Oh Crumbs!

I ought to do at least something other than writing and erratic napping, but not much is happening. The latest thing I ought to have done is make Carrot and Butter Bean Burgers from the Tesco Recipe site. The important thing about those burgers is that they use breadcrumbs. I need to use breadcrumbs. 

As you may know, I can't have gluten. It comes out in my skin and I'm going to skip the details because it's pretty gruesome. However, I've been cut off from 'normal' bread and I miss it bitterly. Most gluten free bread isn't good. I swear that the packaging in some brands is tastier than the alleged 'bread.' There are some nicer gluten free breads, but they are expensive. I don't indulge often. However there was an amazing deal at one point and I picked up a loaf of Promise Multigrain bread for something approaching a vaguely reasonable price. DH had a slice, as he felt like a piece of toast at the time and we didn't have any real bread in. I was a little worried as DH loves his bread and can be particular. I was right to worry, but not for the reasons I expected. DH loves the bread. I took a pic of a slice this evening.

I had it instead of pasta with my sort of stir fry thing of quorn chunks, green pepper, red pepper, onion, mushroom, peas and sweet and sour sauce. 

You see, at 7pm sharp, DH likes to have supper, and he prefers a couple of slices of toasted Promise Multigrain loaf with marmalade. The trouble with this loaf, though, is that the packaging is dreadful. It splits wildly when you open it up no matter what you do, the slices inside fall apart, and without careful management, it gets stale quickly. I'm desperate to use the stuff up, and I was scouting around for recipes with breadcrumbs. This recipe looked perfect. I've been meaning to make it all week, but... I don't like tinned carrots, which are a vital ingredient of the burger. I can substitute with cooked carrots, but they're not exactly my favourite either. I like carrots roasted with cumin and turmeric and last time I tried that, I nearly set the microwave on fire. 

So any suggestions for using up extremely expensive, dense, non-sweet stale bread that aren't too calorie heavy? And that are easy for someone to make who's mind is mainly elsewhere, because I'm still neck deep in writing stuff. All ideas gratefully recieved.

Writing stuff - Reminder - Kane will be disappearing from my writing blog at the end of tomorrow, hopefully to reappear as a book in the near future. I've written a post about ARC readers, or readers to review, on my writing blog here. The reason for that is a post on this blog, here, with the details near the bottom. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Explaining Some Writing Stuff, and Why Some Books are Amazon Only

Someone commented on Angela's kind post about buying Cats in the Bible from outlets other than Amazon. The short answer is that I'm working on it. The longer answer is rather more long-winded than I thought was good in a comment, so I thought that instead of doing something productive, I'd share what I know about it on here. Please don't take the information blindly, as I'm far from an expert, but I think it's a good start. And there's kind of a big thing at the bottom, which I've headed up with bold type so you can scroll down if you get bored of the cats.

First, here's a pic of a cat, as I can't bring myself to put the cover up again. 

Photo by Bogdan Farca on Unsplash

Which is a pose that Smudge often had as he checked up on us between spells of surveying the terrain outside the window.

Self-publishing has always been around, but it used to be expensive, back in the days when you used to have to pay for a bulk run of books on a physical press. With the rise of ebooks and what is known as 'print on demand,'  it's a lot easier. Now anyone can hop onto Amazon and publish anything for free. Amazon will help the author create a cover, assign an ISBN (the official identification that places like proper bookshops and libraries use to identify a book), and these days there is even a box that says 'there may be spelling and grammar mistakes, do you want to check?' Because Amazon got there early, it got a strong control of the self-publishing market. This can make it hard if you love books but aren't so keen on Amazon.

The biggest pull that Amazon has is Kindle Unlimited. For readers, you pay a monthly fee,  it's £9.49 in the UK, and you can read any of the ebooks enrolled on Kindle Unlimited for no further charge. And there are literally millions of books enrolled on there. There are similar schemes on Everand and Kobo, and no doubt others, plus many libraries lend ebooks, but Amazon is the big one. Authors get access to a big, dedicated readership, and in return get a slice of the income from Kindle Unlimited. For example, at the time of typing, someone read 9 page of Cats in the Bible today through Kindle Unlimited, and I will get a royalty payment of 3p. However, if I want my ebook to be in Kindle Unlimited, it can't be listed anywhere else. It's okay for paperbacks to be published in other places, but not ebooks. 

This isn't exciting, so I'm putting in another pic of a cat.

Photo by Timo Volz on Unsplash

It's not just boxes. While I've never met a cat that could resist a box, we once couldn't find Shadow and tried a different tactic. We put a sheet of paper on the floor, walked away, then came back ten minutes later to find her seated regally in the 'they used to worship us in Egypt' pose. 

I made the decision that I would enroll Cats in the Bible in Kindle Unlimited as it's a short, undemanding read, and a reader who didn't know me may not be willing to buy it, but may be willing to dip in if they subscribed to Kindle Unlimited. This means that the ebook is only available there. I also published it as a paperback on Amazon and on another site called Draft2Digital. You can't buy directly from Draft2Digital but they distribute to places like Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, and Gardners - places where people who buy books from somewhere not Amazon can go and order a book. 

Draft2Digital is a great site, but I found parts of it confusing, including where the fluff I needed to look to see where the book was available. I'm still working on it, but you can buy a paperback copy of Cats in the Bible online at Walmart (here), Bokus (a Swedish company here) and Saxo (a Danish company here). 

I'm finding it somewhat bewildering, so I need another cat pic. 

Photo by Roman on Unsplash 

Anyone who has said 'don't let the cat out of the bag' has obviously never tried to keep a cat from diving into a handbag/suitcase/carrier/tote to investigate and/or steal something.

I'll get in touch with Draft2Digital and see if I can work out where else the dratted thing may have ended up. I know that other shops have got Out of the London Mist from there, so Cats in the Bible should end up with a wider distribution at some point - I hope!

ARC Readers - ARC readers are people who get a free copy of a book and in return leave an honest review in places like their blog or sites like Amazon. I approached a few people from here for Cats in the Bible, and I was so grateful for their kind response.

In the next month, I will be publishing Tales of the White Hart. It's the second edition, but it's been dusted down, spruced up and rigorously edited. It's been removed from blogs and websites, is ready to be unleashed once more on Amazon and the wider web, and I'm looking for ARC Readers for it. I've written about ARC Readers and what can be involved on my writing blog here. If you've not come across it so far, it's a full length urban fantasy/paranormal romance, with plenty of vampires and werewolves. and a little dash of magic. It's set in York, England, and if you're interested, please leave a comment (which I won't publish) with a way of contacting you online and I'll be in touch. This is the provisional blurb:

When Fiona Greene saved the life of an ancient elfen, Kadogan, he asked her heart's desire. Exactly 100 days later Fiona found herself opening up 'The White Hart,' a shop in a converted pub that sold handcrafted cards, exquisite gift wrap and a range of merchandise aimed at werewolves, vampires and the rest of the non-normal community. What could go wrong? Lots could go wrong. They had a Tarot reader that didn't believe in Tarot cards, a werewolf who had been thrown out of his pack as their warehouse manager and the redoubtable Mrs Tuesday coming to stay. Fiona could deal with all that, but she wasn't happy about the attempts to pair her up with Steve Adderson, salesperson to the non-normal domains and magician. Then the staff at the White Hart found themselves in the middle of a dark power struggle and suddenly her romance had to take a back seat. A Paranormal Romance set in the beautiful and ancient city of York 

And if you've made it all the way down the page, you deserve a medal!

Hugs and good health to all. 

Nearly Asleep

I'm waking up and falling asleep erratically, so I thought that I'd post quickly while I'm still awake. 

I've been working at writing stuff between naps, so I've not much to share. I've nothing to show. So I made this in Canva. 

And it's true. I took a blurred pic of some buds on Saturday, and the evidence of Spring is bringing me joy.

It's the lilac, and I think that it's looking good. I'll get a better pic later.

Writing stuff - Yesterday I posted the latest from The Guest, here. There are a lot of chapters cued up to post automatically, and I keep forgetting to look on there. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

While I'm Awake

I was going to post yesterday, but I fell asleep. I'm about to fall asleep again, so I'm dashing in while I can.

I managed to leave the house yesterday and when I called into Aldi, they still had the duvet cover that I wanted so I picked that up.

I'm a sucker for blue and white, especially this shade of blue. Yes, it is for a king sized duvet. Yes, I have a single bed. Yes, I have issues. It was a wonderfully inexpensive £14.99 and I'm happy. I'll keep an eye out for when they have duvets on sale next.

Bear called and he has a cough. I know that it's just a little thing, and he's really doing fine, but I worry. If anyone has any tips on dealing with the worry, I'd be grateful. Bear is far more sensible than I have ever been, and I know that he'll be okay. It's just that he's so far away. 

As I have mentioned, the house next door but one was empty. Yesterday, on my way out, I saw signs of habitation with lights on behind closed curtains. I haven't seen any actual occupants yet, but DH spotted a couple of police officers knocking on the door this evening, so I'm keeping a curious eye out. 

Writing stuff - and why I should have posted yesterday. I re-posted an article about research - Location and the Lost City. I really need to re-read The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle and Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Though Tarzan is absolutely not correct on... evolution, women, class systems, the French... Perhaps I should look at other stuff. Tomorrow I take down all of the White Hart stuff and for a last look you can find it here, here, here, and here. 

Hugs and good health to all.

I Did Stuff!

I finished the first hat for Lent and cast on a second.

And I only had a tiny scrap over. I've decided to save the scraps and eventually they will end up in an extremely ugly blanket. I'm not saving the tiny ends, but a few yards, or metres, left over. 

My stomach is still happy settling for toast. We had marinaded chicken last night and I think that I should have cooked it a little longer. It was far from raw, but it just didn't settle in me. It tasted amazing, and I hope that I can recreate the recipe. It had honey, soy sauce, olive oil, lemon, garlic powder, oregano, pepper, and worcestershire sauce. It was supposed to be honey and mustard, but the mustard looked off and so I looked for another recipe, which was delicious but I found it by searching on my phone and I immediately lost it. I'll have to look again. It was a nice change from our usual dinners. 

I've made the most of sitting carefully, and I hope to keep going with the knitting. It would be great to reduce the stash and help seafarers at the same time. 

I feel like the weekend has been incredibly busy, but I can't remember doing much. As my stomach was tender, I haven't gone anywhere. It's calming down, now, so perhaps I can get out tomorrow.

Writing stuff - my paperback copy of Cats in the Bible arrived!

And the latest instalment from the Guest is on my writing blog here.

One of the things that filled up my weekend was formatting. I'm republishing The White Hart and, after a long think about it, I'm going to have to take down all of the posts on my blog and Royal Road. If you want to have a read before they get removed this Friday, the story on the Royal Road is here and that is the first three big stories. The big story on the blog has two halves, the first one is here and the second one is here. There are also collected short stories here. 

When they go, along with all the stories with Kane which will disappear on the 13th March, my writing blog is going to look very thin indeed. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

A Pint of Milk

I've not been doing much at all for the last few days, as I ate something that didn't agree with me. I stayed very close to the bathroom, and stuck to writing stuff and feeling sorry for myself. 

I have a pint of cow's milk in my fridge. Bear isn't a fan of the almond milk that I drink, and I don't usually have soy. Dairy makes me poorly, and I've had enough of that this week, and it doesn't really agree with DH either. So I got in the smallest practical unit for bear, because he likes cereal with either cow's milk or soy milk for breakfast. To the surpise of no-one, he didn't even open the carton. 

I'm frustrated by this, because now it's going to waste. If it was what I would consider normal times, I could offer it to a neighbour, preferably before it reached its 'use-by' date. However I hear the rows coming from the neighbours at the back, so I don't have the courage to knock there. Next door to the side never answers their door. They're lovely people and don't cause any fuss, but they never, ever open the door to knocking. Next door to that is empty and next door to that is someone where I can't say anything good, so I'm not saying anything at all. 

There are no houses in front of us. This is an old pic, but shows that the only ones that may be able to use up the milk are rats.

There are some young men doing thing with cars to the left of this picture, but after they abandoned a car in the middle of the street, and ignored us when we politely asked them to move it so that we could get deliveries, then we called the car in as abandoned after a few months, I don't think that we're on those sorts of terms. 

I'm annoyed at myself as I should have seen this coming and I hate the waste. Next time, I'll ask him to pick up milk for himself and I'll give him the money for it.

In other shopping news, I bought a packet of Overnight Oats. I've been making overnight oats for bear for ages. I used to get the tubs set up for him to pick up in the morning and he'd eat them when he got to college. It was just oats, chia seeds, almond milk (and he didn't complain about it then!), something like honey or agave sweetener, and cinnamon and he was fine with it. This had extra things like vitamins and stuff, though, and I picked it up on Tuesday in a moment of weakness. I feel a fool. I've spent far too much on what was described as overnight oats, but is also describe as instant overnight oats, ready in 3 minutes.

How can overnight oats be ready in 3 minutes? Doesn't it make them instant oats that can also be made the night before? I'll go back to the usual way after I've finished this packet. 

Writing stuff - I've finished the first round of editing on the complete White Hart collection. DH is checking it, but that's going to take some time. Then I'll check his edits, format, and attempt to publish. I should, in theory, be okay for the ebook, but it's pushing against the limits of the print book. It may not be possible. I'm going to have to work on this. Over a quarter of a million words takes up some space.

While that's going on in the background, I'm also collating the stories of Kane. I'll be adding a couple more new stories and I'll publish the collection at the same time as a separate novella that I'm working on. Because of the way that Amazon works, I'm going to have to take down all the Kane stories that are currently on my blog. I'll be doing that after Friday 13th March, which is as good a date as any when you're talking about ghost stories. I daren't post plans, as they never work out if I mention them aloud, but the collection of stories plus new novella should be along shortly after that. Please wish me luck. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

I Went Out

Today has been quiet. I spent a lot of time on writing stuff and I chopped up four punnets of mushrooms that had been on an excellent offer for the freezer. 

I haven't driven since early January. I hurt my shoulder, and then, when it was feeling a little better, I found the thought of it overwhelming. However, DH needs salad for tomorrow and I'm running a little low on the flavoured water that he likes, so I decided to go to Tesco. As I knew that I wouldn't be confident driving, I waited until it was late and the roads should be quiet before setting off.

I found it tough, I'll be honest. I was out of practice and feeling nervous, but I did it! I drove safely there, though it took me a few minutes to get up to speed. There was a reason that I didn't go out when it was busy. I didn't want to be a hazard. I nearly forgot to take a pic to prove that I'd been out, but I remembered on my way out, and I took a pic of houseplants that looked amazing and that I had no intention of buying.

I intend to go out again tomorrow, and again go out late. There is an Aldi which is around ten miles away from us. They have the habit of putting out Thursday's special buys late on Wednesday. I have my eye on the bedding, as mine is wearing out and I kind of like the blue stripes that are advertised on the website. It won't be a great hardship if I can't get any, as there are ruffles and I'm never 100% behind ruffles, but it's also a great reason to get me moving out and about. 

I hope that I'll have something interesting to post tomorrow. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Feeling Good

We had a wonderful weekend when bear came home. It was wonderful to see him. He looked happy and healthy, though tired, and he was so relaxed with us. DH and I were thrilled. We had gathered together a care package, with some treats like hot sauce and biscuits, and he took what he could carry back with him and we posted the rest for him to collect on campus. He said that he really appreciated the goodies and the thought, and it was a boost as he was studying. 

Other good news is a quote about repairing our roof. There's a few slates missing, and we have been told it's £200, not the £1,200 that the man who knocked on the door quoted. I suspect that we'll have some more repairs in the near future as our roof is quite old, but we'll wait and see what happens. 

This blog is incredibly useful sometimes. I didn't have a sensible pic for today, so I thought that I would crack on with a project that I've been meaning to tackle. I only had a short amount of time, but I dug out the smaller lucet and the brown twine. If you remember, I had a basket where I'd added cord handles with the cord made by the lucet. The post is here.

So far, the cord that I hope to use as a replacement looks like this.

Knowing that I ought to do something for the blog spurred me on, and I hope to finish off at least one handle by tomorrow. 

Writing stuff - Apart from working on the White Hart, I can confirm that the paperback is now available for Cats in the Bible, if you are interested. There is also this week's instalment of the Guest on my writing blog here. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

I'm sorry. I just realised that there were ads on here. I've closed down the account, and I didn't make any money from it. I apologise for not noticing it sooner. I want to make money, but I don't feel comfortable putting adverts here. I was aiming for my writing blog, but I couldn't get it to work. I'll see if bear can help me over the summer. 

And speaking of bear, he is home! He's visiting some friends tomorrow as they're doing things for their birthdays. We get to see him tonight, briefly tomorrow and then first thing Sunday morning. It's been wonderful to see him. He may be able to take the goodies from his care parcel back with him on the coach, as I only got the last lot a day or two ago and thought I would wait and see if it all suited him. It's so good to see him. We had a chance to hang out before he went to bed, and it was great. He looked tired, though. 

I've not got much to show as I've been working with writing stuff all day. It feels like my brain is leaking out of my ears. However, after much battle, Cats in the Bible is available as an ebook on Amazon, and print books should follow within the next ten days. 

I'm bunging a lot of writing stuff in the post here, because it feels all mixed up to me. DH and I are not getting any younger, and we want to help bear with university costs. We have a leaking roof, a leaking floor, extremely elderly wiring and a kitchen that was far from new when we got here in 1994 and is falling to pieces. The car has done sterling service, but the garage have been gently suggesting that it's time to replace her for some time. Therefore I've decided to monetise as much of my writing as I can. A lot of material from my writing blog is likely to disappear from there and go into some form of book. I'll share when and if it happens, but be aware that chunks may vanish. With that and the new stuff I'm working on, most of my blog is likely to be writing stuff. I still plan to look for joy, and I'm sure that I'll manage some pics, including the knitting. I think I need to do a few rows every day for sanity's sake. Mind you, now that I've said that I'm going to do something, the odds of it happening are greatly reduced! 

I've no sensible pics as I've been armpit deep in messing around with text, so in honour of the new book, I'm adding some cat pics from Unsplash. 

Photo by Loan on Unsplash

This made me smile. And this reminded me of evil cat when she was planning theft.

Photo by Leonid Privalov on Unsplash

And a tune that made me smile - AI cats singing country music.

There's a lot of AI cat music going on, and while some are significantly better than others, there are plenty that cheer me up. 

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have more interesting things to write about. 

Hugs and good health to all.

Making an Effort

I'm so tired, but I'm determined to post. I think that I'm killing off my houseplant. 

I think that I would be better off replacing it with a couple of spider plants. My brother has offered to rescue it. It perked up a little after I gave it a serious soak, but I suspect that it's not just the water, I think it's getting more sun than it would like. 

Writing stuff - I forgot that I reposted Research and the Author: Location, Location, Location here yesterday. It's not surprising. Amazon still haven't fixed whatever it is that's stopping Cats in the Bible from uploading. I'm wondering if it's because it's been on several computers, Windows 10, Windows 11 and then back to Windows 10. After all, it was first published in 2012. I'm seriously considering copytyping it up and seeing if that will work. I've also gone through the first 36 pages of 468 of the White Hart, checking for commas. 

I hope to be back with something more interesting tomorrow.

Hugs and good health to all. 

More Bewildered Than Normal.

It's Lent. I forgot about Lent. I usually like to do something positive for Lent rather than give something up. Not only does my willpower have the strength of damp tissue paper, but I'm quite restricted anyway. I hadn't thought about what to do. Normally it wouldn't be a question. I'd stop knitting for myself and knit only for the Mission to Seafarers. I really need new sweaters, though. If I'd been more proactive over Christmas instead of knitting the scarf, I'd be in a better place, and I should have been better as I need new sweaters and I have a room full of yarn. I'd even cast on the sweater with the yarn that's going to also be a triangular shawl with the leftovers. The pattern is easy and looks great, but the welt is a 'knit 2, purl 1' repeat which I know is going to reduce me to harsh language. 

But I feel that Lent is about a struggle. So I picked up a hat that I started ages ago. 

The darker knitting is the sweater-to-be and the bright blue and white is the hat in the making. After Lent, I need to buckle down and reduce the yarn pile. 

There's a lot of writing stuff.

Writing stuff - I've spent the last two days trying to upload 'Cats in the Bible' to Amazon. For some reason, the programme is having hissy fits and everything ends up in italics. It doesn't always stay in italics. It might be all slanty writing on page seven, for example, but if you advance to page eight, then flick back, some versions will be upright text, but with a pale blue background. Or they will be italics with the text in blue. And when I used a separate previewer, it all worked fine! I have not been calm about it. I tried all sorts of ideas, and none of the dratted things worked. In the end, I contacted Amazon help line. I thought that I must have missed something obvious. Apparently I didn't, as the very nice man/woman/person/bot who was dealing with me had to go away and think, then told me that they'd have to refer it to their team and they'd email me when they had it sorted out. Heaven only knows what's going on. 

I've uploaded the same text to a site called Draft2Digital, which is another self publishing platform. They distribute all over to bookshops in several countries. The obvious bookshop in the UK, for me, is Waterstones, and I knew that I'd uploaded the paperback version of Out of the London Mist to Draft2Digital who should distribute there. When I searched for it on the Waterstones site, three separate copies showed up, all at different prices. I have no idea why. If you ever want to get a hard copy from there, go for the cheapest. I get about 20p per copy regardless. Anyway, Cats in the Bible should in theory be available there soon. If you hadn't come across it before, here's the blurb from the back.

Everyone knows that there are no cats in the Bible. There’s plenty about dogs and pigs and even the occasional lion, but the housecat is conspicuous by its absence. Besides, everyone who has cats knows that cat stories expand to fit the space available, and anyone who has listened to a cat owner will know that stories about cats can be endless, so perhaps it was best that they were omitted. If you pay attention, however, the Bible covers principles for all sorts of situations, including cats, and it can be reassuring in the face of felonious felines.

Cats in the Bible is a collection of hilarious and true cat stories starring Lyssa Medana’s cats and their furry neighbours as they prove time after time that you can find a Bible verse for every occasion, whether it’s fighting with the vet, stealing food, or the dreaded bath.   

This is a fun read for cat-lovers everywhere, regardless of faith, as Shadow, Smudge and Smoke trot briskly from disaster to havoc to cuddles and back, ruling their hapless owners with an iron paw and stealing cheese along the way.

Hopefully tomorrow will be more productive. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Technically Awake

I seem to need a lot of sleep at the moment. I'm blaming it on the time of year. It's a nuisance as I keep lining up time to post here, then falling asleep in my chair before I get to it. Mind you, there's not been that much to report. I finished my scarf!

And I plan to get the use out of it immediately. It's six inches wide, around 15cm, and six feet long, around 180cm, and I adore the colours. I'll knit a hat to match at some point. 

The people doing the roofing on the house next door but one and next door but two knocked on our door and pointed out the damage on our roof. It's probably the reason why we had leaks during the storm. To be honest, I'm not sure about them, and they were very keen on us paying them $6,000 and getting a new roof. We could probably do with a new roof, but I'd like to hold off for as long as possible, and definitely while bear is at university. Besides, they left their vans in the middle of the street so I couldn't have got out if I was able to drive, and the rubbish from their work is everywhere. It's awful. DH is looking for other quotes, as we need a roof that doesn't leak, but I'm dreading the cost. 

Writing stuff - The latest chapter of The Guest on my blog is here. I should be in a position to publish the second edition of Cats in the Bible with a couple of new stories added within the next few weeks. I'm taking time to make sure that I've got it as error free as possible. Working out how to add a table of contents in a word document and then fiddling around with the dratted thing until everything is in the right font, colour and properly indented has left me mentally flattened and with the brain power of a pickled onion. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

I Ironed a Shirt

Sometimes even the basic things feel like a story.

As I've not been able to move much at all over the last month or so, the dining room floor still hasn't been sorted out and, with all the rain that we're having, there's often some serious damp in the carpet. I've been using towels to mop up, then washing them on a hot wash. This is all perfectly normal. Unfortunately, DH hasn't been doing laundry for very long. He learned to do it after seeing bear take charge. He's pretty good, but he bunged in some shirts without checking the temperature dial. Nice shirts really shouldn't be washed at 60C. 

I didn't realise about the temperature of the washer. However I took the washing out, bunged it into the dryer and made sure that I was around to take the shirts straight out of the dryer and hang them up. Most of the time, if you do that then you don't need to iron anything. Unless, of course, the shirts had been washed on a hot wash. 

So I ironed a shirt for the first time since bear's prom last year. It felt so strange. The iron agreed with me as it was making all sorts of noises, sounding like it was picking up static radio and generally grumbling. Yet it seems like only yesterday that I was ironing over a dozen shirts every week. DH had a clean shirt, nicely ironed, every day as he went out to work. I put bear in a clean shirt every day as they were white shirts and the only chance I had of keeping them white with a school aged son was to change them over quickly and use vinegar as the laundry softener. And when father was with us, he liked to keep himself in nice clean shirts. So much has changed. 

I didn't have any pics worth sharing, so I found this pic on Unsplash

Photo by Ryoji Hayasaka on Unsplash

They look like they need an iron, but I'm not volunteering. I don't miss ironing at all. I miss having a house full of men, all with their own ways and needs. I think that it really struck me how my life has changed. I'm setting time aside today to be mindful of where I am and how things have changed. 

I've started looking through quotations and putting them in a pretty Canva pic. It's just at random and when I feel like it, and this is one I did today.

It takes me back to the days of bad inflation in the 1970s when you never knew what things would cost from one week to the next.

Writing stuff - yesterday I posted the latest instalment of The Guest on my blog here. I hope to have more interesting stuff to talk about soon.

Hugs and good health to all. 

I Took a Picture

My sleep patterns are currently all over the place and I'm struggling to move, so there's not been much to post about. The highlight of the week was a new phone case.

I have a serious weakness for impulse buys. At the moment I'm craving new curtains in the study as I'm sick of these, and there's nothing wrong with them. It would feel wrong to get stuff just for the sake of it. I'm also getting bored of our plates, especially after seeing Cherie's pretty china serving dishes, but while my tableware is getting a little scratched up, it doesn't need replacing yet. I'm trying to stay strong. I think that I was right to get a new phone case, though.

Part of the case kept drooping over the camera lens and made it even harder for me to take pictures and that was the push to replace it. It's seen sterling service, and as it was extremely inexpensive, I suppose I shouldn't grumble. I got this as a replacement.

It's from the same eBay seller and was inexpensive, had good customer service and will be easy to find in a dark handbag. And while the old case may be incredibly beaten up, the phone is still in good condition. There are no scratches or dents despite my habit of dropping it, shoving it in pockets and bags and into corners when it's charging. I'd rather the phone case get battered than the phone. 

Today has been stormy, rainy and miserable. There have been people working on the roof of the house next door but one. I've been on pins all day. I don't know what's going on but whenever I've limped past the window, there's been a roofer's van abandoned in the middle of the road as they work. It's just as well I can't go out. I'd never get the car past them. It's hard to be annoyed with them, though, when I'm worrying about their safety. 

Writing stuff - I posted the latest instalment of the Guest on the writing blog on Monday here. I've also been having a rummage (because I should be doing other stuff) and I've found some stories starring Kane that never made it to the blog. I even found some stories that were on the blog but never ended up on the collection page (I've added them and it's here, if you're interested). Having lost a couple of fun articles that I wrote as a guest on a blog and failed to save, I'm considering bunging them into a book, like I am with the White Hart, just to make sure that I can't lose them easily. I'd like to know what you'd think about that. I wouldn't be able to put the ebook on Amazon if I kept Kane's stories live on my blog, but there are other places to post them. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Parcels

I need to get better at taking pics. I have only one for this post. Like most of my life, it's a work in progress. 

We sent a care package to bear today. 

Dear Lord, it's a bad picture. We had a good box, so we added a box of biscuits (cookies) left over from Christmas, along with a bag of cashews and raisins, some Party Rings...

 

Image from WikiCommons, taken by mattbuck and shared under the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution

I got the picture from WikiCommons, and if you're not familiar with them, party rings are crisp, thin cookies with a water/sugar icing and they're made in a factory around ten miles from here. They're one of bear's favourites. The care package also included some noodles, just in case as a fall back if he can't get out, some of the hot sauce I got the amazing offer on, peppermint tea, hot chocolate sachets and some chewing gum that I know bear has liked in the past and that was on a good offer. DH and I just wanted him to know that we think of him. 

The other parcel that happened today was a delivery. I've been considering getting new pillows for a while as mine are extremely deflated. They're more like mats than pillows. In a moment of madness, I ordered some from Temu. They came today. I didn't get any pics as DH whisked them off before I thought of it, but I may have made an error. They were far from expensive, and I think that the pillows are becoming necessary, but I should have paid more attention. They came shrunk in vacuum pack and were microscopically thin. I love it when things come like that, as watching them expand after you unseal the packages is wonderfully satisfying. I guess they went from an eighth of an inch or so, maybe a quarter of a centimetre, to at least four inches and maybe six inches, depending on how it's plumped, of silkly softness and I think that they're still puffing up after the vacuum sealing. But they're big. They're a lot longer and wider than the standard ones that I picked up in the supermarket. I was joking when I told DH that I'd have to sew two king sized sheets together to make pillowcases, but I think that I'll need to get decent sheeting and thread to package them in. I'm not sure that I can cram them into my standard pillowcases. I can see these 'inexpensive' pillows costing a lot more with the extra fabric and time. I should add, I just compared these pillows with those on Tesco, and these are allegedly smaller. They absolutely are not. 

I've been thinking about the beeswax. I've seen a few YouTube videos about reusing the ends of candles and at least one has suggested that you make a small candle and use a shop bought birthday cake candle's wick. I know enough that you need a decent width of wick compared to the amount of wax to get a good burn, and a tiny birthday cake candle wick. I got a pic from Unsplash to show the sort of candle I mean.

Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

I'll see how the second candle burns, and I've got plenty of half used candles around that I could add to the pot. 

Mind you, I could end up saving candle ends like my grandfather saved scraps of soap. He never, ever, discarded a sliver of soap but I never saw anyone do anything at all with those thin remnants. I shall have to weigh the risks. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

I Ought to be Good

Back on the 9th January, I posted about a candle that bear bought me for Christmas. 

He'd bought it from an 'everything handmade' shop, the sort that I love exploring and that I mentally call 'knit your own rice type shops.' It gave a lovely glow, but the flame vanished surprisingly quickly. I think that there may have been an issue with the wick because there's around half a centimetre or a quarter of an inch of wax left at the bottom of the holder.

And he sent me the candle on the right from the same shop and I'm nervous to light it. There's just so much wax left from the first candle and the wick doesn't seem to go all the way down to the bottom of the second candle. 

(I really need to get better at taking pics)

I ought to do something intelligent with the wax. I should save it for lip balm, or running thread through to make sewing easier, or for putting on creaking hinges or sticking drawers. All I really want to do, though, is to get it out of my favourite tealight holder. That's going to be interesting. I'll feel dreadful if I just get rid of it, but I don't want to go to the effort of actually doing something with it. I'm willing to take any suggestions but I'm making no guarantees. 

I'm not sure what's going on with my writing blog, but that's also got a spike in numbers. It seems pretty random, so I don't expect anything, I'll just keep an eye on things. And on a similar note, I got a comment today on a post that I made on 15th May 2022 Magic Braised Burning Pot or buying a wide-necked thermos flask. This was a reasonable hit as they were asking a question about it, so I guess someone searched for answers and found me. I feel a little guilty as I couldn't give a sensible answer. I still feel it's the best named item that I've ever had in my kitchen, and it's great when I remember to use it to cook pasta in. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Ding Dong

Here is a picture of the sound box and wiring bits of our doorbell. It demonstrates that I need to not only get a more robust attitude to cleaning, but also that I need to decorate. 

After all, that's the wallpaper that was there when we moved in, in 1994. I think I bought that picture for DH in 1997 as part of a set of four and it's been in that place ever since. At least the clock is only a couple of years old.

Anyway, the reason that I took the pic is because, after over thirty years, the doorbell finally went wrong. It may have been the storm. The UK is currently suffering from Storm Chandra, which is causing havoc with heavy rain and strong winds. Because the wind is so stormy, we are actually getting rain hitting the front of our house, with some force. Normally the shape of the street funnels wind and rain past us instead of against the windows, so it's been unnerving. The rain driving against the doorbell outside may have been the final straw. 

We hadn't thought much about the doorbell since we moved in. It's incredibly loud and can be heard all over the house, which is impressive as it's brick walls and over four floors. It sounds like the beginning of a Victorian hymn and is usually ignored by anyone making a delivery. Today, around 10am, the doorbell rang. And rang. And rang. And rang. There was no-one there, and I couldn't get it to stop. And, as I said, it's loud. Poor DH, who was working two floors above, came down to try and stop it. He was already dealing with water coming through the ceiling (again, likely direction and force of wind and rain rather than missing roof tiles) and he didn't need this at all. I started looking for electricians as DH got up a ladder and tried to make it stop. 

The doorbell is wired in, so we've never bothered with it and just answered the door. This is the first time either of us had seen under the cover. So we were somewhat surprised when, after a prod from DH, it started playing Silent Night at what sounded like 140 decibels. It's been over thirty years and we didn't realise there was a playlist. We heard Starspangled Banner and Hurrah for Dixie which was surprising, followed by God Save the King, which felt a little disrespectful, followed by Jingle Bells. The neighbours were probably all out, but they otherwise would have heard me almost falling off my chair laughing when we reached Joy to the World. 

I managed to get hold of a very nice local electrician who came out, isolated the wire and pointed out the spaces where the batteries should have been. I'm not sure if it should have been wired in originally, and I've no idea who set the playlist to nineteenth century vaguely gothic, but after years of sterling service, it is finally out of commission. We have a Ring doorbell to fall back on, which we got after trouble with some former neighbours, and half the time no-one rings or even knocks, so it could be worse. I've been meaning to get the house re-wired for over ten years, and we can get it sorted out then. It's added to the list, along with the dining room floor and the leaking porch roof. 

I texted bear to let him know, as I thought he would see the humour, and he let me know that half the power sockets in the student kitchen weren't working. It sounds like there's a lot of it going around.

Writing stuff - the latest instalment of The Guest was posted on my blog yesterday here. And while I was looking for quotations about rain, I found this, and thought it worth sharing. 

Hugs and good health to all.

Always a Bright Side

I'm typing most of this one handed, I can knit maybe twenty stitches at a time and I'm not in the best of moods. But I can still click, and I found this. It's perfect for those who like cats and have at least a small fondness for eighties rock. The best part starts after 30 seconds.

I laughed and laughed and laughed. And I've found a whole new genre of YouTube videos that can waste my time. I'm off to watch 'ZZ Cat - Well Groomed Coat.' Again. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Has Anyone Seen My Marbles?

I have officially lost the plot, gone doolally and am away with the fairies. Yesterday I started getting a craving. It was the sort of craving you get during pregnancy or when you have a monthly need for chocolate. I was desperate - to cast on a triangle scarf. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if DH decided that I needed an intervention. But I really, really, really, wanted to knit a triangle scarf. As I'm reaching my sixties, I'm willing to blame it on hormones, or lack of them, and part of me was fascinated at why I should feel this. The rest of me decided to turn over my room in search of some yarn cakes that I bought when bear was tiny, or even before. I think I may have donated them, but my room looked like a hurricane had breezed through and I couldn't find them. Instead I spotted some double knitting that I'd stashed ready for a sweater. I grabbed the yarn and a 5mm circular needle (US size 8) which are bigger than the 4mm the yarn asked for but give a better drape with garter stitch. I settled down, leaned back and loaded up YouTube.

Not only am I losing my sanity to triangle scarves, but I seem to be losing any sort of brainpower as it took me an hour and a half to cast on and set up a shawl. I kept trying different videos to get them to make sense. I felt better after I got going, though, and it currently looks like this.

The yarn feels lovely, snuggly, warm, and soft and you can't get in any more as it was a Marriner brand and they went out of business. I've got enough for a sweater pattern.

But I'm making some mental calculations. The pattern I have asks for 500g, as it's quite plain. You can find it here, if you're interested, but I want to make it two inches longer than the pattern. There are two issues with this. I don't want to get carried away on the really snuggly shawl and not have enough for an equally snuggly sweater and I'm not sure about the length of the yarn. The yarn called for in the pattern is sold in balls that are 345m long, while the yarn that I've actually got is 290m per ball. I'm not saying the yarn is thicker than average, but it feels like it's eaten a lot of big dinners compared to standard double knitting. I may be forced to knit a swatch for the first time in years. 

And then there's the needle issue. If I knit to gauge, which I've always done in the past, I need a 4mm needle and the best one for the job is currently occupied with the multicoloured scarf in hurdle stitch that I only started a couple of days ago. So I need to finish the scarf and hat before I get carried away by the soft snuggly sweater which, when finished, will allow me to know whether I've got enough left for an amazing shawl. My track record for finishing things is not stellar, but at least this time I have an incentive. 

Not only am I concerned about my mental capacity, or lack of it, but I've done something interesting to my arm. When I told DH that I hurt my arm turning over in bed wrong, he stared at me, shook his head and told me, 'well, you will go taking risks.' I think I may have pulled a muscle of some sort, but I'm in a lot of pain, can't raise it above my head and I'm very restricted. Last time I had anything like this, it eased off eventually, but I cannot tell you how unimpressed I am at the whole business. After an evening losing all sense of proportion over a triangle shawl, I planned to go out today and find a quite corner and sit and knit. This has always helped my mental health. Unfortunately, my arm is so bad that I daren't risk driving. 

I made this on Canva yesterday. I can knit for short periods, and moving around is uncomfortable, but I may be able to get some writing done without excuses to be elsewhere. This is a good quotation to have in front of me.

In my case, action inspires me to new knitting projects. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Slightly Mindful

I've got a few more bits done today. It's all little stuff, but it's better than I have been. There's lots of fiddly bits that aren't worth writing about. However, some knitting has happened. 

Do you remember the scarf kit that with a pattern that called for one 150g ball of yarn where you knitted from both the inside and outside of the ball, switching every other row? And I ended up with two 100g balls and some sincere concerns. Here's the old pic. 

I thought that I'd try knitting with one ball being the 'inner end of yarn' and one ball being the 'outer end of yarn' and settled down to it, but then I realised - the pattern isn't reversible. The scarf had a right side and a wrong side.

I fail at fashion, and I could never be bothered trying to get the scarf tied so that it only showed the right side. As such, I refused to try knitting that dratted pattern. Instead I got a reversible stitch from a knitting book and used that. They called it hurdle stitch, and it's two rows of plain knit followed by two rows of knit one, purl one rib. I've done this much so far.

I wouldn't mind a sweater in that stitch, but I could never face the maths that I'd have to do to adapt a pattern. I don't think that I'll use both balls for it, though. I think that I'm just under half way through the first ball, and the scarf is already 28 inches or around 70cm. I may make a matching hat. If I did it again, I'd cast on more stitches, as it's six inches or fifteen centimetres wide, but it's not bad and I'm really enjoying the colour.

I got a phone call from bear. He sounds snowed under with work but I think that he's doing okay. 

Writing stuff - I nearly forgot about sharing this on Facebook, but the latest instalment on my blog of the Guest is here 

Hugs and good health to all.

Not Being Mindful

My word of the year was 'MINDFUL' and so far I have failed to use it. I don't even want to think about how many knitting projects I've started and how much I'm dithering about writing. Not to mention how I'm easily distracted. Examples include a YouTube video that claimed that it was ten minutes and three ingredients for a delicious and healthy soup. There were eleven ingredients, if you count salt and pepper as one, it took a good hour by my reckoning and there was a large portion of double cream. It looked like a pleasant version of leek and potato soup, which I'm including because I've not much else to share, but I doubt that I'd follow their method entirely. Apart from anything else, they used fresh bread for the croutons and everyone knows that stale bread is better and that croutons are great for using up leftovers, not the current loaf. 

I also bought some yarn from Aldi. I do not need any more yarn, not a thread, not the tiniest, flimsiest hank. I missed the best part of the sale, fortunately, and they didn't have the colours I wanted in the quantities I needed. I took a quick pick but I didn't want to get in the way of other shoppers.

There was a lot, though, and I still came away with 200g of brown yarn. It hasn't photographed well, but this is the best match of the colours.

I never wear brown. Not ever. I refuse to even consider it. But this just seemed to call to me. It reminded me of autumn leaves on a grey pavement and so I picked up enough for yet another scarf. To be fair, it will look great with the plain greys, blacks and blues that I have in my wardrobe. I have no idea when I'll knit it up, because I'm already booked up for the next decade. Once again, I failed at Mindful. 

Mind you, I've been all over the place today. I've managed to smash my pint Pyrex jug, which is a feat. Those things usually bounce but it ricocheted off a counter and the blast radius was epic. It took a while to be confident that I'd got all the pieces up. And then I dropped a full but open tub of gravy granules, which was just as much of a nuisance to clean up. I think my mind was elsewhere, though I've no idea where. 

My eyes are feeling a lot better, though I still plan to make an appointment with an optician. I think it's my sinuses playing up. It's just that time of year.

Hugs and good health to all.