grown turkey could not live comfortably in a henhouse with chickens, but what I did not realize was just how much trouble it would be. First, he injured himself trying to get through the chicken door, so I had to let him in and out through the walk-through door for the past couple of months. He also kept trying to flap his wings inside, which meant every day I had to deal with the feeder getting knocked loose (and the feed consumed 50% faster), most of the water being dumped on the ground, electrical cords being knocked loose, and nasty shit getting everywhere, producing a reek that was intolerable even by chicken standards. But then I realized that in addition to all that, the hens were pecking him so badly he had bloody sores under his tail and on his back between the wings. So last week I shooed him out into the paddock, which was not easy; he whacked me with his wings (which are much stronger than one would expect) and kept running in every direction other than the one where I wanted him to go. That was through the open gate, which meant several of the chickens took advantage of it even though he wouldn’t, which meant they needed to be shooed back in once I finally got him out. He then spent several days just lurking outside the fence, staring in with an expression I interpreted as the avian equivalent of a child with no money pressing his runny nose against the window of a candy store. But on Saturday he started wandering around a bit, and on Sunday he was up in the north paddock hunting for bugs in the grass. He later joined the pigs and goat eating the corn I throw over the fence; I’d been giving him some separately from the pigs, but on Sunday he joined them so I just doubled the amount. All in all, this looks like the way to do it, should I choose to raise more large fowl in the future, but next time I’ll do it before the injuries start accumulating.
Diary #843
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset on August 25, 2026| Leave a Comment »
We didn’t have a bumper crop of plums this year, but the ones we got are plump and juicy. I made a plum pie, and though Jae loves plum pastries I find them more tart than I care for. I do like plum bread, though, and plum sauce, so I think I’ll make some this week. The tomatoes are just about big enough to make fried green tomatoes; this year I bought only two of a cherry-tomato variety and four of a table-tomato variety, but the former grew so quickly and so large they’ve really overwhelmed the latter, so next year I’m only going to buy one and plant it in a separate planter so the table-tomato plants have more room to grow. I’ve never had a green thumb and I don’t particularly like digging in the dirt, so my gardening is limited to plants I can basically ignore other than ensuring they get enough water. And that typically works out just fine for me.
Visit my bookstore
This Month
Old Posts
Call me
Become a Blog Patron
If you want to donate but don't want a recurring charge, you can send any amount you like via PayPal to my email address (see below). Be sure to include a note so I can thank you!Contact Maggie
Boring but necessary legal stuff