Tales of a Whimsical Wanderer

June 18, 2017 THE WANDERER HAS BEEN WAITING for this day for ages. Today is the day she leaves for Ireland. For the space of a month the wanderer shall be studying abroad in the city of Galway on Ireland's west coast, a city that (from the looks of it) is bright and energetic and artsy and full of culture (indeed, Galway is set to be the European Capital of Culture in 2020!). The wanderer has never been to Ireland. Indeed, she has never truly traveled anywhere on her own before. She expects this adventure will be full of firsts. And she cannot wait. Over the past month and a half the wanderer has been reading Irish folk tales and fairy tales and legends, gobbling these stories up and relishing their strange, unique flavor. And she has been planning a story of her own inspired by it all. . . . She plans to begin writing her story, tentatively titled "The Voyage of Bran," in Ireland, seeing as she will be staying in Ireland for the majority of Camp NaNoWriMo ...

June 1, 2017 The wanderer's backyard I try to keep my garden of optimism neat, but pesky pessimistic weeds make it a grueling feat. The vines they come a-creeping ere my hands have left the ground, smothering my flowers every time I turn around. I plant new seeds and watch them as they wither and decay; I prune my plants with care and sigh as each leaf falls away. I dig and dig but ne'ertheless the weeds invade once more, till eventually I fear I'll be consumed by this wretched chore. And then one day a bird alights beside me in my garden: it pecks and plucks the rotten weeds and my flowers bloom again. In other news, Phillop the lopsided willow has almost reached the ground, and the chipmunks are merrily larking about as usual. Life prevails, weeds or no.