Wednesday, August 8, 2012

[Mostly] Wordless Wednesday - Greening Up & Helpful Links

Okay, I made a big boo-boo somehow and got a virus on my computer.  Nasty little bugger it is, too.  So I'm using a loaner from my husband's work for another day or two.  It feels weird to be on a new machine!

One ramification of this, though, is that I don't have my photo files.  Also, I don't have my editing software to crop it or watermark it (I don't typically mess with the photos other than that).  So today's [Mostly] Wordless Wednesday will be a photo I took today of the burn area across the street.  You see, it's become green!  Already, the plant life is rejuvenating the area.  I find that so uplifting and hopeful! 


It probably looks sort of normal, but consider that all that land was black.  Then the rain kept coming and washing it out, which made it brown.  The part that matters now is that it is green!  GREEN!  Those houses on top of the hill survived, but you can probably make out the brown singed bushes around them.  Fire is amazing, and seems to leave behind destruction similar to a tornado's, in that it will skip right around something, take the houses surrounding that something out, but leave it standing.  We saw quite a lot of that. 

Now for  some helpful links:

Poe Forevermore is having a writing contest.  No entry fee, and it's based on Poe; sounds good to me!

ACC Writer's Studio is having a contest for responses to artwork.  The Speak Peace Contest encourages people to respond to artwork by Vietnamese children.  They are also taking art submissions.  This appears to be for Colorado residents only, has cash prizes, and is free to enter.

Apex Publications is seeking a blog editor.  It is not a paid position, but it comes with lots of neat handouts.

Crossed Genres Magazine is now open for submissions.  This is a paying market.  The current theme is "Boundaries."

Writer's Digest presented a 12-day plan of simple writing exercises that I thought you might enjoy.

Savvy Writers and E-book Online compiled a list of the 58 top websites to announce your book for FREE.  Free advertizing! 

Any helpful links to pass along?  Blog hops or anything of that sort you might want to mention?  Are you as surprised as I am at how quickly scorched earth comes back to life?

May you find your Muse.

14 comments:

mshatch said...

I am surprised but I seem to recall reading that sometimes fire is a good thing for the earth.

D.G. Hudson said...

Mother Nature triumphs again.

Burning the earth can be rejuvenating to the earth, but the trees take a long time to replenish.

Hope the computer problem is solved soon.

Michael Di Gesu said...

Nature is truly amazing and is in constant change. That is the beauty of it. I live up north and I love the change of seasons. What a lovely way to view the miracles of life every season.

Thanks so much for the links. I will definitely check them out.

Andrew Leon said...

I'm sorry you're computer is sick. That sucks!
Been through that myself.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Viruses are evil.
Great the hill is growing back so fast.
And as always, a huge list of events in my blog post today.

Shannon Lawrence said...

Ms Hatch, I definitely remember reading that fire is good for nature.

D.G., the trees are depressing. Had I zoomed in it would be more obvious, but they are like tree skeletons standing along the foothills. I like the green on the ground, though, and I understand it's a natural progression, just a hard one to be witness to, I guess.

Michael, that's a lovely way to put it. I do love the changing of the seasons. Each season brings about its own beauty.

Andrew, I'm just frustrated because I tried to be so careful. I don't click on random links, or open anything from emails, etc. Grr.

Alex, they ARE evil! On my way to check out the links.

Andrew Leon said...

You can get them by going to safe sites you go to everyday if the site gets infected.
The very first virus I ever got wasn't even because I went anywhere. Someone actually hacked into my computer while I was using it, and wiped my hard drive.

Christine Rains said...

Nature always amazes me. Thank you for the links!

Shannon Lawrence said...

Andrew, holy cow! Someone did try to get into my Gmail account a few weeks ago, so I'm thinking it is quite possibly related.

Christine, me, too! And I'm glad it still has that ability.

Unknown said...

That's amazing how quickly life is returning to the area. Life finds a way, as Dr. Malcolm would put it :)

Randy said...

Thanks for the links. I had a story accepted for an anthology due to a previous link you posted. This Crossed Genres sounds promising as well.

Shannon Lawrence said...

Jamie, ah yes, excellent quote!

Randy, that makes my day! Congratulations!

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear your computer has a virus. : (

So nice to see that the burn area is starting to rejuvenate. That is really uplifting and hopeful!

Shannon Lawrence said...

Susanne, it really is! I drove through the intensely burned residential area (my kids' school is in there and was, in fact, quite lucky to be spared), and it was a mix of horrific and hopeful, as people were clearing out the burned detritus and rebuilding. It was a hub of activity in the area, fences being rebuilt, standing houses being cleaned (though less of this since most were already cleaned), homes being built. The horrific part, though, were the lots devoid of anyone working on them, concrete and brick the only thing standing. It looked like that swatch had been bombed.