Yes, the days are slowly getting longer, but we are far from outdoor gardening season. I am already perusing the seed catalogs. Spring can't come soon enough. To lift my sagging spirits, I tended to my indoor garden - houseplants. Some plants readily root when a cutting is placed in water. I planted several-week-old cuttings in pots. My African violet looked crowded. I planned to repot it. To my amazement, there were three plants in the pot! When did that happen? I broke them apart and gave each one its own pot. My husband threw a handful of marigold seeds in a pot as an experiment. They have sprouted and look terrific. Now the question is, how are we going to make room for all the new additions to our plant family?

People share happy little surprises on walking trails and in parks to make others smile. I leave painted rocks in place when I find them, unless I have one of my own to replace them. I also randomly release my little works of art into the wild, to make someone else smile. Here are recent sightings. My granddaughter found the fairy, and moved it to a new hiding place. The seal is an anomaly, found in the middle of the trail. Too funny not to include.

The sight of a wind farm is stunning. Dozens, or even hundreds, of towering wind turbines dot the landscape. Gigantic white blades spin slowly in the wind.

I'm researching wind turbines for a future novel in a new series. I learned something truly interesting. Sweden built the first wooden wind turbine in 2020. It's the first modern design using wood. One concern about the steel tower currently in use is the environmental and financial cost of manufacturing and transporting the materials. Wood is a renewable resource.

Humans are wonderfully inventive. I expect solar and wind energy technology to improve over the next decades. Both industries are still in their infancy. What we see now as the be all and end all design may seem primitive some day. On the other hand, I still see plenty of the old windmills on Western ranches, pumping water from wells. And in the Netherlands, windmills are still used to drain water from the lowlands.

Doubloon Jeopardy has a cover! The Annie's Publishing series Museum of Mysteries is now available. My contribution is the third novel in the series.

Scarlett McCormick discovers a body in a pumpkin patch. The dead man is dressed like a pirate.

The entire town of Crescent Harbor has pirate fever as it prepares for their first annual Pirate Days celebration. The mayor pressures Scarlett to affirm the legend that pirate treasure is buried in the small California coastal town. Scarlett needs proof before she'll risk her reputation as head curator of the Reed Museum of Art and Archeology.

Can Scarlett solve the mystery of the body in the pumpkin patch? Are an ancient cutlass and gold doubloons connected to his murder? When she becomes a target, Scarlett fears someone must think she has figured out the case.

Join Scarlett and her friends in this fun cozy mystery! 

People are cynical about the prospects of a bright new year, and rightly so. Our optimism that "next year will be better" has been shattered since the pandemic began. I have reason for optimism this time around. Not for any political or financial reasons. Our trajectory in those arenas seems destined to go off the rails again, in a flaming train wreck.

​My optimism is based on waking to snow. Folks living in wetter climates may loath winter snow for its depressing frequency. In Colorado, we celebrate every flake. Many areas of the state haven't had significant moisture in months.

Finally, January 1st, we are getting snow on the Front Range. Maybe 2022 will really be a bright new year.

Happy New Year!