For years I used my dining room table as a desk, because it was large & could accommodate my laptop & whatever books & papers & I was working with, but when my son James decided to go to college, he appropriated my desk & like all good mothers, I made room for his books & notebooks & papers. At the end of the past spring semester, I could hardly wait to use "my" desk again. But halfway through the summer -- with James getting ready to start at the University at Buffalo after two years at Erie Community College, where he had been on the Dean's List each semester & been admitted to Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society -- yes! I am a proud mama! -- I decided that I had to have my own space.
So I took a little end table that was in my bedroom in front of a window for the cats to sit upon to look out the window at the birds & the chickens in my neighbors' yard & opened up the wings so it's a nice round table. It's a little bit low & will devil my aching back but it is my "official" new desk. & I have to say -- on this hot humid day -- that it is quite nice to sit here with a cold drink in front of the window fan & write. I really like looking out the window into my neighbors' yards -- my neighbors to the left (the green house), who have one of the prettiest yards in the entire neighborhood & my neighbor to the right (the tan shingled house), who is an urban farmer, with chickens & beehives & a greenhouse made from old windows (which I have to say is really cool). The vines on the our garage will turn a vibrant red in late September before they crinkle up & fall off. In the spring, robins will make nests in the vines before the starlings come to raid & throw the little blue eggs to the ground. Sometimes the robins actually make another nest. Tenacious birds, those robins. It's a constant battle between these two species of birds, which is why my cats love this window. But by this time of year, they're long gone. I still see robins around the neighborhood but I don't know where the starlings have gotten to. Not that they're especially missed! They poop everywhere & on everything!
So this is my new writing spot. Very small but larger than the desk that Louisa May Alcott wrote "Little Women" upon. I was amazed how tiny it was when I saw it at Orchard House this June. A masterpiece written on a desk half the size of this current desk of mine! I would have taken a picture of it but I wasn't allowed to. I understand why I wasn't allowed to but still ... ya know, I'm special!
Anyway, I suppose it isn't the size of the desk but the enormity of the ambition to write. I have been reading blogs of (mostly) women but also some men & they write everyday so I am determined to do the same -- I do keep a personal diary on a daily basis but I am lazy when it comes to blogging. But these fabulous writers have inspired me & kicked my ass & my brain to do more. Like, write anything. Just do it, like the Nike commercial used to say. So today, I wrote about my little desk. Thank you, fellow bloggers & keep me writing.
