Florida and beyond — Sabrina Green

Florida feels like stepping into a vintage postcard. Low saturation block-painted buildings dot the landscapes, already like an old, faded photograph against the backdrop of the cerulean/turquoise waters and soft greens and beiges of breeze kissed palm trees and cloud-like sandy beaches.

I spent last week there, traveling and visiting my partner’s family. The area around Tampa is called the SunCoast, and it is aptly named. Afternoon or evening thunderstorms may mark the day, but even with clouds in the sky, the sun shines through, touching and warming everything (Including a spot of sunburn on my stomach from wearing crop tops everyday for the first time in my whole life). Further away from the city, either north following the crystalline waters, or inland through golden-green fields and forests of saw palmetto and towering pines, as the highways clears but doesn’t decrease in size, we wandered. First due west to the gulf coast and a small Greek-settled sponging village, Tarpon Springs. Home of the first real Greek food I’ve had since coming back stateside from there almost five years ago now. Lamb falling off the bone, the crispiness of freshly fried calamari, baklava sweet and sticky- I travel for my love of landscapes, but the food must also be mentioned and remembered.

Further north, the pair of us went in search of manatees- an animal I was wholly fascinated with as a child, who fostered a deep love of conservation and was part of the reason I studied wildlife sciences in college. Needless to say, we found them. Our last day on this loveliest of peninsulas, spending a long morning paddling about between deep blue springs and around some of the many mangrove islands dotting the coast. Here we were graced with seeing four or five of them, either from our hotel balcony, or on the water itself, cruising around the seagrass filled waters, the swell of their backs or the unmistakable expelling of air from their probescent snoots all we could really see. But oh!- to be in the same waters as them, among the blue crabs and schools of massive (for me, at least) fish.

This last week has been such a lovely break from farming, and just what I needed before diving right back into the busy growing season. Getting back home to the valley was disorienting as coming home always is, and running on a mere two hours of sleep and sudden late spring weather didn’t help. It’s the next morning and my brain still feels out of place after a good night’s rest. Willa is here at my side, where I’ve missed her fiercely all week (she had a hoot of a vacation herself and I am sure will miss that the same), and I am sitting here, trying to feel like a farmer again.

At least it’s a balmy 60 degrees already, the pastures are green and growing, and the spring farm flowers are all up and blooming merrily away, even the ones my boss and I planted alongside the outer wall of the new greenhouse. Along the roadside, yarrow is coming up in droves and I can already smell the heady, honeysweet blooms.

Weeks ago, I started a 100 day challenge, then I got really sick- luckily not COVID, but the first proper flu I’ve had in almost five years, I was thoroughly knocked on my ass and was more or less out of commission for a whole week- and it got a little trashed, then I got better and it got trashed some more, and then Florida came and now I am struggling to find a best course of action. Do I pick it back up, write thousands of words a day until I am back on track (before I get much further, the challenge was to write 1,000 words a day for 100 days), or start over, or drop it completely? As it stands I am over ten days behind, and could, theoretically push through, set some steep goals this next week or two (a mini 14 day intensive?), because the satisfaction of completing small goals like this feels really good. I want to not only finish some writing projects, but also get into the overall habit of writing every day. It’s important to me and hopefully after this year, will play a bigger part of my life. It was one of my dreams/goals/what-have-you to get published this year and we are rapidly approaching the halfway mark.

I’ve done the math just now, and am going to do it. Starting today (May 5th) for the next six days (through May 10th), I am going to sit down and write 5,000 words a day. Everything except my morning pages counts. Wish me luck. Already these words haven’t even crossed the 800 count, and I’ve been sitting here for almost half an hour. Yikes.

Week to Weekend Goals

-Write 5000 words everyday

-Finish the short story/ graphic novel outline I had started before leaving for Florida

-Test idea for not getting overwhelmed trying to work on Nettle Creek novel

-Experiment with some short form flash-fiction type pieces using “The 3am Epiphany” and the list of ideas I keep in a note on my phone

-Do some writing at the Bitterroot River

-Work on knocking out 2k typed words in an hour

Steep goals for the next four days, but I think I can manage. Writing has always been important to me, and I need to honor that. To get personal, many childhood dreams have been coming back to me- as a teenager I spent hours outlining and starting novels, I so desperately wanted to be a writer, but I didn’t have the discipline to finish any. I still struggle with that discipline, but at almost thirty now I have better tools and more drive to actually finish a piece. Embracing short stories is also helping I think, even as I struggle with wrapping up the story itself in them, there is such an art to it. And I am inexperienced and a self-taught goblin but am determined to figure it out.

1000 words down, baby!