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| Just to remind you that The Sea Garden will be out soon. Here we see the tide creeping in towards the saltings as a crow flaps past, wings almost brushing the mud. |
Another Friday and practically nothing
to talk about. As I have hinted, Marcia has started on the new book.
Now it is definitely 'head down' and so we do nothing unless she
suddenly realises that she needs to visit somewhere where she feels
her characters are headed.
One of the worries that Marcia had has
gone: would she be happy writing here, up in the trees? Well, the
answer is a resounding 'yes' and now we are settling down into the
old familiar pattern – even if it is about six weeks later than it
usually starts (blame the move or the weather). Up, dress and
breakfast (or, sometimes, breakfast and dress) then she disappears
into the sitting room, settles down beside the sliding door onto the
balcony, fires up her laptop and away she goes. Meanwhile I retire to
my study (now downstairs) and get on until I here a plaintive cry
which indicates that the time has come for a caffeine rush which, of
course, means some coffee. That may well be followed by some
chocolate to keep the energy levels up a bit (and if you follow me on
Twitter I am sure you know what follows that).
Lunch follows when Marcia has finished
writing for the day and may be anywhere between one and three – and
it may be at home (plan A) or at the pub (plan B). Since she really
settled down to the hard graft of taking a book out of her head and
getting it into the computer, plan B happens less often. If she has
failed to appear by one, I start work on Plan A (which means I will
wander down into the village, buy some bits and bobs and will be on
standby to cook when required). It is very different from before when
the distance to the shops was such that we had to plan things ahead
for days and days. I must say I really enjoy the spontaneity. Then,
after washing up and if the weather is not too revolting, Marcia may
well say, “Can we pop into X now?” or, as it may be, “Can we go
up onto the moor to Y?”.
That has happened twice this week and
so we have had afternoon tea in both the Two Bridges Hotel and the
Moorland Hotel near Haytor. I suspect that both may well get a
mention.
The problem this time is that the
writing process is going to be interrupted by the various events that
accompany publication day. The ones that have been agreed are listed
at the top of the column to the right but I suspect there will be others so do keep an eye on the
list.
Now, whatever am I going to write about
next Friday? I really do not have a clue.
Jackdaw Jottings
These guys are driving me gently mad.
All I want is a decent picture that shows you the details of their
colouring. To date I have failed miserably. The problem is that when
they are outlined against the sky, they end up as silhouettes and
could just as well have been cut out of cardboard.
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| Perched on a television aerial as the sun sets, these two appear to be discussing the neighbours. 'You would never believe this, dear, but young Harold has started to fly out with that Chloe and we both know she's no better than she ought to be'. |
What is infuriating is that there was
one playing around on some guttering – swinging upside down and
then hauling himself (herself?) back up to peer (seemingly short
sightedly) into the gutter, grab something which looked like moss and
then started swinging again. The problem was that for once (and this
is so rare) I just didn't have a camera with me. We shall have to see
what happens next week.
