Just when I thought it couldn't get any better

This morning's sunrise was another beaut. We have rain forecasted throughout the week, and so there were clouds overhead as we put the boat in choppy water. As we came around the corner at the end of our second lap, the sun had lit up the clouds behind us to all sorts of pinks and oranges, the colors reaching out to the clouds in front of us and tingeing them red. Meanwhile, rain began to lightly fall off to the west, and so we were treated to the strange and fantastical sight of a blood-red rainbow, with a small fringe of blues and greens.

Aside from that, I'm tired, and it's a teaching day, so that's all for now. And that's not to mention the fact that there's a lot of family stuff going on right now (cousin in Tucson very unwell; grandpa about to go for back surgery). So you could say I'm a bit preoccupied.

Obsessions

I must say, I'm a bit addicted to the Writer's Rooms series on The Guardian, as brought to my attention by the ever-tasteful gfrancie. Part of this obsession is probably due to the fact that I'm spending a lot of my time thinking about writing, and trying to figure out how to do more of it, or at least how to do it more effectively.

I was particularly struck by Jane Austen's writing space, relative to Virginia Woolf's writing space. Woolf is quite adamant about the need for a physically demarcated space (see, ahem, A Room of One's Own, though that isn't the only subject addressed). Meanwhile, as the article mentions, Austen had no such space, so she occupied an extremely small table in a quiet corner.

So now, when I toss about and fret because I can't seem to determine the perfect space to write the most eloquent of phrases about leafcutter ants, I think of Jane Austen and her table. I still think I'm right to be concerned about the quality of my writing space (cubicles, for example, are a horrible place to try and write, unless absolutely nobody else is about, and even then the possibility of interruption is distracting). But it's hard to say just what it will take for me to become a more effective and habitual academic writer.