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!).

Major Decluttering And Other News!

My new stand-up recliner is in boxes in the living room, and hubby's new adjustable bed arrives tomorrow, so today is the "sort out the bedroom" day before tomorrow morning, when it becomes the "move-out-the-king-size-bed" and "move in the new stuff" major effort. Today is clearing shelving units and organizing in chests of drawers (yes, we're still pack rats but our messes will be hidden from view and -for awhile - organized.

I definitely do not need AVON papers from 10-15 years ago, LOL.I had a drawer full, all packed neatly in large envelopes. AVON memorabilia, that I'll be dropping off on team members the next time I go to Fountain Inn.

I reorganized my "reliving my childhood" into a plastic drawer-type tub, Bunty annual at the bottom, yarn, knitting needles, pins and darning needles oon that, and topped by my 2 Sindy dolls, some Sindy clothes and accessories.

Hubby found blueprints from a class he took when he was working construction in Florida in the 90s!

Damp-cloth wiping down everything and will lemon polish surfaces later.

The dogs aren't sure what's going on with all this hustle and bustle. We're hearing some whimpering, as they are not in here with us, and want to be. There's no room. Ha! Decluttering actually means there's a lot more clutter for a bit - I have piles of stuff on the bed to be put away in a new place. 

Hubby is about to take some stuff to donate to Miracle Hill, and pick up the dresser that he bought from there, yesterday.It has a (separate) thick glass top that our grandson, Dylan, will be coming over tomorrow to help him get off the truck. The drawers part should be ok for him to slide off by himself. That'll be replacing the shelves we currently have the tv on. Dylan coming over also makes a good excuse for him and Lily to have brunch somewhere with us. Good family time.

In other news, I've started on a new book. "That's God!" It's in its early stages yet but I'm hoping it'll come together nicely over the next few weeks. "Mister McAfferty's Cat" is proving a nightmare to have illustrated. I'm doing so many revisions, and getting bombarded by originals being re-sent, without the revisions or my notes being taken into account. Very frustrating. It's pushed my blood pressure up a few times as I've struggled to go back through old emails and pictures to see what I've said and done before, only to find that none of it seems to have been taken note of. UGH!

I was frustrated earlier in the week by the idiots who've been building a home behind us. They seem to like upsetting our bees. First time they parked a huge truck by them, left the engine running and proceeded to unload materials, where they could have parked infront of the house instead of alongside our fenceline. They were there a couple of hours. Poor bees were well stressed. Then, had another machine, maybe a mower or something, and blew sand all over the hive where he could have driven it the other way and blown it away from them. Again, stressed them out.I drove down to complain but he stayed on the far side of the house so as not to deal with me. 

My granddaughter and 2 great grands are on their way back from their vacation to and from Niagara Falls, with all the interesting museum and fun things along the way. From the photos she's been posting, they've had a blast!

Also, found out my grandson, Jacob, is coming to stay in a couple of weeks, all the way from England! Haven't seen him in over a decade, and he just turned 21! Excited, and so looking forward to it!