My conscience is relieved of one small burden: I've just posted a story to maryrenaultfics and my website, thus satisfying the Sunday Tea prompt "sap rising" which was given two weeks ago. (I'm afraid I've been so busy making icons for Forever Knight fandom that I've grossly neglected maryrenaultfics lately.)

Ah, well. Now all I have to do is fulfil my rarewomen ficathon prompt by the end of the month. (Whether I'll get inspired to add any treats is a whole other matter.)

As for "sap rising"....

About six weeks ago, my mother and I were booted out of the house for the day by the contractor, who had a plumber doing new pipes in the basement, requiring all the water in the house to be turned off. By default of anything else to do, I decided to work in my mother's office, which would at least be fairly quiet. There I began a sequel to "A Dog and his Boy", which I'd written last fall. Actually, "sequel" is perhaps not the most accurate term, since it runs parallel with the earlier story, seeing events from Straike's perspective instead of Lucy's. Anyway, I got most of a first draft written; and there it has stuck ever since, poor thing.

"Dancing with the Daffodils" is by way of being a prequel to it. Whether, technically speaking, one can post a prequel to a story that hasn't been finished yet is another matter.

The webpage (which you can see here) has something of a split personality, since the background and centre panel are completely different. The border for the panel picks up the "daffodil" motif in green and yellow. However, I chose a completely different sort of background tile.

You see, floral backgrounds are rarely satisfactory: either the graphic doesn't tile properly, or the flowers on it have been manipulated into a hopelessly unnatural formality in the effort to make them tile. So I decided instead to use a tile of a stone wall, representing the village church. It's not in the best repair, I fear; but I don't have a better one.

The centre panel with the story reuses tiles I've uploaded before: two shades of green in a leathery texture, and a lovely shimmery green thing from Absolute Cross. I'm sure that the person who owns the site assumes people will use his tiles as backgrounds over the whole page; but I find they work marvellously as accents.