Perfectly Normal for Here

Apparently slugs don't eat clothes. 

But that was the state of a t-shirt that had just been washed. It didn't look like that a week or so ago, and it's 100% cotton. I know that I should look for the bright side of a shopping opportunity, but I got half a dozen of these ages ago from eBay, and they're so soft and comfortable and fit so nicely, and now I just have extra rags. If it isn't slugs, then the culprit may be silverfish. I saw one a couple of months ago, two floors away, so that's plausible. Just in case, I'm not looking too closely at the washing that I'm rewashing, but dumping it quickly into the washer and then sorting after it's been thoroughly washed, spun, rinsed, spun and is hopefully free of anything creepy. 

I've been distracted by writing, which I'll be going to straight after writing this, which means that tomorrow I need to spend time clearing a space and planting a very large rosemary bush that I apparently ordered. I plan to put it next to the gate, so that people brushing past can get a nice aroma. That is, if it survives. I've heard that rosemary flourishes where the woman wears the trousers, and while I've had some good seasons, my rosemary plants have never gone rampant. I'm pretty sure that the reason it appeared is that I ordered some seat belt pads for the new car while I had the rosemary in my eBay basket from weeks ago, as I was deciding whether or not to get it, so the whole lot turned up.

I've less excuse for the Morrisons order. I get an order from Morrisons on a Monday because DH likes their salad and I get it for the week. I also got some bottled water, because I'm trying not to watch too much of the 'be prepared for disruption' message that's coming out, but I get twitchy. Bear and DH like to have the bottled water on hand, so I thought that while bear was away, I could get a little bit built up and then just rotate through. I got three big packs of the 500ml bottles, which came packed on top of a 10kg bag of potatoes. I thought that this was unfortunate in so many ways. I've got the pic from Morrisons website as my ability to take pics is pretty shaky, and I thought that it would be better this way. 

Link to the potatoes in question

The bag cost £6.30, and it's the 'seconds' or 'wonky' potatoes. I got the delivery yesterday, but only opened the bag today. They feel a little... less firm. I'm not sure if it's because they're seconds or because they've been tenderised by having litres of water stacked on top of them. Between that and the rampaging slugs, I need to get them eaten quickly. I made a casserole tonight that was heavy on the potatoes and I plan for it to cover three meals. It was mainly 'use it up' ingredients, and out of interest, I started to have a very rough guess at the price. 

I started by putting a couple of sachets of chicken cup soup, the cheap brand from Tesco, which I think came to around 33p, and I remember weighing the potatoes out of curiousity and that was about 800g or so, maybe 50p. I had a bag of carrots destined for the freezer and I used around, maybe, 15p's worth. Then there was a tin of black beans which says 50p on the website, but I'm sure it was 45p when I bought it, and an expensive small tin of chicken hotdogs which I picked up thinking that bear might like. He never bothered, but I chopped them up and added them for £1.85. I also added some of the Jux dehydrated onion, garlic and bell peppers with a liberal hand, and I can't even think of cost of that, but I could guess high at around £1. It was a nice big dish which should make three or four portions for me, for perhaps £4.50 total. I think if I use fresh veg or stuff that I've frozen myself, and cooking bacon instead of the hotdogs, and a stock cube instead of the powdered soup, the cost would plummet, and I may just do that next week. 

And speaking of chopping stuff for the freezer, I added the rest of the bag of carrots, two kilos of on-sale mushrooms, and half a dozen peppers to the freezer. I'm going to keep a close eye on Morrisons website. Sometimes they have small sacks of onions which are an economical buy and I stash those in the freezer. I'm currently okay for onions, but I'd like to stock up for the autumn soup and stew season. 

Of course, I have that potato recipe book that I got, and there's a very pleasant sounding recipe involving potatoes and bacon, which would be great for lunches if I'm having the casserole for dinner. So much potatoes, unless the slugs get in! I've closed the bag with bulldog clips, but I feel that perhaps I should go down and sprinkle salt around the bag. It's going to be a thing!

Hugs and good health to all.

Dammit to Heck (Again)

I am having real problems with slugs in the dining room, where the laundry lives. The problem is that it's a damp cellar room, with issues with the floor, an air brick, a gas meter, an outside door nearby and a garden notoriously infested with slugs. 

I'm going to have to severely water the garden with nematodes next spring. It worked really well a few years ago when I was on top of the garden. 

Until then, I've put indoor slug traps down, and I need to clear everything out. I was planning something of a push today, but I got caught up with a few things. I deactivated my Draft2Digital account and took the meter readings (which I loathe doing as it's fiddly), and then I thought I'll just check on a parcel that's due. I looked at the online tracking and the parcel was nearly here. Great, I thought, I'm the next delivery, I'll take that in and then I can get started. I was that next delivery for the next four hours and the dot on the tracking map kept circling around the side roads near me. Every now and again, for variety, it would say 'your driver will be there soon after a few drops' then the dot on the map I was daft enough to keep watching would circle around a few more times and I'd be the next delivery again. And I kept putting off doing anything because that dratted parcel was nearly here and I may as well be ready to take it in. So I played patience and fiddled around and got nothing worthwhile done! I'm so frustrated by myself and had abandoned hope of getting anything done at all by the time it came.

This is a spade. But it reminded me of those bundles of paper wrapped in bin bags and tied to resemble dead bodies and left out as Halloween decorations. 

Blogger is still playing up which is making me concerned about writing blog stuff, and I can see me sticking almost totally to Substack if it carries on, at least for the writing bits. Tech isn't playing nicely for me, but before my PC gave up again, I managed to book my Christmas delivery slot at Morrisons.

Yes, Christmas delivery slot! I took a very deep breath indeed when I saw that they were suggesting that those with passes book their Christmas delivery on the first day of October! I am using a lot of italics in this post, but it feels like an italics type of day. 

Speaking of supermarkets, Tesco have a 'spend £60 instore and get 8p off per litre of petrol' deal going until 18th October. I guess they think that there's more chance of profitable impulse buys if someone shops instore. I am not entirely sure that's true, especially not for me, but it means that if I want the deal, I've got to somehow make my way around the store, find £60 of stuff that I want in one go, which is currently unlikely, then fill up the car. DH is picking up the new car on Saturday. It's an SUV, and I'm willing to bet is thirstier than a little Citroen C3. I'm also fairly sure that it won't turn up with a full tank, that almost certainly holds more than Red. 8p per litre sounds worth it. I have no idea what I can get for £60. There may be alcohol involved and I daresay I can get a whole trolley full of the cheap beer for the slug traps. 

I hope tomorrow goes a little smoother. 

Writing stuff - I started the 'story every day in October' today. I'm hoping that I can get my PC working again soon as I haven't got all the days sorted. I heard about one relatively successful romance author writing their novels on their phone. I'm not sure how my elderly Motorola would handle it, but it's beginning to look like a fallback option. I'm not linking here every day, but I did make this graphic, and I thought that it looked pretty. 

It looked bigger on Facebook.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Grumble in Parts

The bad thing today was finding that the slugs had got into a pile of clean washing that I'd been meaning to sort out for... well, forever. It's a great heap of stuff and it makes my skin crawl to even think about slugs on the fabric, so it's all got to be washed. And then dried. And then I really need to put it away or the slugs will get it again. 

On the other hand, I treated myself to this, which has made me unreasonably happy.

It's just a cheap ornament, but it's a shiny, irridescent, blue dragonfly and it works for me. I've also done loads of writing stuff and I've cleared some bits that I've been meaning to get to, so it all could be worse. 

Writing stuff - the last instalment of The Guest is here (Blogger) and here (Wordpress). I think that today is the last time I will post a link to Wordpress, which feels a little odd. I'll be getting The Guest ready for Amazon over the next few weeks. 

That was Monday. Today I put up a post about upcoming plans, again, here (Blogger) and here (Wordpress), which includes a reminder that I'm taking down my Draft2Digital account 1st October 2026, or at least, trying to start the process thereof. 

I'm thinking hard about what is important to me with writing and what isn't, and I'll share what happens next as I find out!

Thank you for all the kind words about my writing, especially compliments about my books. It feels like the most amazing hug ever! And if I haven't said it, I'm also desperately grateful for the kind reviews, thank you!

Hugs and good health to all. 

Pumpkin Spice Sky

I looked out of the window, and everything looked orange. I wondered if I was having a bit of a do, but DH agreed, everywhere looked orange. To reassure myself, I went out and took pics. There was the most amazing orange sunset, which my elderly phone camera didn't capture properly, but I got a couple of pics of the glow in the street, including one which shows a rainbow.

There are no filters on these pics, just the effect of a vivid orange, pumpkin spice, sunset.

I was looking through my next Tesco order. I'm finally near the end of the massive order of washing sheets I got a great deal on a year or so back, and they are on offer, so I'll top up. It's not a brilliant deal, and it's not included in the '4 for the price of 3' deal on cleaning and laundry products currently going on. I remember when those sales were worth noticing, and they included the Tesco own brand products which I bought by the bucket load. Now I'm just picking up some laundry sheets. 

One thing I will not be picking up is Laundry Shampoo. It's on offer at Tesco, and I don't care. I don't care if it's 1p per pint, I am not buying any detergent for clothes called Laundry Shampoo. I just can't. 

Here's the screen print

This is available at Tesco, and I'm not buying it

I mean, what sort of laundry detergent is called Icing on the Cake fragrance? I don't want my clothes to smell like cake. I'm traditional, and if they're going to smell of anything, I'd like something fresh like citrus, or lavender, dammit! They even have what they call Cleansing Perfume which is like Febreeze but three times the price! 

Blogs that I'm following still aren't showing, but I'm trying to find ways around that. I apologise for anyone that I'm missing. As far as I can tell, comments are working, both leaving them and receiving them, but it's a concern.

As you know, I've just made the executive decision to leave Wordpress and go all in on Blogger. Ha! After driving myself daft, I'm now eyeing Blogger with some suspicion. I don't think that it's a moneymaker for Google, and I don't think that it's being kept up to date. I'm fine keeping my witterings on here, but I'm not sure that I want to risk my writing stuff. Because I'm obviously still fully stocked with idiot juice, I'm now looking to transfer to another sort of platform. I could go all in on Substack, but I don't think it's the right form. I think it's more for a newsletter, and possible audio (I'm considering recording myself reading Cats in the Bible to see if there's any interest at some point, but nothing promised at the moment).

I'm not keen on carrying on with Wordpress. To be brutally honest, I want a free platform, that's easy for an old dear like me to use, and that allows me to share a certain amount of free content with readers. Blogger would be fine if it works. I'm just not sure what to do if it doesn't. 

Feeling Sad

It looks like we are going to have to give up on our car. There's something interesting gone wrong with the clutch and In n Out can't easily fix it. They could replace it, but it gets complicated with the AA guarantee where we just pay them £35 under the policy and they cover repairs. They are likely to insist on repairs, which means that the poor car would have to be towed to a specialist garage, and it may be written off anyway. When DH was talking with a dealership about a new car, we were offered £150 part exchange. This may have been generous. Anyway, I can't see a repair costing less than double that. 

It's ridiculous. I just wanted to cry after talking to the garage. But it's the first and only car that I've driven on my own, and I'm going to miss her so much. 

I'm currently in full mope mode, and I'll allow myself to wallow tonight. Then I can look forward to learning how to drive a different car.

Here's the first pic of red that was ever posted on my blog, back in April 2019. 

So much has happened since then, and that car is stuffed with memories. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Missing Bear

I miss bear so much. It's not really a conscious thought. It's just that I find myself tiptoeing past his door when he's hundreds of miles away, or planning a food shop around him, or turning around to talk to him and he's miles away. I can text, but I don't want to be too clingy. I texted him when I left the grill on and nearly set the kitchen on fire, and the problems about the car, but it's not the same.

The car is still at the garage. The lovely man from the AA believed that it was a clutch cable problem. However the clutch is still able to go into reverse. It's sort of engaging with the engine but it's not engaging properly. The guys at the garage aren't sure what's going on. We've made a tentative approach to a garage for a new car that was on their website. It's huge. I mean, it's massive. I'm not sure that I'll be able to drive it. And our little Citroen C3 has been such a star, and I don't want to see her go.

DH got me a little notebook to cheer me up. 

It's a real hug as I love my notebooks. 

Writing stuff - I feel like I'm swimming against the tide, trying to tidy up a load of loose ends. I hope that I'll have most of it sorted by the end of the year. It's been fiddly writing stuff all day. I've posted about plans here (Blogger) and here (Wordpress) if you're interested. There's quite a lot going on over the next couple of months and there should be some more books coming out soon.

Thank you for all those who have supported me by buying the ghost books and for any reviews. I can't tell you how much that means to me. Annoyingly, if I search Amazon for An Apprenticeship of Ghosts, I don't get a result. I only get a result from An Apprenticeship of Ghosts Medana. I hope that it doesn't mean that you can't find the book on a casual search. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

It's Not My Birthday (Again)

My writing name has a birthday today. Facebook asked for it when I set up the page so I made up a date and it's sort of spread since then. I'm hiding from Facebook because there's usually loads of notifications, and last year I got locked out of Facebook for thanking too many people for birthday wishes. It feels even odder, because I think I've met two or maybe three people on my friend list for the writing name and I have over three thousand friends! Or perhaps 'friends'. Some are people that I talk with regularly, some are accidental friends or people chasing business or just awesome people that I don't know very well. I feel guilty because lots of lovely people are sending me good wishes and I don't deserve them. 

I've also not caught up with the blogs. Blogger has finally started playing nice to give me my usual links, and I've decided that I'm going to set a time, settle down with a nice cup of tea and enjoy myself. 

I've not done much today, and I've done less worth taking a pic, but here is a view of my latest impulse buy - an orange shaped candle.

It's from Morrisons and it smells ORANGE!!!! and I'm sure that I'll find a use for the container at the end. 

The car is still in the garage. They're getting to it, but they're busy, and I guess that ours isn't an urgent repair. We don't do a school run and DH works from home, and I get so much delivered that we can manage. I still feel out of sorts about it. I guess we're going to have to go car shopping sooner than we had planned.

It doesn't help that I'm missing bear. I thought I'd get used to it, but he's been great company over the summer, and now he's not here. I'll be counting down to the Christmas holidays.

Writing stuff - first THANK YOU to everyone who has bought my book. I cannot tell you how much of a hug it feels, and I hope that you can enjoy them. 

The last but one instalment of The Guest is here (on Blogger) and here (on Wordpress). For those who missed it, I've an article here about some changes I'm making when I publish, and I'm feeling quite a few changes in the air - hopefully less than the chaos I unleashed by switching over blogs. I'll keep everyone updated.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Could be Worse

The clutch just gave out. Of course, it all started going wrong at a busy junction close to Leeds City Centre and in the middle of a load of industrial estates at rush hour. According to the nice AA man, who arrived two and one half hours later, it's the clutch cable.

But it happened just as DH picked up the hire car to take bear back to university tomorrow, so no-one was stranded after the AA towed Red to the garage (and the man was absolutely lovely!). And it didn't happen on the moors above Ilkley after the satnav sent us on an unexpected tour of the less paved roads. 

However, with other things, I feel absolutely flattened. I'll catch up properly later, but here's an out of date pic of the garden with a block of mulch on - it's that compressed coir stuff that needs water adding and then it poofs out. Nothing has apparently died yet. I need to add another block.

And the link to an article about a change in how my books will be published that isn't strictly my choice is here (blogger) and here (wordpress). I'm getting a little tired of all the changes, most of which are my fault, but it's still tiring. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Happy, Happy Days

I was away last week, on holiday with DH and bear. I don't like to let people know that the house will be empty, so I didn't warn that I'd be away and not posting. But here's a quick overview and I'll start catching up with friendly blogs and get back into the rhythm in no time. 

We didn't go far, it was just in the Yorkshire Dales, only around an hour's drive, but nicely in the country, quiet, and a chance for a little bit of calm together. It was a self catering AirBnB cottage, and it seemed perfect. I mean, it had a woodburning stove and a reading/knitting nook.

And you had to cross a bridge to get to the front door.

I was deeply grateful for the woodburning stove, as the boiler stopped working and we didn't have hot water or heating apart from that for the first few days. It can't be blamed on the host, or even on the repair man. I listened to him on one of the mornings when he turned up with a different part and worked with the equally baffled helpline operator to get things going. 

Bear enjoyed a chance to learn to light fires, but after DH took over, the stove had two levels - out or blast furnace. The host was wonderfully generous with firewood and kindling, and we took shameless advantage. I shivered or scorched, but I did enjoy watching the fire and it was generally relaxing. 

Catering was a tiny problem. If we needed to, we could have driven into a local town for food, but I'd organised a Tesco delivery for the start of the stay and there were seventeen substitutions. Most of them made more or less sense, but it was tricky trying to recreate a rough meal plan. There was a (very small) village shop, and we were never going to starve, but seventeen substitutions! I'd never seen anything like that ever!

The kitchen was equipped. The trouble with self catering kitchens is that they're not like your kitchen at home. If I'm going to heat a can of soup at home, I know which jug is good in the microwave, which bowls are a good fit, and I have a favourite spoon. A strange kitchen slows you down by about half a step, not to mention using a strange cooker. 

Our cooker is accidentally quite good and expensive. We got an insane deal on an electric cooker with an induction hob which, after much patient service, burst into flames. The insurance couldn't replace with the equivalent because it was no longer sold so we got an awesome upgrade. The AirBnB's cooker wasn't the same. It was an electric cooker with an induction hob, but the oven ran enthusiastically hot and the hob limped along very slowly. It was one of those where it was a good cooker if you were used to it. 

The house was nicely decorated, and it was clean, but it wasn't clean clean. Still, it made me feel a little better about my own housewifery skills or lack thereof, so I'm not calling that a fail. And they had a bathroom smaller than mine! 

The picture, past the reading room, is of the main house bathroom. It's about square with a walk in shower that runs off the boiler so wasn't available at the start. It's tiny. I think that if I was going to go to the trouble of installing a bathroom, I'd use the whole room and go all out, but who knows? That may have been an important study at one time. The bedrooms were lovely. 

And on the way home, the satnav decided to shred our nerves by taking an unexpected shortcut over the moors on single track roads. DH was driving, and he's a much better and more experienced driver than me, but I'm more comfortable with those sorts of roads and I was so glad that I wasn't in the hot seat. It was all high stone walls and blind corners, and we had no idea what was going on. 

I could probably find more to grumble about but the house was obviously a gothic horror story waiting to happen, and while I almost finished the back of a chunky sweater, I let my mind drift. There were dozens of doors that were not only in odd places, but locked and bolted. This one in my room apparently leads to the house next door.

There was a dark painting on the landing, which ought to have had secrets woven into its story.

And there was a memorial stone in the small garden. 

I took this pic at the last minute, as whenever I went out there, I forgot my phone. But how can you resist a cottage with a memorial stone in the garden?

DH wants to go back. Bear is uncommitted. I'm looking at perhaps staying home. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

In Haste

Yarn has happened.

The second pic doesn't do it justice.

Lavender has been planted through weed membrane that bear laid. 

And I've finally got around to publishing An Apprenticeship of Ghosts.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Yarn May Have Happened

My hip has been playing up over the long weekend and I took some co-codamol. It's an over the counter painkiller that actually works on me, but I'm sensitive to the codeine side of it. As it was, well, I was as high as the proverbial kite, I was smacked off my wotsits, I was unfit to operate heavy machinery. What is worse, I was without adult supervision and with access to eBay, who is my friend, but the sort of friend that's a bad influence. I'll share the yarn I ordered when it turns up.

In the spirit of using up as much yarn as possible before the next instalment arrives, I dug out a sweater that I started ages ago and finished the back. 

The pic looks blurry, but I think that's just the way the colour works. Regardless of anything incoming, it's the first day of autumn. I've always counted from 21st September, but it's feeling autumnal here, and my existing sweaters are barely hanging together. Even where there aren't many holes, the threads are bare. I could go out and shop, but it seems crazy to do that when I've got yarn and knitting needles at my disposal. The yarn in this sweater doesn't feel particularly snuggly, but it will be fine over a soft t-shirt. 

We went and got five more sacks of gravel today. Bear didn't finish the job, and has one more sack to add - those sacks are heavy! Coming home, I was grumbling that the car was running a bit sluggish, then realised that there were 100kg of gravel in the boot, and the poor car was entitled to take it a little slower.

Writing stuff - The latest instalment of The Guest is on the Wordpress blog here and on Blogger here. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Drat

I missed posting yesterday, because my brother came around, bearing gifts like chocolate covered gooseberries. My brother, bear and I, were talking until ridiculously late and I didn't post. 

And now I'm nodding off over my keyboard, so I'll be back tomorrow hopefully with something useful. But yesterday bear tipped the gravel into the hole, which was something of an anticlimax. We had four bags. It seemed a lot, but bear thinks that we need around five more. 

To be honest, he could have left some soil in, which would have meant less gravel, but digging it out reduces the chances of weeds fighting through the membrane. They're likely to be a problem in the edges as it is. 

We could get the gravel delivered, but it's less than two miles, on an easy run, the bags would come to £20.50, and the delivery charge is £5. I can't bring myself to pay it, but I couldn't pick it up today as I was having too many issues with cramp. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Busier than Usual

I forgot all about posting yesterday. Most of the day was taken up with the very nice man who came to replace our broken CCTV cameras. I didn't want to mention that they were broken until they were fixed, just in case. The new ones are awesome and now I have no excuse for missing pics of the garden, as I can take screenshots.

Bear is working really hard, and I'm very proud of him. Today he came with me to the garage where they checked the tyres. The tyre pressure light had come on - again, and I was worried about yet another slow leak. As it was, a couple of tyres had high/low pressure, which they fixed for free. The that the suspension may be on the way out, and they suggested a wellness check for the car. I've not done many miles since the service in June, but I'm trying to coax the car along a little longer before she's replaced. 

Bear was with me as the garage is next to Wickes, which for those outside the UK is a big store for DIY and home improvement - and garden stuff. The current plan is to put down weed suppressing membrane in the centre and fill the dip with gravel. Bear very kindly hauled the gravel out of Wickes for me. I didn't get pics of the gravel, but I'm sure that I'll be able to show it soon. That is, after bear has lugged it into the garden. 

Writing stuff - I've done a post on Blogger, copied to Wordpress and Substack, about ongoing writing plans. I'll keep everyone updated.

I'm looking forward to after the end of November when it's just one blog. I'll always be posting news on Substack, because that's my newsletter, and it's an easy and cheap way to get notified. 

Hugs and good health to all.

Where Did the Day Go?

I'm just dashing through because I want to keep posting here about non-writing stuff. I've not really had time to read up on the blogs as there's a workman coming round tomorrow and I need to get stuff cleared. Bear was supposed to help, but didn't, so I may have to grumble a little at him. Mind you, he helped bring in the shopping of the delivery...

...except I'd messed up the delivery so we got three packs of the water he likes, two bags of the salad DH likes, and one large bottle of rum (which actually I quite like) which was added to take the total up to the delivery minimum to hold the slot, and nothing else besides. I forgot to update it. When it comes to deliveries, I usually book them well ahead and then tweak it nearer time. Though it doesn't match the order years and years ago when father was here. There was a great deal on Famous Grouse, his favourite tipple, but a maximum of three bottles per order which I'd filled with the previous order. This meant that the order the next day was solely three bottles of whiskey and a bag of cat litter, and the driver judged us.

And bear has done something interesting with his wrist, which dragging in the packs of water didn't help. I still may grumble lightly. I did a little myself, and I ought to get up at the crack of dawn and do more.

A lot was just clearing the various pots. 

And I've been caught up in a load of writing stuff. Anyway I hope to have something more sensible to talk about tomorrow. 

Writing stuff - The next instalment of The Guest is here on Blogger and here on Wordpress. 

If anyone would like a review copy of An Inexpensive Ring please let me know. If you leave a comment on the Wordpress blog with contact details, I won't publish them and I'll get in touch. The blurb reads:

An Inexpensive Ring is a light-hearted short story featuring mischievous kittens, an imminent visit from a mother-in-law, complications with an inexpensive ring, and a choice that could only go one way.

A quick read to make you smile.

It's a free read in the hope that you'll leave an honest review (and if you don't enjoy it, then the hope is that you'll be honest, but also tactful). 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Maybe Not Standing Still

It's been a strange sort of day. My back is giving me fits, so I've not done much physical stuff. I took in a delivery and it nearly finished me off. Bear would normally help, but he got a call to meet up with friends. I'm not going to stop him. Even in these days of social media and smart phones with group chats, it's hard to keep up friendships over distances. The invitation took bear a little by surprise, but I may find out more about what he got up to when I see him - apparently some time tomorrow. 

This meant that nothing further got done in the garden, but I'll have a go tomorrow. Bear may or may not be in a state to help when he gets in. I have no idea what he'll be doing, but he's an adult and a sensible one, so I'll let him get on with things. 

Writing stuff - I feel like I've been working hard with the writing stuff, but I don't feel that I have much to show for it. I've been dotting between tasks and one thing that caught my erratic attention was transferring some of the files from my laptop to my PC. There are all sorts of goodies that I'd forgotten, and now my 'to-write' pile is even bigger!

While I was rummaging, I found a story that I must have written around ten years ago. I tried to submit it, but the story was rejected, and I sort of forgot about it as it was a short story that had nothing spooky or weird about it, just a sweet little tale. There's not much to it, and it's never been on any of my blogs, and I don't want to spend time looking for a place to send it. I remembered that people were posting extremely short pieces on Amazon, so even though this is just shy of 2400 words, I published it. 

I didn't go all fancy about it. I got the cover from Canva and had a couple of read throughs rather than a rigorous edit, but here it is, An Inexpensive Ring.

I put it at the cheapest price possible and on Kindle Unlimited, because I can't bring myself to price things high for a short story. If I find more like that, I'll put them up and see how it goes. As you can see, I've used the Fireside pen name for this. It seems unfair to publish it as Lyssa Medana and have readers expecting werewolves and magic and instead getting a sweet story with a couple of mischievous kittens and the threat of a mother-in-law's visit. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

What's Sleep?

I had a bad night, and didn't get to sleep until 7am. I purposefully only allowed myself three hours, then an hour's nap in the afternoon. It's left me grumpy, headachey, and my back hates me.

Bear has been awesome. You remember the garden yesterday? Well it now looks like this. 

You remember the flower bed in the middle? When father moved in, it was actually filled in by bricks. However father wanted a flower bed there and pulled the bricks up and added soil and plants. The trouble is, the margin between the bed and the borders is too small to, for example, put a chair or a little table for snacks. The plan is that bear will transfer the dirt (which is awesome black soil) to the bed under the window, lay down weed suppressing membrane, cover the space with gravel until it's level and call it done. He's pottered around between showers and video games and I'm very happy with what he's done. 

Writing stuff - I'm in so much pain, tired, and so fed up that I decided to abandon any hope of getting Further Tales from the White Hart expanded and reorganised and published it 'as is' here. 

I've also given up on translating Back at the White Hart from 46 separate very short stories, many under 500 words, into something that reads like a novel, and I've also given up on refinishing the selection of short stories and Dark Picture. I'll pull them together, check the spelling and grammar, and publish, purely to have all the stories accessible. Apart from anything else, I don't want to publish it on a blog because it's already looking stuffed. Then it's off my mind, off my lists and I'm a little closer to my goal of writing all about werewolves. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Bear is Awesome

I may be slightly biased, and bear is doing things at his own pace, but you remember how the garden looked last time that I played out.

Bear and I have been out and while I've tried to help, bear has done everything that involves using a back.

And I don't know if anyone remembers, but we had an apple tree in a tub and while the blossom was pretty guaranteed, we never got much from it, and as it was hidden under the honeysuckle and I forgot about it, the drought saw it off. Bear cut the dead tree into bits, emptied the soil which I suspect is completely dead, and I now have a substantially sized tub that I plan to fill with a rose.

The soil is really good black earth, and it's wasted on me. Of course, I put in compost and dug it over many years ago, and father had a good play with it, but it's the sort of growing medium that most gardeners covet. Efforts continue, but I doubt that much will get done tomorrow as rain is forecast. My back is hurting, and I have eye strain so I'm happy to be coming to the end of the post, but I had to post to show how well bear has done.

Writing stuff has given me the eye strain, so I've not checked in on the blogs or awesome comments as I would have liked, but you can read how I'm doing with the switch in writing blogs on Wordpress here and on Blogger here. 

It Could be Worse

I can't move very well. I think it's something like a pulled muscle, but it's bad. But it could be worse. Yesterday we had chicken with roast potatoes, peas and gravy. It was all frozen stuff, apart from the gravy granules, but it was nice and I managed to get things into the oven (though DH took things out for me). There was a nice amount of chicken left over from the frozen chicken breast joint, which there should have been at the price of it. Bear and I had it in curry tonight, and there's a portion of the curry leftover as well. Again, it wasn't inspired, as it was the curry sauce in a jar with mushrooms and onions that I'd previously chopped and frozen. 

It got me thinking. The frozen chicken breast was £6.65 (very nearly the devil) for 800g and we got six very ample portions from it, and absolutely could have spread it over more without stinting. But there's a large chicken at Tesco that's on offer for £4.60 Clubcard price that's 1.7-2.1kg (around three and three quarters to four and one half pounds) and the fresh chicken is barn raised. It's not free range, but with all the problems with bird flu, it could be worse. It's roughly a third of the price by weight. And the potatoes aren't cost effective either.

But I have struggled so much over the last few years that I'm concerned that a lot of a proper chicken would go to waste. And with all the problems with farming and the weather, it feels worse than ever to waste food. I've always failed at making stock, and when bear is back at university, a small chicken will be more than enough. I think that once my back is a little less twitchy, I'm going to have to sort out the kitchen and make some decisions. I want to make it easier for me to make a proper meal and that means streamlining ingredients, keeping lists, and being thorough. After all, making the curry was a lot easier because I had the veg that I'd previously prepared and frozen ready, and that made a difference. I need to make realistic choices. 

I haven't done anything worth taking a pic today, as I've been working on writing stuff, so I had a little play with Canva again. I'm not sure about how the text turned out, but I looked for a sunny quote after the eclipse and the end of the relentless heatwave. 

Writing stuff - I've had a few battles with the transfer today, but it's continuing. The latest instalment of The Guest is on the blogger blog here and the wordpress blog here. 

Hugs and good health to all 

Knitting

I got some knitting done for the first time in ages. Partly it was because I didn't want to move around much as my back is stiff, and partly because it's finally cool enough to knit. It's just a basic blanket as I'm still feeling the effects of the co-codamol. I dug it out of the pile of unfinished projects and it was fun to watch YouTube videos while I managed a few rows.

And speaking of cocodamol, if you want to dream of sentient washing machines throwing spaghetti at your head, I utterly recommend it. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Ouch

I've just done something interesting to my back. I was bending over and it feels like something gave. I've taken some co-codemal and I'm now away off to fairyland.

I typed fairy into the search bar of Unsplash and got this, so at least there's a pic.

Hugs and good health to all

Photo by Simona D'Auria on Unsplash

Not a Good Day

Some things went right today. I got a load more stories posted on the non-spooky blog, and I must be getting to the end of that. It's taking me some time as they don't copy over easily and I've had to do a certain amount of fiddling around to make sure that everything fits, each post has a picture, and the pictures that aren't mine have proper attributions. 

I have a headache. I have a big headache. I'm sure that I'm not alone as the heat does not suit me, and my stomach is telling me that I had something that didn't agree with me, so I feel like death. 

The headache was not helped by the government's alert going off. I'd say that you don't need to tell people not to use things like disposable barbecues or fireworks when the entire country is tinder dry and ready to go up in smoke, but there's a warning for nuts on a jar of peanut butter for a reason.

I am about to write about eight-legged problems. Here is a cute picture of a kitten to soothe anyone accidentally reading when they didn't want to, and it's the last part of the post so you can skip it.

Photo by Tuqa Nabi on Unsplash

Our house is currently over supplied with cellar spiders. You can find them on Wikipedia, if you really want to look. They look incredibly creepy, but they're generally harmless to humans and prey on other spiders. I take the view of live and let live and wish that they'd also go after the fly that got in yesterday and we haven't managed to squash yet. 

The live and let live part was tested when of those spiders decided to hang their latest meal directly over where we were planning to eat ours. Did I mention my upset stomach? DH was a hero and sucked up the scene with the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner, because while I'm happy for spiders to scuttle off into the corners, there are some things where I draw the line. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

I Blame the Weather

There's a load of writing stuff here, so feel free to skip. However, it's the reason why I've been skimming over blogs and not doing much apart from that writing stuff. 

It's far too hot for me. If we keep getting summers like this, where there's more than a couple of weeks of temperatures higher than 25C, I'm going to have to consider getting some form of air conditioning. It would have to be the portable type, though, as our house is the opposite of open plan. There are currently a lot of fans going. 

I've not done any gardening, because I've been too hot and also I've been distracted by the writing stuff. I didn't really bother with the eclipse yesterday, though I kept an eye on the light levels out of the window. It was strange seeing how the light changed and faded. Bear and DH had a little wander outside, but it didn't get completely dark. I feel that we've been sold unrealistic expectations by films. Besides, it wasn't going to be a full eclipse here, though it was still a little spooky. 

Writing Stuff - The quote that I made on Canva hits the nail on the head. I wrote a post explaining that I won't be posting on my Wordpress writing blog after October, which you can read here on the Wordpress blog and here on my revived Blogger writing blog but it boils down to me not really clicking with Wordpress and that it costs me money in the way it's set up and Blogger is free. Then I sat down to go through 598 posts to work out what I could transfer over en masse, like the collections for Under Dark Hills and Invitation Accepted  and what I had to copy over individually. I noticed a lot of stories that had been saved on my Wordpress blog as drafts were the non-spooky stuff, as the supernatural stuff is sort of my brand. It felt right to take them off a blog that was mainly supernatural, but I liked some of them. We may be looking at as many as thirty separate stories. 

Did you know that you could publish a book on Amazon that is as short as one page long? Nope, I'm not doing that, but I could definitely expand and re-imagine some of my non-spooky stories on there as short reads, and I may well do in the future. However, as I explained in the post, I'm worried about losing the stories and it seems a shame to leave them in the dark. I mean, it's not great literature, but I think that they're okay. So, being unsupervised, overheated and thinking it was a great idea at the time, I set up yet another blog for just the non-supernatural stuff. You can find it here. I've only got about half a dozen posted on there at the time of typing, but it shouldn't take me too long to get things sorted, especially if I stop getting distracted by reading the old stories. I was reminded of one of my favourites, Domestic Demon and it made me smile. 

Thank goodness there's cooler weather in the forecast, and hopefully I won't get too lost in this jumble of posts. 

Hugs and good health to all.

How is it Tuesday?

I've managed to get myself bogged down in some writing stuff, so I've hardly done a thing, though I feel like I've not stopped. It's hard to pin down any concrete achievements, but they're there, or rather, they will be. I've failed with the gardening, so I haven't got a decent pic. Instead I went on Canva and took a few moments. I should have spent them in the garden, but it's currently dark and I wouldn't be able to see much, so you have this.

The poem, The Glory of the Garden, by Rudyard Kipling, is another of my favourites. I was reminded of it when I went looking for a garden quote, and it was a good reminder for me to get a move on!

Writing stuff - I forgot to post yesterday, but the latest instalment of The Guest is here. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Still Potatoes

After buying the 500 Potato recipes book, I can see potatoes becoming a thing. 

I was reassured that it was perhaps more than AI as there was a proper author listed, Elizabeth Woodland. She even has her own listing on Goodreads, the site for readers to leave reviews and search for their next book. I had a quick look, and there seemed to be a trend. Her main titles are: 500 Potato Recipes, 300 Best Ever Potato Recipes, 180 Delicious Vegetarian Potato Recipes, and a word search about sharks. I'm sensing a theme. 

It feels like the author has gone online, searched for every potato recipe that they could lay their hands on, and then crammed it all together. There are so many versions of rosti, mash, wedges, and such, all slightly different and filed under different regional names. It's like the old saying Number 37 is the same as Number 18 but with your fingers crossed. There's not really a huge difference between some recipes, but I guess that it's nice to see the different options. 

I didn't follow any of the recipes today. Instead I fried up potatoes, sweet peppers, and onion, added in garlic, italian seasoning and ample gluten free worcestershire sauce, and I very much enjoyed it.

I promise that it's a small pan, and my dinner plate was far from overloaded! I'd had a ham sandwich earlier and proper porridge for breakfast, so I didn't feel the need to add any meat, though I suppose that I could have added an egg.

As for the book, I've picked out a recipe that I'm going to try tomorrow for lunch. It's very basic, but I think that it will be nice and I'll share if I manage to get to it.

Of course, I've got a delivery coming tomorrow, so if I'm cooking it for lunchtime, I'm going to have to be quick about it. I'm working around DH's schedule and whatever bear decides that he's going to do next so I have to pounce when I have the opportunity to use the oven. I wasn't planning on getting a delivery, but there's some offers on, and I prefer to get chilled and frozen food delivered. I'm being picky about which offers I snap up. There's a lot of stuff in the cupboards, but I think that I need to have a rethink. I'm considering going through and working out what I'm realistically going to use in the next three months and donating what isn't going to get used to the foodbank. I bought in loads of ingredients when DH and bear were experimenting with cooking, and most of them were used, but there are still some lurking on the shelf that is unlikely to be used now that we have almost no variation in meals. I am uneasily aware that I haven't touched the opened tub of cornmeal that DH got in for a recipe for two years. I suspect that there are a lot of unpleasant surprises waiting for me. 

On the bright side, at least I'll get the push to be more varied in what I eat. 

I took before and after pics, but I couldn't tell much difference so I'm not posting them. I only was out there for a short while, but I filled a bin bag with nettles which was something. In the process, I got nettled on the face, and I absolutely disapprove of this! Posting here, though, is keeping me going, so thank you.

Writing stuff - I've added another article on research on my blog here. It's amazing how much fun you can have looking around as you try and name your character. 

I'm also putting a link to my friend's video, the one who's writing the Supernovauk music, in with the writing stuff, as it's sort of creative and sharing. This pop song is so sweet, with a story, and I love it. It reminds me of summers when I was younger.

Hugs and good health to all. 

A Few Drops of Rain

We had a few drops of rain this morning. As my back was hurting, I let them chase me in, but I managed a few minutes in the garden.

Posting pictures on here is keeping me going, so I hope that they aren't getting on your nerves.

We're not due for a lot of rain, but at least we're getting some, and I'm grateful for it. The drought is worrying, and it makes it hard to remember that at the start of the year the UK had six weeks with rain every day. I said that if there was a drought then I'd want to see the receipts, and I'm not changing my mind on that. There has to be some investment in water management. It's why I'm still trying to keep growing things (even weeds) instead of just concreting everything - we need places for the water to go and we need plants to keep a little moisture in the air. 

Apart from that, I was stuck with something of a headache, so I pottered very gently. I hope to have more to talk about tomorrow.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Another Five Minutes

I didn't spend long in the garden, and I concentrated on the other side of the house. I went out a little too late in the morning and I was too warm, and my back was hurting too much in the evening, but I managed a little. From this:

To this:

It wasn't much, but at least it was something, and I filled a bin bag with weeds. I also need to practise taking pics from the same place each time to give a fair idea. I may concentrate on this side this week as I need to hack my way through, possibly with a machete, to where the honeysuckle is growing up the drainpipe, which can't be good..

I'm pleased that I made it out to the garden again. I'm hoping that if I keep going, it becomes a healthy habit. 

I also went through my Lyssa Medana email and got rid of something like 1500 emails. There were a lot of old writing stuff that has no bearing on anything, so I could get rid of those. I also got rid of emails that I'd promised myself that I would read and were no doubt full of useful hints and tips, but that were more than two years old. 

Bless mentioned corned beef being expensive in her local shops. I wouldn't say corned beef was cheap but it's not bad for something shelf stable and that is sometimes on offer. That hash had dehydrated onions in as I was hoping to use some up, and I guess the cost was around £4, as it was a big tin of cheap potatoes. It was two good portions that I could have stretched to three, especially if I'd eaten the has with baked beans or similar. Anyway, I have a delivery tomorrow and I'll see what I can come up with for fresh potatoes. 

Hugs and good health to all.