Found Treasures

by Margie Senechal

The past few Mondays have been spent with my friend Phil culling my backyard. I am ashamed to say I have let nature take it's course over the past two and half, or three years. And it is not a pretty sight. 

One of the curses of the Pacific NW is the Oregon Blackberry. Sure, blackberries are a tart, tasty treat, but my how they grow. Imagine Audrey Two with vicious stickers. They are not happy with simply a corner of the yard, no, they want it all. They have overtaken a Rhodie tree, two apple trees and encroached the patio. They trail along the house, creeping up the walls, framing the windows.

And now, I am dedicated to their demise. Plain and simple, there is not enough room in this yard for us both. I am tired of my yard looking like a scene from Life Without People, a tv series that looked at what would happen to earth if people died off. 

As we clear away the brambles, I have found treasures buried beneath. A bird's nest right outside my bedroom window. Gnomes scattered about the yard that I'd forgotten about and now they appear to be as much a part of nature as the nest.

As for my writing, I'm trying to dedicate myself to 500 words a day. That will be enough to finish Suitcases before our Wrangler retreat in August.

What I've found are a few other treasures. That's the beauty of a work-in-progress--the unexpected revelation of a character secret, a character flaw, an entirely new character all together. 

When I first began writing Suitcases, it was the story of Ana, a young woman who collected suitcases but was unable to travel because she was the caregiver of her infirmed mother. Then I added Danny, a bit a mystery with his PTSD behavior and amputated arm, but loved by all at the local market.

The cast continues to grow and last night, Lexie, Ana's best friend from high school found her own voice and revealed another aspect of Ana's mute mother. 

I know that soon I will have piles of words in which I will need to do another sort of culling, much like the bramble/branch piles on my patio, along the side of the house, in the yard. But, hopefully, by the end of summer, I will have two projects to be right proud of.