Sunday, September 15, 2024: A Small Moment of Delight

Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully, including my struggles to maintain a balanced life, what I listen to, read, and watch for entertainment, and occasional bits of information I’ve gleaned from doing the research for my novels.

In addition, now and again I will provide some of my fiction to read, for free, on this newsletter. Everything is available to anyone who subscribes, but I am always pleased when someone shows their appreciation for the newsletter by upgrading to paid.

Daily Diary, Day 1474:

This is my second post in the new series that I have started alternating with my Sunday TaDa! Listposts. If you want a more detailed description of why I decided to write them and give them the title A Small Moment of Delight, you can check tout the first post Here.

Over the past two weeks, it’s been fun thinking about what I would like to write about this Sunday, if only because this has made me aware how often during the day, I have one of these small moments.

The small moment I am going to write about today came earlier this week when my husband pointed out that there were a number of crows eating the ripe olives that had fallen from our decorative olive tree in the front yard.

The truth is, that olive tree gives me a small moments of delight almost daily.

There used to be a very large pine tree in our front yard that completely overshadowed this olive tree. I can only assume that when they were first planted, they were both small enough that the homeowner wasn’t concerned about how close they were to each other. The pine tree grew enormous, tall and stately. But while we loved it, over time its root system was systematically heaving up the sidewalk in front of the house, causing cracks in the driveway, and eventually ripping through the main waterline between the house and the sidewalk. It was way too close to the house. This meant that if there was a fire, particularly in drought years when the needles were quite dry, it would have gone up like a torch, not just destroying our house, but also threatening other houses on our block. It was also beginning to lean, with some of the roots appearing above ground, so we could actually see them. A disaster waiting to happen. Consequently, some time ago, we had it taken down.

Much as we mourned it’s loss, in time we realized that it’s absence meant the olive tree really began to expand and grow. And, ever since Covid, when almost all of my social interactions are now on the phone, I spend a good couple of hours every day upstairs in the front room where the upper branches of the olive tree are right outside the window I sit by. This keeps the room nicely shaded, and it gives me something lovely to look at while I’m talking on the phone. Plus, if the sun is at the right spot, the fluttering olive leaves dance as shadows on the opposite wall.

And of course, the olives as they ripen and fall, occasionally attracts crows, who I quite enjoy watching…another moment of delight.

If you enjoy my daily posts and would like to subscribe for free or become a patron (where you will get the pleasure of giving me the resources to spend more time writing and less time marketing) click the little button below. In addition, please do click on the heart so I know you’ve been to visit and/or share with your friends, and I always welcome comments! Thanks!