So Much Has been Going On

I fell in love about 8 weeks ago. Love makes you do silly things.  Sometimes things you might regret but you charge ahead regardless. I did that, and then I paused and waited patiently for a sign that this was the right thing to do. A week ago last Thursday, 11 days ago now, I got that sign, and thus began a mad and crazy rush of doing everything on a "must do" list, in order to procure the object of my attentions.

Hmmmm, I can hear you thinking.  What is she on about? 

Well, our little bit of heaven, in the boonies, has been shattered by the encroaching onslaught of 2 subdivisions close by making traffic horrible on our tiny winding road, and then the house being built right up near our back field fence, and rudely facing onto our property. I am no longer in my happy place here, so we have found us almost 9 acres out in Belton that is STILL in the boonies, to move to. It's even got a creek running along one side.

We exchanged contracts at the beginning of last week and are now waiting to close December 9th (possibly earlier if we get all our ducks in a row before then).

Yesterday, we were out there mowing so that we can have someone come out this week to do some testing and make sure that the septics are working as they should (so that we don't need to pay for a new one!) and that we can have a well dug. The current owners gave us permission to mow since the grass is 3-4 feet high and it was either, allow us on the property to do it, or they'd have to. 

My mate, Kwacha, came with us and my granddaughter, Nicolette, met us out there. While Mark mowed a little (the tractor mower deck started smoking so he had to stop. Found out, once we got home, some string or something had wrapped around it and the belt, so he got it sorted and we are going back over, this morning) us girls discussed my vision for this property. They both understood my peace there.

Mark wandered back over to the stream and took some more pictures for me, even as I planned the first project for once it's truly ours - the front fencing and electronic gate with gardenias and roses along the fenceline and then a row or 2 of trees for privacy. We are going to do an indent, so that the gate is not at the roadside but maybe 20 feet or so on the property, so that we can get off the road easily. 

From the beginning, I said that if this property was meant to be ours, it would happen. If it was meant to be it would be ... God has been really good to us and everything fell into place within a week, once we decided to go for it.

Itt's probably going to take us around a year or so to get it ready for us to start building, but come Spring we'll be planting bushes, fruit trees, veggies, loads (and I mean LOADS!) of gardenias and roses, and we'll have 3 bee hives up and going. We've also seen milkweed on the property, so are going to nurture that so as to, hopefully, help the Monarch butterfly population.

 

Getting Ready For Spring

 This weekend, and earlier today, I've been busy starting rose cuttings (yellow and pink) and planting some rooted gardenia cuttings in buckets, ready for planting out in Spring. I still have more to do later (2 more containers of gardenia cuttings rooting in water, to plant) and then will wash out the containers and have hubby cut me some more to start some more rooting. I want to have a load of scented plants ready for Spring, so that we can have them all around the yard.  

I've ordered some bulbs as well, daffs, wood hyacinths, tulips and crocus, and 2 peony roots.

Everything geared towards Fall plantings for Spring bloomings, and Spring plantings for blooming through Summer - all BEE FOOD :) 

We may have lost our bees this year, to that dratted wax moth infestation but it was an experience we have def learned from.  Next year, we will buy 2 more queens and their bees, and they will have plenty of beautiful flowers to enjoy. As well as the trees.

Over the next couple of weeks, we'll be planting some of the new growth from under the fig and cannabifolia (butterfly) trees, in buckets. Again for transplanting in Spring.

I do love my fragrant bushes and trees.

Marketing - Ah The Joys Of!

I'm usually pretty complacent about my health issues but, in wanting to go out and market myself and my books, right now it is such an obstacle and that annoys me no end. I'd love to be going into schools, daycares and libraries to do readings to little ones, but I can't guarantee how I'll be feeling in an hour or so, let alone make plans for a few days or weeks ahead. It would be awful to schedule something, and then I'm having tachycardia or A-Fib, or my blood pressure is way high and not responding quickly to extra meds, and then to have to cancel and let people down. So,what can be done?

Well, some people do lives on Facebook, but I've always hated being on camera, so I've had to be a bit sneaky.  I've been recording myself reading my writings, and putting them on youtube with an illustration pertaining to the content. That way people can listen to me and my creations, without me having to be on camera.

I'm also asking folks who've read my books and poetry if they'd write reviews for me, and then I'm sharing those.

I took a chance and boosted a post on Facebook, with a targeted audience of parents of young children, so I'm now waiting to see if that will help me get my books out to more people.

Finally, I'm asking friends and followers on social media to share my posts so that I reach folks that I don't know personally, or who aren't my followers on social media.

We shall see how this progresses.

What Were My Favourite Children's Books?

 I was an early reader, and from the get-go, I was hooked. Back then, I'm 70 now, there weren't all the paraphrased versions of the classics, so (between the ages of 7 and 11) I read most of the classics by Dickens, the Bronte sisters, Captain Marryat, Anna Sewell et.al. and some more contemporary, like Marguerite Henry and even Louis L'Amour.

My favourites back then were Brighty of the Grand Canyon, Jane Eyre, Lorna Doone, The Children of the New Forest and Oliver Twist. 

My Brighty copy was bought secondhand and was a dingy red hardback, that seemed huge to my 7 year old self, but I loved that book and read, and re-read, it over and over. It had awesome illustrations but sadly I don't remember the illustrator. 

I'm not sure what happened to it, whether my mum may still have it stashed away, since she has shelves full of old Ladybird Books, which were also my favourites and encompassed so many subjects.

My nan had bought it for me, and also regularly spent 2/6d on various Ladybird Books that were about things that interested me. Stone Age Man in Britain was one of them, and on annual holidays with my grandparents we toured Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall visiting historic sites - including burial mounds, caves with stalactites and stalagmites, places in the books that I read, and relics of the Industrial Revolution.

On those trips, on our first night out of London, we'd camp in the New Forest, which obviously fuelled my love of Captain Maryatt's book. In Somerset we'd visit Exmoor, the Doone Valley and Oare Church, the settings of R.D. Blackmore's novel.

I can't imagine not being able to have read those books, they fired up my imagination and created a lust for more, and for exploring the settings.

So, when I had my children, one of my first tasks in their toddler/preschool years was reading to them, and then teaching them to read and write before they started school.

At that point, I fell in love with Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. As did my kids! They loved poking their fingers in the holes. Others on their bookshelf - Goodnight Moon, The Velveteen Rabbit, Thomas The Tank Engine (and I actually spent some time with the Reverend Awdry in Wisbech in the 70s), Richard Scarry Books and the Berenstain Bears books.

I actually used Bears In The Night as one of the books when I was teaching my three to read, because of its simplicity and repetition.

By the time my granddaughters were born (after I'd moved to America) I'd also become a fan of Dr Seuss, especially Green Eggs and Ham although I happily read his others to them, and the children I babysat, because I loved the cadence they introduced children to.

I am still an avid reader, I usually have 2 or 3 books on the go at any one time. My tastes are many and varied, as are the authors that I enjoy. 

The Cover Is Done!

 Today I received the cover image for "Mister McAfferty's Cat" and I am so chuffed, I think it looks great. Blueberry have done an amazing job. Richa, my illustrator, was fantastic.

Now, just a minor detail needing revision for the inside and we will be publishing!. Time to get excited all over again.

A New Month, Fresh Goals And 40 Years Of Marriage

 WOW, August already! This year is just whizzing by. The years keep whizzing by too.

This Sunday, the 3rd, marks 40 years of being married, and it's a def "who'd a thunk it?" as those who were around us in the beginning know. We went through so much, nobody honestly expected us to make it. I don't even think we thought we would, life was so tugh on us back then. But here we are. 40 years after Mark spluttered his way through his vows and took me to be his "AWFUL wedded wife" much to the amusement of everyone who was there. Later those same words showed up in "Five Weddings And A Funeral" but he did it first, LOL.

We're heading to one of my favourite places, the Best Western Riverside, in Dillsboro NC. Our room has a balcony overlooking the Tuckaseegee River. We sleep with the balcony door open, listening to the water rushing below and (nice!) it's high enough that the mosquitoes aren't up there! Last time we were there, I took my exercise bike and pedalled on the balcony but this time I'm giving Mark a break from trying to lug it around for me.

I paid for him to have an online photography course so today we went and got him a new laptop, as his old one was slow and wouldn't have been conducive to him being able to do a lot of what the course modules require.  I also blew money on a programme for me that does children's flip books (so I can sell them to folks whose little ones can access them on a tablet or computer), and does videos from books etc so I'm going to be spending a lot of time learning how to do that.

Today has been a "getting ready" day before heading out tomorrow, cleaning the vehicles, packing clothes and sundries, making sure we have everything covered that needs to go with us. It's been hectic.

Just praying that my body doesn't give me gyp on this trip, I don't want to spoil it like I did my birthday one.

Enjoy your Friday!

It's Been All Go

 We've been busy, busy, busy now for a few weeks. Hubby had been working on the hallway bathroom since we found we could not get the walk-in tub in there.  Even with the door off and the jambs taken down, we were still about an inch short of being able to finagle it. We did a re-think, and decided to put a shower in instead, rather than stress ourselves out bemoaning that which would only be accomplished were we to remove part of a wall to do so. Nope, we already have more on our plate than we need, so ... a shower was the way to go.

Then we found out my grandson was coming to stay, from England. Somehow I couldn't see a 21 year old wanting to sneak through his grandparents' bedroom in the middle of the night, if he needed the loo, so getting the shower fitted (and then the toilet put back in) became a matter of urgency, not an "as we get to it".

Hubby did a smashing job, the shower and loo were in just in time for Jacob's arrival. Nothing special, but functional.

J had a jam-packed time with his sisters, they went hiking, they went to the movies, they went to an outdoor concert, the pool, I think he needed to go home to get some rest! Added to which he helped Mark with some projects while he was here, and he had fun shooting with Mark, his sisters and his cousin. Not something he can do like that, back in England.

We tried to take him to different places to eat to try stuff he can't usually get back home. Volcano Korean BBQ, Ginza Buffet, Milano's and more. If nothing else, that boy was well-fed! All the way from the top of his head down to his tootsies more than 6 feet away!

It may have been his first solo international journey but it seasoned him for future ones - the train broke down halfway to the airport, in England, on his way here. His first flight back was cancelled and he stayed with us another day, then there were delays ... and then he arrived back in England but his luggage didn't! Plenty of glitches.

Mark's been working some more on the bathroom since J left, we have a lot to do but - for now - it's fine as it is. The shelf behind the toilet has to come down to accommodate the around-the-loo shelf stand. That's currently where the sink unit will be eventually, but we've lain a board across the floor and popped it on that since we have to pull that floor up and replace it due to wet rot .

Having got the hallway bathroom functional, we've stopped using the one in our bedroom, which also has the wet rot (the bathrooms back on to each other -and to the kitchen sink area - and it's one continuously damaged piece of flooring) so that it can begin to dry out somewhat. It will be a major project when we get to it.

This heatwave has been horrible and some of my plants have fought a losing battle, despite watering. I have more seeds to plant again soon ready for Autumn but I want to see the worst of this heat over with first.

The bees are flourishing, We've stopped giving them the sugar water (it was fermenting in the heat!) so they are just getting water until the seasons change and we go back to sugar water. Right now they have plenty of pollen and nectar around, so they are happy bees.

Maybelline, our big hen, died recently leaving just Henrietta in that pen and the other chicken, that we were given years ago, in the other, so we have now combined them. That gives us a total of 3 pens that they can be moved between, meaning that the 2 not in use can start to overgrow a little and then we can pop them in there and let them scrabble around in the greenery.

We're going away to Dillsboro (and poss Cherokee) for our 40th wedding anniversary next month, and so we've been taking Brunel and Lightning to doggy day care one day a week for the past few weeks, to get them ready for a 3 day/2 overnight stay at the doggie hotel. Lightning still doesn't have time with the other dogs but has got much better with people and goes in quite happily, and they say he's such a good boy, so snuggly. That's good as for too long he was terrified of people and other dogs and snarly with all! At least now he's ok with people.

Meanwhile, I had a long chat on the phone, with my illustrator for Mister McAfferty's Cat, and we ironed out so many issues. She sent me a pdf of all the sketches for the illustrations, and is now starting the colouring process on them, so hopefully this project will soon be complete. 

Methinks that is all of my update, although I may have forgotten some things (my mind becomes more like a sieve, day by day!).