On daily walks and deadlines...

Next deadline (fairly) successfully met: check. A day to sleep in a bit so that I can hopefully continue to function: check. Attempt to catch up on blogs and a bit of housework: jury still out...

I was reading in someone's blog about juggling balance and freelance. It seems to be a common predicament. Why is this? Do we live in such a hurry-up, instant-gratification world that deadlines are never reasonable? Or does our time needed to produce art just expand to fill (and beyond) the time alloted, whatever it may be?

My own, small attempt at balance through the crazy job I am currently engaged in has been to at LEAST go for a walk daily (my body is objecting strenuously to the hours it is being made to *sit*. Many hours. Every day. For at least the next six months). If I am feeling caught up, I may do a few extra things like sweep the floor and go pick the ripening vegetables in the garden. Since I can't talk about the project I'm working on, this lack of outside life really curtails things of interest to discuss on this venue.

Let's see... this last week, my one big outing was to attend my son's piano recital. He was performing a difficult, fast-moving piece that he plays very loudly and passionately. My husband and I had a second row seat with a clear view of the pianist and the grand piano he was playing on. It began jostling and rocking with the vigor of his playing and husband and I sat with a hand over our mouths waiting for the grand piano lid to fall (THAT would have been dramatic!) Thankfully, it remained in its upright position, but that made his performance especially suspenseful!

Other than that, my exposure to the world is the several miles of neighborhood my friend and I see while taking Jack-the-dog for a walk. One day last week, I got seduced by the ripeness of the wild blackberries that grow *everywhere* here and the walk got shortened by a picking spree. I hope they are still OK - since today is the first day I've had a minute to clean and make cobbler from them. While picking, I noticed this abandoned bird nest on the ground in front of a bank of briars. It is in plain view, and about 5 feet from the road. What type of bird makes this kind of nest, do you know? I would guess duck, but there is no water nearby...??? (sorry about the picture quality. It was taken with a camera phone).


It originally had a lovely 'wreath' of twigs around it, artfully arranged and overlapping in the same direction as they circled the mossy center, which still has bits of feather down clinging to it... Duck? What do you think?