A Tad Bit Pulsed or a Whole Lot Purried?

Sunday the road led outside the city and to the Qu'Appelle Valley and the nearby market gardens.  But that straight line highway soon veered into a jaunt through the countryside - not far, just a few miles off the highway to discover this church.  Old, or so its lead glass windows may attest but how
old?  There's a relatively new sign indicating that the church is still in session but the spire seems to be a haven for birds and other creatures.  And yet, peeking in the basement window revealed a broom leaning against one wall and a spotless wooden floor.

So is it a neglected but still loved and attended church in the middle of what looks like a forgotten patch of prairie or is it a heritage property with a rollicking history destined for the history books?  

I suspect that it's both.  But while a slight twist in the journey married market gardens to an old church and a little piece of prairie that really seemed to take you away from it all - it provided a few more questions than answers.

A slight curve, a little twist, either can change everything - like today's dog food recipe.  The recipe book I'm following - yes, except for dog biscuits, my original recipes have been replaced
by those from a dog nutritionist.  Yes, such a beast exists - the dog nutritionist and not the dog, although he exists too.  Anyway, the point of it is that when the recipe says to pulse, pulsing can quickly turn from the recipes recommended small kernels to mush.

Rather like the line of a story.  Sometimes the original premise  can veer from its beginnings as a result of those pesky little details - all that glorious, fantastic research can drag down a story or worse, derail it.  Like the story I just finished reading.  I loved the detail - the research that went into it until, well until the pages began to turn slower and some chapters just stopped when that hard-won research appeared just a little too much.  It reminded me, who loves the research phase of a story, that just because you did the research doesn't mean it gets in the book.   

But speaking of twists, the point of this post was swerves and veers in the path and how research and those really interesting facts can take a book away from its original trajectory.  Like going to the market garden and ending up on a side road by a church that takes you to another era or holding a dish of pureed dog food instead of...   Research is kind of like that.  It takes you on exciting and fascinating journeys to places that you only want to share.  I've learned that sometimes that extra tidbit of research is better shared with a  friend over a cup of coffee.

And I can hear groans now from all those friends brave enough to venture here from time to time. Maybe it's better to save all those extra intriguing facts for another book or two or even three. 

Now that church in the middle of no where, maybe there's a story there.  But the dog food?  I think in that instance, more practice just might make perfect.


Ryshia
www.ryshiakennie.com
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