A side quest? In this economy?

I know, right? This month’s side quest was *cough cough* a new kitty. We adopted him from our local SPCA/PAWS facility. We thought a snuggly new buddy would cheer up our sick daughter and, well, I’d rather not talk about the mouse that ran over my foot a few weeks ago.

Our plan sort of worked, mostly by offending our senior cat, Blizzard, so much that he ignores the rest of us completely and devotes his every waking moment to sick kiddo. She is thrilled about this, so our plan worked, just not the way we expected.

New kitty is outrageously cuddly, and what’s lovely is that he doesn’t seem to prefer any of us in particular. He’ll snuggle with anyone available. Which is perfect for our family.

We named him Captain Pickles, because he’s a big dill.

Spring has sprung, the maples are tapped and maple syrup is being bottled, and I feel like the winter accumulation of sludge has been wiped from my brain. It’s been a tough few months, for the world, for my family, and I fell deeply into zombie mode for a while there.

I kept writing through the parts of Little Banned Bookshop 2 that I’d already plotted, but now I can feel the gaps begin to fill in. I’ve also been picking at the plot for A Binding of Spellwork and Story, which I received an artsnb grant to write, after setting it aside in frustration because my brain refused to story. All this comes with a deep sigh of relief because it’s almost emotionally painful when I can’t escape reality. Its like all the magic bleeds out of the world. And this is not the time for that!

As previously mentioned, the sap is running and the local sugar shacks are in full swing. I dialed it back this year, tapping far fewer trees to keep myself from getting overwhelmed. The pace is just right and I’m thankful for that.

The enchanted forest is slowly waking up. The hobblebush is growing wings:

and sometimes the raindrops still freeze,

but the forest folk are returning.

In spare moments, I’ve been prepping for my first ever book fair-the Greater Moncton Dieppe Riverview Book Fair on April 26th at the Riverview Lion’s Center. I’m nervous and excited. There will be another newsletter before the big day, so you’ll probably hear about this again. In the meantime, please enjoy this wee bit of table decor I’ll be thrilled to keep on my bookshelf forevermore:

That’s it for this month, Side Questers! Please soak up all the good mental health vibes of spring every chance you get.