My first blog. Exciting. It’s gray outside, but the berries on my nandina plant tell me spring isn’t far away and I can soon get out into the garden.\u00a0 Robert put up a bird feeder again, even though we’ve been warned it could attract rats. Since we’ve only seen one rat in the fourteen years we’ve lived here–and that one was dead–we’ll take that chance. Besides, we have many visiting cats, who act as if we’ve hired them to keep guard. Nothing like seeing birds stop at the bird feeder on their way to more exotic places.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My first blog. Exciting. It’s gray outside, but the berries on my nandina plant tell me spring isn’t far away and I can soon get out into the garden.\u00a0 Robert… <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LuVB-1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6651,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2024\/writing\/counting-my-blessings-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1,"position":0},"title":"Counting My Blessings","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"23 \u0413\u0440\u0443\u0434\u043d\u044f, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Though I'm thankful and am counting my blessings, 2024 has been quite a year. Robert and I have woken up to a new reality. We've been such an active couple our entire lives together, through travel and participation in a variety of sports, but now in our sunset years, we're\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"counting my blessings","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Merry-Christmas.jpg?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Merry-Christmas.jpg?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Merry-Christmas.jpg?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1175,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2012\/life\/thanks-to-the-earth\/","url_meta":{"origin":1,"position":1},"title":"Thanks to the Earth","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"24 \u041b\u0438\u0441\u0442\u043e\u043f\u0430\u0434\u0430, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanksgiving is a time when North Americans stop and thank God for their blessings. In our family, one of the prayers we say, at any time of the year, is: \"Thanks to earth, thanks to the sun, and thanks to the rain for all you've done.\" It's an\u00a0 acknowledgement of\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/tall-trees-755x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":474,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/the-theatre-illuminates-life-and-vice-versa\/","url_meta":{"origin":1,"position":2},"title":"The Theatre Illuminates Life and Vice Versa","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"28 \u0427\u0435\u0440\u0432\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My husband and I spent a glorious week in Toronto, visiting family and seeing four plays, all put on by Soulpepper Theatre Company. What struck me was how much the theatre illuminates life and vice versa. The playwright draws from life to write his plays but his plays speak to\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/film-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/our_town.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4707,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2020\/writing\/the-milk-of-human-kindness\/","url_meta":{"origin":1,"position":3},"title":"The Milk of Human Kindness","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"21 \u0411\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0437\u043d\u044f, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I just finished reading John Steinbeck\u2019s masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath. An astounding story. Told from an omniscient point of view, the reader follows the Joad family from Oklahoma, where they lost their farm, to the promising orchards of California. It\u2019s the Great Depression, when thousands hit the road in\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"kindness","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/200px-JohnSteinbeck_TheGrapesOfWrath-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":198,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/point-of-view\/","url_meta":{"origin":1,"position":4},"title":"Point of View","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"6 \u0411\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0437\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"As a member of Rivercity Writers group for several years now, we've had numerous discussions about point of view in writing. Too much head swapping can be confusing. And yet, it's also insulting to the reader to think he can't follow changing POVs.\u00a0 In Stieg Larsson's second book of his\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":181,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/fictional-or-real-characters\/","url_meta":{"origin":1,"position":5},"title":"Using Real Characters In Fiction","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"5 \u0411\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0437\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, I read about an interesting court case in the USA. Katherine Stockett, author of debut novel, The Help, is being sued by the maid she based her fictional character on. It seems Ms. Stockett used a fictional name closely resembling the real maid's one. Also, the details in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}