Cowboy Coffee Cake & Redbirds

We're still snowed in and it seemed a perfect day to bake a cowboy coffee cake. It's a simple coffee cake recipe with streusel topping and anything can be added to the cake batter or to the top. Today in honor of the redbirds at our feeder I added big fat red cranberries on top, pecans of course, and a small drift of coconut, representing the drifting snow outside the big dining room window. R has been cleaning the driveway with the help of Sam and her four wheeler. She made a path for him to the bird feeders out back. Quite a job running the four wheeler up and down to create a four ft. wide path. He has one feeder on a rope pulley so he can pull it down to tractor level where he sits and fills the feeders and then he hoists it back up into the tree and out of range of the deer who roam through the fields here very night.
They emptied the feeders when they were at antler level - now he has the pulley method and no more deer eating bird seed. I feel sorry for the deer but even sorrier for the beautiful birds that depend on our food to make it through this rougher than usual winter. We've had chickadees, sparrows, many redbirds, a few blue birds, doves, wood peckers - though I haven't seen any of those for awhile, and a variety of blackbirds. R's feeders are not open to blackbirds, he feels they're too plentiful and big enough to fend for themselves and he shoos them away. I can't say anymore on this as I feel he's a bird racist - I'm sorry R but you are! BIRDS ARE BIRDS IN MY DICTIONARY. God bless all birds.
The timer just rang so the cowboy coffee cake with cranberries, pecans, coconut and the orange zest I added at the last minute must be done. Yum. Must get off here and check it for doneness. I use toothpicks but do you know there was a time many years ago when I saw my grandma use a piece of straw from the kitchen broom. Sweep a floor then check a cake... I swear. Blessings, B

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The Dreaded School Pictures

This year when my children brought home their school pictures, I cringed. These kids can leave home looking cherubic, but the minute they pose for that school photographer they are transposed into unrecognizable beings. My middle daughter brought home pictures bearing her name and room number that couldn't have been my offspring. Nor a distant relative.
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Building a story vs building a house

My latest book!

Dear Writer:
Writing a story is somewhat similar to building a house. Or not!
Remember this:
when we give a piece of our story to someone to read - we expect them to see the whole.
It's like building a house and offering a single piece of lumber to another builder. “Here, see the house I'm building.” SOME CAN SEE IT AND SOME CAN’T. Here's the thing: MOST CAN'T.
This step is as necessary to me as breathing.
I need to give you single boards as I create them. AND I expect you to be a visionary and say, “Why yes. I see.”
I need you to see how special the piece of lumber is that I'm using and to see that eventually I'll add more pieces to make the whole.
Choose people to read your work who like the kind of stories you write.
There are as many kinds of stories as there are houses to live in. If you give a brick ranch to someone who only appreciates a cape cod then he'll have a hard time fitting himself into what you are offering.
Don’t rebu…

Meet Southern writer, Barbara Whittington, Author of Missing: Sweet Baby James by writer Elizabeth Vollstadt

Elizabeth says, "Reading and writing have been part of my life since I was a child. I've published several short stories in magazines, four non-fiction books, and a collection of stories called Young Patriots: Inspiring Stories of the American Revolution. My latest book is Pairs at Nationals, a sequel to Pairs on Ice. After Jamie and Matt's coach is injured, they travel to another rink to train and find hostility and pranks. Jamie wonders if it's worth the struggle."

So begins the interview:
I’ve never done an author interview before, but I thought I’d start with my friend Barbara Whittington, who just released her second novel,Missing: Sweet Baby James. Barbara and I met many years ago when we both lived in the Cleveland, Ohio, suburbs and joined the same writing group. We bonded over our love of writing, and that shared interest led to a true friendship.
Barbara, who grew up in small-town West Virginia, began her writing career with short stories, many of whic…

Writing - the ups and downs

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