Bee Cozy: Visiting Liverpool, NY's Golden Bee Bookshop

I've recently become a fan of the Danish art of hygge ("HOO-ga"), a lifestyle that actively practices comfort and contentment. Hygge often involves multiple senses such as touch (soft blankets), taste (good food), and smell (scented candles - or food again!). Hygge isn't limited to practice at home. You can do it at work, with friends, or out and about. That's how I spent this morning at Casey Rose Frank's Golden Bee Bookshop.

Casey's bookshop is the very definition of hygge. It's a visual feast, with books she has handpicked for their beautiful covers and intriguing stories. If you're any kind of book lover, you won't be able to resist browsing the shelves, filling your field of vision with gorgeous, artful covers bearing flowing script, or touching the satiny-smooth book jackets. Casey's shop also offers scented candles, bookmarks, notecards, and artwork, all of which are book-themed.

The Golden Bee Bookshop opened in November 2019. Located in the village of Liverpool, NY, it's conveniently situated right next door to a coffee shop. If you're in Liverpool some morning, you can visit Golden Bee and let Casey know what sort of stories you enjoy. Casey will use her unique superpower of selecting exactly the right kind of book for you. (I know; I've seen that superpower in action twice.) Then take your prize to the coffee shop and read away the morning in perfect contentment over a hot cuppa.

Now that's hygge!

About Golden Bee Bookshop

The Golden Bee Bookshop was dreamed up by writer and life-long-book-lover Casey Rose Frank. Casey grew up in North Syracuse, NY; attended Niagara University, and lived in Chicago and New York City before coming back upstate to settle in Liverpool.

Casey loves recommending books and has read at least fifty percent of the titles available for purchase in the shop. She hand picked the bookish merchandise at Golden Bee, showcasing the talents of creators she met through the "Bookstagram" community on Instagram.

She runs the business with the help of her husband Rob Ringham, and her cat Mia, who likes to help put in book orders from the comfort of the couch.

Visit Golden Bee Bookshop online at https://www.goldenbeebookshop.com/.

In Praise of Iced Coffee

Nobody loves sweating to death, least of all, me.  I love my coffee, as most of my readers well know - but when the weather warms up, I can't stand the thought of hot coffee.  So, I'd like to thank whichever enterprising soul decided it was a good idea to throw this caffeinated nectar of the gods over ice.  Yay, you.

We recently bought a new coffee maker, and I've been refrigerating the rest of what's in the pot after hubby's cuppa as my iced coffee.  Then I heard there's a better way, so I went looking on the Internet (yay, Internet) for a cold-brewed iced coffee recipe for myself.  Pretty simple.  Toss it in a container, refrigerate and wait, then strain into a new container.  You can pour yourself a cup and add whatever you like to flavor it.  Even I can do this!  If you love iced coffee, but not the way your coffee shop bill adds up over a week, give this a try.

All I can say is, yum.

Coffee and Cover Art

Well, it is refreshing to have lost sleep on my own terms, rather than because of worry about my sick kitty. Yesterday, I was tinkering with the mockup cover of THE SERPENT IN THE STONE for my publisher. I do this for each book, to give them an idea what I'm looking for on the cover. My cover designer, Kim Mendoza, has been awesome. I'm hoping I can get her for the covers in The Gifted Series, as she has done such a great job on the first two books in The Elemental Series.

Publishers can't always get you the exact image you're looking for on your book cover, but in my experience, The Wild Rose Press is particularly accommodating with cover art feedback. What they choose in the end is still the final say (which is as it should be, because they do it professionally, and they know how to package a book to its best advantage), but they provide you a form with your contract that lets you tell them all about the people, places, and things in your novel. I'm artistically inclined, so I find it easier to "show" them what I'm looking for, as far as subject, layout and tone. And Kim one-ups me every time. (Kim, you are awesome. I will say it again and again.)

So I am happy with my mockup, but I know I'll be happier still when I see what The Wild Rose Press cooks up for my next cover. But all this searching for images and knocking together the cover mockup really just means I need a good cup of coffee. :)

Dreaming of Spring

Those seed supply centers are dumb like a fox. A few weeks ago, they started sending me their catalogs for the 2012 growing season. In the midst of ice and snow and cold temperatures (more or less; we've been lucky so far), who can resist the photos of blooming flowers and fresh produce?

Now is a great time to start planning what you want to grow in warmer seasons. This is when you have the time to map out what (and where) you want to plant. There's no rush, because you can't even plant until the last frost is over. It's a good time to look over what's available for your climate, light conditions, and growing zone. You can choose, realistically, what plants you can afford to buy or trade with others, and those edibles your family will actually use. No sense growing broccoli, if no one in your family's going to eat it! Alternatively, you can choose new vegetables your family might want to "kitchen test."



This will be the second year for my butterfly garden, and I expect everything's going to come back fuller and more vigorous. I'm hoping the milkweed will have gotten a nice foothold, and that it attracts many monarch butterflies. I have a couple varieties of butterfly bush, which is quite the magnet for many species. In addition, there are some empty spaces where I can put some new types of flowers to attract butterflies (and hopefully a hummingbird or two). I also have a shed to landscape. Hooray for blank canvases!

Finally, we have a raised-bed garden awaiting its spring planting. This year, we'll plant more of the really successful stuff. Last growing season, we ate leaf lettuce, baby spinach, and beet greens right up until frost. Definitely going to pack the box with those. I want to try more tomatoes and beans, too. I think we'll grow some sunflowers for the birds, out by the bird feeders. We get a couple volunteer sunflowers every year, from seeds that drop from the feeder and manage to take root, but seeing a cheerful patch of them out there every morning over my coffee will be a great way to start the day.

If you're in a cold climate, I hope you're dreaming of spring, too!

Squirrel Wars 2: Revenge of the Fuzzballs

OK, now that I have the birdseed situation ironed out and squirrel-proofed (the Squirrel-Proof Tube Feeder is working - see Squirrel Wars), I have to contend with what the lil' monsters are doing to my suet - as in, eating it in 3 days. At ten bucks a case, I am going to be eaten out of suet and home by the end of the winter. I had - sort of - outsmarted them by using these ingenious little screw-shut chain links, called Quick Links:


and though they try like heck, they haven't managed to open my suet cages. That doesn't stop them wolfing it down faster than a blue-ribbon champ at a pie eating contest. Help, gods of wildlife management, what's a girl to do?

Enter my hero, the unimposing but brilliant Squirrel-Proof Suet Cage:


Hooray! My sleek, wiry green hero, whatever did I do until you came along? This feeder works on the same principle as the tube feeder. Small birds can get through the baffle to dine on the suet, but Evil Grey Fuzzball cannot vanquish the wire to suck down the goods. (Note that I still have to screw it shut with its silvery sidekick, Quick Link.)

Both these nifty gadgets, and the tube feeder as well, are available at Tractor Supply. If you're a birder, it's well worth checking them out. Go, go! Defend your yard against the Squirrel Army of Doom!

All is well now in Greenwood House. I can't wait for spring, so I can sit out there with my coffee again and watch the birds visit - and actually get to eat something.

Happy Earth Day!

Today's the day where we try, officially, to be better stewards of our planet. With that in mind, try doing something a little "greener" today. Choose a washable coffee cup instead of that drive-thru Styrofoam one. Install CFLs instead of those energy-gulping incandescent bulbs. Think about a programmable thermostat. Carpool to work. Plant a tree. There are so many ways to tread a little lighter on the earth. Try one. Try a few! Your planet will thank you. Happy Earth Day!

One Nice Thing

It's amazing how a kindness can lift you out of a funk. I had been in one for the past few days, and then out of the blue, someone gave me a compliment that both surprised me and made me feel loads better. It changed my whole outlook for the day.

Do someone a big favor today. Say something nice to them. Your spouse, a friend, the lady at the coffee shop. Just one person. Pass that good feeling on! You'll find it makes you feel good, too.

Squirrel Wars

(Or, How A Little Fuzzy Grey Mammal Shouldn't Be Smarter Than Humans, But Is)

I am in the midst of that great perennial battle--Human vs. Squirrel. Several years ago, when my husband and I bought our house, I was big-eyed with dreams of turning my backyard into a miniature nature preserve. I set out a nice new (standard hopper-style) bird feeder expecting to see all the pretty birds show up to eat and to listen to their tweets and chirps over my morning coffee.

No dice. Grey Squirrel shows up, pops the top off my feeder, eats the whole batch in two days.

Okay, I said. Let's try something different. I bought a tube-style feeder and a pole, and some suet cages.

No dice. Grey Squirrel shows up, knocks down the tube feeder, opens it, eats everything. Just for good measure, he opens the suet cages and eats that too.

Hmm. Not to be denied, I re-hang the feeder and suet cages, using floral wire to keep the cages shut and the feeder on the hook.

This time he breaks the wire and gets everything anyway--suet, birdseed, my pride, you name it.

Okay, you fuzzy little guerrilla birdseed eater, I'm gonna fix your wagon. I went to the hardware store and bought a few of those single chain-links that you have to screw shut. NOW the little monster can eat my suet, but at least he can't open the cages and gulp it down in one day. It takes him a few, but hey, I'll take what I can get at this point. Try that on for size, Mr. No-Opposable-Thumbs!

On to the feeders. I like goldfinches, and this little bugger's not gonna keep me goldfinch-less. I find a cone-shaped thistleseed feeder that's made of steel and heavy-duty screen wire. The birds can cling right to it to munch away. A-ha! GS leaves it alone! I get pretty yellow birdies! (Maybe he just doesn't like thistleseed.)

Okay, I said. What about the other feeder? I dispense with the tube feeder and blow a chunk of change on a squirrel-resistant hopper feeder that slams shut when GS's weight plunks on it. Hooray! It works! More birdies! Then one day I see GS hanging upside-down from the feeder roof and chomping merrily away at what's in the pan. Arggh. "Resistant." Not "proof." Well, we're aiming for almost perfect anyway now.

Then, hoping for some different birds, I try adding a wire basket-style feeder that you fill with sunflower seed. GS is showing signs of being Houdini reincarnated now. Two days after hanging it, he has figured out how to unhook the lid latches, flip the thing open, and chow down on the contents. And he got on his little squirrel Blackberry and texted his pals, because now there are three of them.

Scream.

I am now trying a feeder that claims to be squirrel-proof. It says so right on the box, and there's a picture of smiling people and lots of birdies flitting around the contraption. It's a tube feeder with a cage around it, so GS can't stick his head in there and suck down my sunflower seeds like a furry little vacuum cleaner.

I am not convinced.

There is a flaw in this lovely design. The top, which they claim "locks," just sets down on the top of the tube--somewhat snugly, but you see where I am going with this. There is no padlock on this sucker. And I think GS might be working out how to mutate his little paws into something with opposable thumbs at this very moment.

I will keep you posted. But if you hear screaming, it's me, overrun by Squirrelfest.

Here, sleep. Heeeeere, sleep!

Right. So I'm up late on the phone with a pal last night (late for me). No problem. Still got plenty of time to catch some Z's, and that was my decision. 9:40 p.m. Good to go. Close eyes.

Wake up. DH's arms are wrapped around my middle and he's murmuring amorously in my ear. Crack eye open. 1:23 a.m. Is he kidding? He doesn't have to get up at the arse-crack of dawn in the morning to do laundry, feed the baby, cart him off to daycare, and then spend the day on the phone at work chugging cappuccino to stay awake. Murmur back, snuggle a bit, hope that's sufficient. Seems to be. Close eyes.

Wake up. Baby's crying. Open eye. 3:20 a.m. Grooooan. (You have to understand. The baby NEVER cries in the middle of the night, not since he was a month old.) Beg DH to take care of him, which he does. Yay, DH. Doze.

Wake up, ten minutes later. Baby is crying, DH unable to get him back to sleep, so assumes he is hungry (unusual for baby this early). DH is busy with diaper, asks if I can get bottles together. Sigh. Get up, make bottles, give one to DH to feed baby. Yay again, DH. Check clock. 3:43 a.m. OK, let's try this again. Close eyes.

Wake up. Cat is on my head trying to get into windowsill even though window is shut and have no idea what he wants out there at...4:10 a.m. Start to cry. Get up, toss cat out, shut bedroom door. Try desperately to close eyes.

Finally. Dreaming! Some strange thing about having dinner at a theme restaurant with a lot of crazy seafaring gear on the walls. What the hell am I eating? Is this fish? Should it be looking back at me?

Buzzzzzzzz. Alarm clock. 5:00 a.m. Damn. Try to consider whether it is better to be awake than to have bizarre dream. Then contemplate how big a cappuccino one can have before going into caffeine overload. Contemplate filling a swimming pool with it and diving in. This is going to be a looooooong day.

And it's Monday.