My "real" name is Kim.
My family name is Beall.
I have two wonderful children, who each have their own Web pages - they are as different as Night and Day. I am also a proud Grandma!

"DarkRose" is a variation on a name given to me by my guardian angel. It's not my real Spiritname, though. (I'm not going to tell you what that is!!) It was once the "handle" (nick) I used on IRC. I make my living as a web developer, specializing mostly in web design and development, graphic design and layout, and technical writing / production editing.

November 08, 2004
OK I'm back, and recovered from not only the wedding and honeymoon, but we were crazy and even went ahead and did our annual Guy Fawkes bonfire again this year. Now I really AM exhausted.

But life is back to more-or-less normal now. How does it feel to be married? It's hard to explain that there IS some subtle difference in the feeling, and it's a good one. More relaxed, somehow - not the kind of "well I've hooked him/her now, now I don't have to bother being nice or looking decent anymore" kind of relaxed (well neither Gary nor I are the kind of people who would ever stop being nice or caring about our appearance anyway!) but more of the kind of feeling you get when you know you have someone competent spotting you on a high wire... does that make sense?

I really did live in a little cottage 'way out the middle of the woods, far from the Big City, and that's where I started the concept for RoseWood, as I was sitting in my little living room there "chatting" with e-friends from all over the world, and we were all visualizing ourselves around the campfire at RoseWood.

I and the love of my life now live in a bigger farmhouse, not far away from where RoseWood still stands. Ancient Oak trees, first cousins of the ones at RoseWood, surround my porch still. Friends still gather around the new Fire Circle, which is built from stones we brought from the original Fire Circle at RoseWood. And, I still get to visit RoseWood once in awhile, since I have remained friends with my old neighbors. The new tenants at RoseWood care for the rose garden as well as, if not better than, I ever did; they have kept the paper angel I pinned to the curtain when I left, and there are even chickens still wandering happily under the old oaks. I guess the people who live there now seem to understand what I always knew about that holy little piece of land: if you take care of it, it will take care of you.

So I guess that means this website will continue to grow and change as we cultivate the new place. I will probably eventually retire the original RoseWood web site, or perhaps pass it into the hands of someone who would love to become DarkRose and maintain RoseWood. I haven't discovered the name of the new place yet - I'll let you know when I do!

Kim Beall's Battle Imp is

Irord

Backstabbing: 8 Dodgin': 10 Guts: 8 Magic Mojo: 10 Smackdown: 6

Will your battle imp beat Kim Beall's? Enter your name and fight.

Do not fear, my Daughter. You will not fail no matter how he may assail you. There is also Love in the world. Be True. from the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliver, by Stephen R. Donaldson.

The presence of God surrounds us,
The love of God enfolds us,
The power of God watches over us,
Wherever we are, God is,
And All Is Well

June 18, 2004
Geez, I really haven't updated this thing in a long time. It doesn't seem that long somehow... I guess I must be having fun!

Well here's the big news these days: Gary and I are getting married! On September 25 of this year. We tried to have it as close to the Equinox and/or Bilbo's birthday as we could, you see... :)

We're going to have a Quaker style ceremony out in the front yard under the trees, and that feels very right to me. Jessica is going to add a few little old-world elements to it for me such as drawing a circle for us (unobtrusively so as not to upset the more conservative guests!) and adding a little handfasting ritual to the ceremony, I will put some pictures here afterwards, when they're ready.

Other News: Let's see.... Gary got his Black Belt in February! He has also finished the potting shed/greenhouse he has been building for me. And the herb garden around it is all a-bloom. It's beautiful! Oh, while I'm putting in pictures, here's a picture of Luke - he's finally able to sit still long enough to let his picture be taken. Isn't he gorgeous? You can't tell by looking that he acts as blonde as he looks... :)

Also: we have a new batch of chickens growing up out back. I had to order 25 in order to get them shipped to me via mail order, of course, so I gave 6 to John Hill at Hill Ridge Farms, and 8 to Elizabeth, our old neighbor in Durham, when they were old enough. So now we have a fresh batch of pullets ready to take up the job when my older hens slow down their producton in the Fall. It's a pretty mix of colors: the grown hens are two Barred Rocks, one Rhode Island Red (by far the most reliable layer - she's laid one egg per day every single day without fail since she started last Fall!) and the new pullets are two Buff Orpingtons, two Black Sex-links, and a pair of Partridge Rocks (one of them turned out to be a rooster but he's well-behaved so far, and very pretty!)

There's also one Giant White Chicken!...

Here's a little story about my son and one of the chickens:
Now, ten of the chickens that came in the order from McMurray Hatchery were Cornish X-Rocks, bred especially for eating - they were HUGE in a very short time (see how much bigger they are than their hatch-mates in this photo!) I counted them frequently to make sure we hadn't lost any. Well, as everyone knows, you should NEVER name something you're planning to eat. But despite my warnings, Nicky went and befriended and even named one of the eating birds. It was easy enough to see why: little "Chubby" really was a friendly little chicken, she would eat out of his hand and even curl up in his palm and go to sleep (until she got too big for him to hold up with one hand, anyway!)

By the time the day came to pluck and freeze the others, I had gotten attached to her myself. On the day when her hatchmates were to be processed for the freezer, she even followed me around the pen as I was catching the other chickens. Once, she actually hopped right into the cage we were collecting them in, and I bumped her out because, well... I was hoping to lie to Gary and claim to have miscounted and missed one. Butchering chickens is such an exhausting job, I figured he probably wouldn't notice one less bird to process!

So I got all the chickens except Chubby rounded up into the cage, and there was Chubby standing behind me saying "Well, what about me, can't I go wherever the others are going?" I counted the ones in the cage to make sure there weren't any still hiding anywhere. Sure enough, I had caught all ten of them. Ten? I counted again. Yep, ten fat, white Cornish X-Rocks in the cage, plus one standing behind me looking at me. I'm not real good at math, but I am pretty sure that makes eleven. But I had only ordered ten! I counted again, and got Gary to count them: yep, there really were ten! We counted and counted and finally decided that some angel had sent a chicken to take Chubby's place, so we let her live, what else could we do?

We haven't come to regret it yet. She's about the size of a young turkey now, but is as friendly as ever and seems happy and content... She's the only chicken in the whole bunch who will run right up to you and let you pet her. I guess she had some reason for being here - maybe someday we'll know what it is? Anyway Nicky's certainly happy she's still with us.

And that's the news from Lake Woebegon for now... **hugs!**

November 16, 2002
Though I still haven't found the name for it yet, the new home - which had already felt so much like "home" the day we moved in that we felt like we'd been living there all our lives - begins to feel more and more real and alive now. We've built our first fire in the fireplace - how long we've been dreaming of having a house with a fireplace, and now here we are basking in front of it. I've always loved the smell of woodsmoke on the air in chilly weather - and it's so much more wonderful when it's from your own chimney!

But I must say, the greatest thing that's made it feel like "us" to us is the Fire Circle. It took me awhile to feel around for the right spot to build it, and when I'd settled on the right spot, I moved in the rocks I'd been carting around with me ever since I left RoseWood. Those rocks have a lot of history now, a lot of friends have gathered around them and set a lot of drinks down on them. Well so they were in place and we went about stacking the wood inside them - now that we're back out in the country we could have a REALLY BIG bonfire for Guy Fawkes day again, so the teepee of wood was well above my head by the time Gary convinced me to stop!

But the best thing was when Pat came over from next door with his chain saw, and invited another neighbor he introduced us to, and that neighbor brought his tractor, and they went about helping to clean up a lot of tree trunks and stumps the previous owner had left lying about. What great neighbors!

Some of the logs and stumps went into the fire, of course, but Gary had a wonderful inspiration, and he and Pat and Pat's chain saw turned some of the longest, straightest trunks into a circle of benches surrounding the fire. Suddenly it wasn't just a ring of stone and stack of wood in the middle of a clearing, but an outdoor room! It really looked and felt good - even from a distance (we can see it from the breakfast room window.) Just in time for Guy Fawkes day, too.

Guy Fawkes Day was great. Mom was here and Kathy and John came out from the coast, and some good old friends, and some great new friends. And wasn't "Great Neighbors" near the top of my list of things we wanted in our new home, right up there with the window over the kitchen sink? I can't believe how lucky we got with neighbors here. We are truly blessed.

July 29, 2002
The New House! has everything we have been asking for: There's a great, big, friendly front porch with room for lots of rocking chairs, and there is wind in the big old oak trees. There is a little pond down the hill where you can hear the barred owls making their racket at night (and the hawks and crows in the daytime!) There are frogs and crickets and dark night sky where you can see the milkyway. There's even a barn for the cats and chickens. There are wildflowers in the ditches along the road, and morning glories climbing up the mailbox.

The rest is a big, blank canvas, just waiting for gentle hands to come along and uncover all its potential.

I will plant roses, of course, creeping roses and fairy roses all along the front, and climbers to climb upon the porch. The bird feeders are already in place and attracting a regular clientelle, mostly Chickadees, and more Goldfinches than I have ever seen to date in my life. I have put out a salt lick for the deer to encourage them to come out and let us watch them while we have our morning coffee. We will re-plant sweet birches and willows along the stream and allow it to become ferny and shady once again. Gary will plant an orchard, and a vineyard. We will be "pushing back" the lawn in the front yard, filling in around the stands of Oaks, Gums, and Hickories with understory trees and shrubs and shade-loving flowers, and between them mulched paths leading to quiet, shady retreats.

Now, the circle that is formed by the driveway looks like a perfect place for my herb garden - thyme and rosemary and lavender can sprawl all over the place; I'll build raised beds for the chives and basil and tarragon and whoever else wants to join in - maybe I'll even make a chamomile seat! Down in back, next to the pond, the vegetable garden can be as big as we care to make it now (though of course it will need an 8 foot fence around it on account of the deer!) There is a corner that is waiting to become a shady pasture for the pony, and, I do believe I have even found The Right Spot for the Fire Circle.