Liz Cultivates

2025-02-28 21:32:59

Liz Cultivates: Garden 2025 Planning

Here’s what the 2025 garden spot is going to look like:

Yes, I know that just looks like gibberish. The basic gist is this: I have three beds to fill, two in the back and one in the front of the yard. I will be planting tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and cucumbers, just like last year, albeit fewer individual plants this time around. I had more peppers than I knew what to do with.

Here’s what I’m hoping to plant this year:

• Tomatoes (Roma, Beefsteak, Cherry)
• Peppers (Jalapeño, Serrano, Banana, Pepperoncini, Bell, Habanero)
• Cucumbers
• Squash (Hubbard, Zucchini, Butternut, Spaghetti)
• Beans and snow peas
• Carrots
• Watermelons
• Pumpkins

As ever, I know this is ambitious, and I reserve the right to change my plan at any point.

One of my bigger architectural goals for the garden this year is to place paver stones between my larger beds. The lawn mower doesn’t fit in there, and I’d rather not use mulch, so I need to come up with a stone-and-pebble-based solution. Consequently, this will also make the whole garden look a little nicer and more inviting, along with at least one arching trellis I’m hoping to place over the beds.
You can see that the space between the beds was not well-planned at all.
I’d also like to consider fruit. Strawberries, Raspberries. I’m going to attempt to take better care of the apple trees, as well.

We’re in the part of the year where I want to do everything and grow every plant and eat every vegetable. We’ll see how long that lasts! Ohio feels like it wants to be warm lately, and spring is struggling to emerge — to the point that the other day, we had rain, hail, and sun all in the same afternoon. This time of year always gives me a small surge of hope and excitement, especially since my birthday also falls right around now. I’m looking forward to seeing what this new year brings.

#food #garden #garden2025 #gardening #homesteading #LizCultivates #LizCultivates #spring #vegetables

Liz Cultivates

2025-03-03 20:58:18

Monthly Goals Check-in: February and March

A theme is emerging here, and that is: The Way of Kings is really long. I’m still working on it.

Other than that, my February goals were pretty achievable (I’m learning how to be more realistic nicer to myself in my old age, I guess). Here’s what’s up for February and March:

Temperature blanket progress

I am very close to finishing the temperature blanket (I’m on row 21 of 31 for December), and I can’t wait to show you all how beautiful this thing is going to be. Here is somewhat of a sneak peek at the colors from the last couple of months:
This top square was November. It got cold at the end of the month!You can see the giant stack of squares I’m going to put together.

March Goal:

Finish squares and start stitching them together!

Content strategy ongoing

As you can see by checking out this blog, I have been posting a few things here and there. I’m also starting to use my Bluesky queue more often, which allows me to have more regular posts (which, as much as I hate it, the numbers do show that posting more gets you more exposure).

There are lots of things coming down the pike, too — I love a fat content calendar, and mine is looking pretty full! Get ready for even more rambling from me. And we’re getting ready to record some more Literally 2c episodes this week!

March Goal:

Three blog posts (one reading series, one about the Scribe&Bard stream I’ll be doing in April, one about the latest episode of Literally 2c); ongoing Bsky queue; ongoing Instagram posts.

Reading & Writing

I think I’ll probably go easy on myself re: Way of Kings, because like I said, it’s long and a bit of a slog at times (still a fantastic book, but it is what it is). I picked up Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik at the library, and so far it’s a compelling read. The audio book’s narrator has the perfect voice and intonation for it. I’ll probably put my thoughts into a post or two — the writing style is quiet without being sparse and extremely clean. This is my first real audio book, as well!

For Literally 2c, I am reading The Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-Wing Extremism by David Golumbia, which is a depressing little book because I can see a lot of the people I know in it. We’ll be talking about it on an upcoming episode of the show, so stay tuned.

As far as writing is concerned, I’m working on several blog posts, including a review of my favorite tabletop role-playing podcasts. I am about halfway through the first chapter of the last section of my novel, as well.

March Goal:

Finish Spinning Silver and make some progress on The Way of Kings.

Garden and Homestead Life

My gardening goal for last month was to plan out what I want to grow, make sure I have the correct seeds, and draw a vague map of where I’m going to put everything. Well, this was a full success! I can’t wait to officially open the garden season. I’ll probably start some seeds here in the next couple of weeks (broccoli, spinach, beans).

March Goal:

Seed starting and grow lights!

Be proud of yourself

… Because I am. This is the third month of doing regular goal check-ins, and I might be falling into a nice routine of it (I’m trying not to count my unhatched chickens, just being cautiously optimistic about my content goals). As you can probably tell, I haven’t settled on a format for these yet, but that can come later. This is why small personal blogs are awesome: I don’t feel the need to be immediately polished right out of the gate.

Til next month!

#books #checkingIn #fiction #gardening #goals #homesteading #Inspiration #novel #reading #spinningSilver #wayOfKings #writing

GEORGE L THOMAS

2017-07-05 05:37:50

Creating Believable and Relatable Characters

The first thing I think you should keep in mind during character creation is that a character doesn’t have to be realistic; they just have to be believable and relatable.

What that means, for example, is that Superman, the Little Mermaid and Wile E. Coyote are not realistic characters as such, but they all share qualities which make them believable, and they have goals, wants and needs and most importantly, flaws that help us to relate to them.

A believable character is one with whom a reader is able to connect.
A reader is more likely to be able to do this when they see something in the character that they may also see in themselves, or the character may have a similar want or need as the reader, and in that, they are able to experience the adventure or the story vicariously through the character.

Superman, for example mainly wants to protect Metropolis (and the world) from evil, though he has a weakness to Kryptonite (his flaw). The fact that he wants good to triumph over evil is something that most of us can relate to, thereby creating a connection to the character. I doubt there are many of us going through daily life wanting evil to triumph over good!

The Little Mermaid’s fundamental goal is to become human so that she can be with her prince. Her flaw is that she feels that she has to change herself in order to make the prince fall in love with her. We’re able to connect with her because we want her to find the happiness she so clearly lacks, and since she’s going through such trouble to get what she wants, we also cheer her on to succeed in her desire to find true love (and an immortal soul in the original story).

Who hasn’t wanted to fall in love? and who among us can honestly say that we wouldn’t change a single part of ourselves? (If you are such a person then I am genuinely delighted for you, and you should consider yourself part of a minority because I think most people at some point have had their moments of self-doubt and felt self-conscious about their appearance).

We all know that the primary goal of Wile E. Coyote is to catch the Road Runner, in fact, one could argue that this is his only goal. His main flaw is his hubris; always assuming that his schemes are going to work and that he will catch the Road Runner.
However, he invariably fails when the Road Runner manages to outsmart him. We can relate to him because we all want things and, most of us at least, don’t always get what we want.

So, the main things to explore when creating a character or at least the things that make them believable and relatable to a reader are their goals and flaws. These are the connectable parts of any character, even of real people, that we all relate to in varying degrees.

Anyway, I think I’ve gone on for long enough. Thanks for reading this far if you did, it is very much appreciated.

Until next time,

George

© 2017 GLT

#believable #character #characterCreation #Characters #people #relatable #superman #tips #Writer #writing

GEORGE L THOMAS

2019-04-02 16:19:03

Free as a Bird

Hi everyone, I hope you’re all having a great start to the month. I can’t believe it’s April already! Where is the time going?
Anyway, today I’m sharing another poem. I hope you enjoy it!

Free as a Bird

Sometimes I dream I’m as free as a bird
Soaring up with the sun
Released from the weights of my waking life
I can be carefree and have lots of fun

I can move at the pace of my choosing
For there’s nowhere that I need to be
I can race with the seagulls or cars on the ground
Or just rest in the branches of trees

I can be happy all day without worry
I know nothing of the hardships of life
I’m just free to flit wherever I please
And to do whatever I like

Sometimes I dream I’m as free as a bird
So I look forward to bed every night
I fall fast asleep in the real world
And then moments later, take flight

As always, thank you for reading my words!

Until next time,

George

© 2019 GLT

#bird #birds #dream #free #freedom #poem #poems #Poetry #Writer #writing

Poetry – GEORGE L THOMAS

Here is some of the poetry I have written. I hope you enjoy it!

^{GEORGE L THOMAS}