Wonderful wonderful

We had a terrific time at Book Expo, a gigantic book trade show in Washington, D.C. While "Wild Women' did not rise above finalist in the juvenile fiction category of ForeWord magazine's Book of the Year contest for 2005, Bailey, Sugar, Jim and I were very proud that it got that far and we were very honored to be at ForeWord's lovely reception. We plan on entering it in other contests and my new books in this year's book of the year contest.

This morning I ate four wild strawberries that we found as we picked up trash along Centerville Road. Then I visited with two third-grade classes at Thomas Jeffereson Elementary School. They had such wonderful questions and comments about the books. Hunner Boyd gave me a terrific sketch of the cat-snatcher. He drew it while I was reading that part to the class.

Saturday we will be signing books at Dickinson's Store in Mineral from 11 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. On Tuesday I will be reading to students at Robert E. Lee school in Spotsylvania Courthouse and I'll be back at Prospect Middle School in Orange on Wednesday morning. On Thursday, I'll be talking with homeschoolers in Louisa. On Saturday, June 3, I'll be at the Pear Tree gift shop from 8 to 10:115 a.m. (Spotsylvania Courthouse), then at Jabberwocky in Fredericksburg from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Stop by and visit. It's always fun to meet readers.

Special birds

Bailey came over afterschool yesterday and we visited on my front porch where I was painting an old porch swing a lovely shade of green. She was excited to see the pair of indigo buntings, a brilliant blue bird, feasting on thistle seeds with the finches. She said she had never seen such a pretty bird. We think they are just passing through on migration. But, what a treat for both of us. I, of course, got paint all over my arms, but the swing looks great. It matches an old rocker that Sugar found on a treasure hunt last year. She gave it to my husband for the porch and he had it reglued and repaired. Looks terrific. Sugar was very happy to save it from a trash pile at a yard sale. It's amazing what people will throw away that can be fixed up.

Come see us Saturday at a homeschool convention at the Inn at Kelly's Ford near Culpeper. We hope that homeschoolers will especially love the third book in the series because Noah and Fred are homeschooled.

I will be at Fabric Hut in Louisa tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Animals

I was petting Sallie and Shadow last night on the front porch and I saw deer walk through the trees out near the street. It looked at me for a minute then jumped really high and ran away. Sugar and I like to watch all the yellow finches that come to the thistle feeders. They are really noisy. Yesterday we had cardinals, blue jays and bluebirds, too. Our strawberries are growing like crazy. Yum.