Fal de rol

I have free time. I'm not used to this.

Yes, I could do spring cleaning or decluttering or any number of useful things, but let's say they don't exist. So I have free time. 

I should be promoting my book, indeed, books, but I don't have the enthusiasm. I could continue writing the novel I'm halfway through, but I'm feeling disillusioned. So I think, "Why don't you dig out novel 2 and publish that, just to have a copy to put on your shelf?" (Having given up all ideas of book selling.)

It took me a while to find it in my erratic filing system but I brought it up and began reading it. And I think it's good. It's in a very different style from my normal, a more serious novel.

It was rejected by several agents and publishers (back in 2013) but I still like it. In fact, I'm quite impressed. So impressed I think I might send it to a publisher again. Back in 2013 they didn't say yes but they didn't say no either. What they said was, "We're still considering it."

They never told me it had been rejected so I think I'm justified in sending it again. It'll probably be different people and who knows what they'll think. 

I had another possibly interested publisher but the female editor left and the new man didn't like it. 

Because I don't expect it to be accepted I won't be disappointed. (Nah, of course I will.) But what the heck, nothing ventured, nothing gained and other such sayings. 

* * * * *

Today I have been out for lunch with Daughter and Daughter-in-law. We went to the Wildflower Cafe, which is also a garden centre. It is much done up and enlarged since my last visit, and I was tempted by several plants, but decided I'd check some out outline first to look for other - I was going to say colours but I was looking specifically at a lilac and they are, I suppose, lilac. (Although Daughter has a white one.)

It was so sunny we were able to sit outside to eat.

How does your garden grow?

Remember George's bench?

The roses at the sides are flourishing though not yet in bloom. The new rose I planted last year behind the bench is growing well and has its first flower - the little pink bud you may be able to see at the back.

I've currently got three long bamboos stuck in there but need a better frame for it to climb up. But I'm so excited this year, watching and waiting for things to grow. I am becoming a proper gardener!

Foxgloves must love our soil as they grow very tall.

And the Aquilegia (Granny's bonnets) just do their own thing.

* * * * *

I've been trying to read bedtime stories to the grandchildren in Italy when we can time it properly. We've done The Twits and Billy and the Minpins, both Dahl, and I picked a book about pirates from the library for the latest story. First episode was okay but last night's got very scary with some horrible sea hags (witches) so we stopped that one. I think it will be Fantastic Mr Fox tonight, or possibly The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark. They're both from my library upstairs of books, in this case, books my own children read. That's the trouble with being a granny: I turn to my old favourites. And fashions change. Books these days tend to be more cartoon-like without such long sentences. Fortunately GrandSon4 adores stories and will listen attentively. GrandDaughter3 is younger and her attention can wander a little, but we have lovely chats as well.

* * * * *

Yesterday I reconnected with an old school friend via Facebook. We haven't seen each other since we left grammar school in 1971. Back then she was Carol Carr and I was Elizabeth Williams, and we were in the same form. It turns out we know quite a few of the same people, through church connections. 

And Vivien - another school friend - her husband has just been around to look at the garden wall we want rendering before I start my rambling roses. And we plan to meet next week for our usual ice cream breakfast.

Did I say obsessed?

Finished my jigsaw this morning.

How many do you remember? How many still exist?

* * * * *

We celebrated yet another birthday in Zac's last night.

And we're trying out a new recipe for lunches in Zac's so today I made a big pan of rich tomato and bacon sauce ready for sausages to be added tomorrow.

Now it seems to be a sunny afternoon so I shall sit and read in the garden for a little while. (Long while.)

The trouble with . . .

jigsaws is that I become obsessed. I started a 1,000 piece one yesterday and have completed three-quarters of it. It's called Sweets of the 60s, but doesn't include the Mars bar. It does however feature a Marathon bar. So I checked: Marathon was indeed introduced in 1968 but Mars bars came into being in 1932!

Things you learn from jigsaws. I would have put Marathon in the 70s.

* * * * *

Lovely walk with Daughter today. I arrived at her house in my cardi accompanied by drops of rain. "Is it going to rain?" Daughter said.

"Nah, it'll be fine," said I, looking anxiously at the sky. Just before I left the house Husband had kindly told me there was a 38% chance of rain, but who believes weather forecasts anyway?

By the time we got to the beach, it was warm and sunny. Cardi off.

Walking back around the cliffs it was very windy. Cardi on. 

Cutting back through the village it was warm. Cardi off.

I can't remember where my cardi was by the time we got back.

* * * * *

Husband has tinnitus, a constant ringing in his ears. I seem to have developed Big Bennitis, an occasional bonging in my ear. It's a good job I'm seeing the audiologist next week.

Check the list

I didn't laze on a lace-covered ottoman, nor did I clean the toilet. I went for a walk with Elder Son instead.

Time with Daughter and family at the beach on Saturday, time with Elder Son and GrandSon3 in the woods on Sunday. I love my life.

The only thing missing is Younger Son and family. 

I have accepted their move to Italy (three years now!) and love my Italian holidays but I'll never stop wishing they lived nearby. 

* * * * *

After weather fit for a sea swim on Saturday we've returned to what has sadly become the norm: wet and cold and miserable. It really can't go on like this much longer. We must be due for some prolonged sunshine soon.

But it gives me an excuse to sit down and do a jigsaw, my first for ages.

* * * * *

Husband dressed for the gym this morning, went downstairs, and realised he'd forgotten his shorts. He was still in his boxers.

I am thinking of sticking a checklist next to the front door.

Are you dressed?
Zipped up (Husband)?
Have you got your keys/phone/wallet?
Do you know where you are going?

Me today

The sweetness of doing nothing. Poor woman. You can see the inner turmoil, the battle she is having with the voice in her head that is saying, "You can't just lie around and do nothing! You should be doing something!"

Will she win the fight? Or will she get up and clean the toilet?

Watch this space.

No Lights tonight

Binge-watched Grey's Anatomy last night until gone midnight. No Northern Lights. Hung on a bit longer but it was getting cloudy, that sort of hazy cloud that gives you hope that perhaps it's not cloud but is really. Went to bed.

But forgetting that disappointment, I went for a swim in the sea yesterday! Swim? Quick dip. It was very cold. Once your legs went numb it wasn't so bad though. Daughter and Son-in-law were braver than me and did have a good swim while I played in the shallows with the grands. 

The beach, Pobbles, was heaving with people. Not heaving in a sunny day at the seaside in Brighton way but in a beach where we're more used to being the only ones heaving.

What Pobbles is usually like

The water monitor said it was safe, by the way. 

Am I the only one?

I had a dreadful night's sleep last night, waking roughly once an hour - but I still managed to miss the Northern Lights!

Twitter and Facebook are full of amazing photos but, thankfully, also full of people asking, "Am I the only person who slept through this?"

A friend took this photo across the bay.

I can now say I slept through the Great Storm of 1987 and the Aurora Borealis of 2024.

Did they make an appearance in your area? Did you see them?

Apparently there is a faint chance they may appear tonight so I shall have to get a nap in this afternoon so I can be up and ready. But it's already clouding over . . .

Why do they hate me?

Why do plants hate me and weeds love me? (I know weeds are plants too!) I am kind to plants and mean to weeds but it makes no difference. The weeds flourish and my plants curl up their leaves and die.

Roses excepted. Roses love me, something I am very glad about. Here is one of the early reliable ones. I didn't plant it but I do love it.

We have this little corner in our garden. It's quite shady and has done a stint as a herb garden and failed, and now just gathers stuff.

I am thinking dragon but Jabblog had an interesting statue on her blog so I am pondering options. I don't want anything too naff - or perhaps I should go over-the-top naff?

I've picked some rhubarb and added it to frozen rhubarb for the crumble I'll cook this evening, and the gooseberry bushes are covered in babies. Last year, one day there were gooseberries; the next they had all disappeared, eaten by birds we assumed. Unless someone climbed over the gate and stole them all!

The grass is greener

Because Monday was a Bank Holiday my cleaner didn't come so I've had to resort to doing my own cleaning! Having got used to it looking nice I can't leave it until a week Monday when Bev returns.

I am so impressed with how much she gets through in two hours. Admittedly she doesn't stop after ten minutes because she's bored, or she's thought of something and needs to look it up, or, indeed, has to blog about it.

It's a fairly desultory clean I'm doing but the sun is shining so don't want to waste too much time indoors.

Husband mowed the lawn yesterday. It's amazing how much better everything in the garden looks with a neat lawn. Which brings me nicely to lawn mowers.

You wouldn't think a program about the history of lawn mowers would be interesting, would you? But it's fascinating. The rotary mower was invented almost two hundred years ago and the model that exists today is more or less the same as the original.

The inventor/manufacturer offered it as an alternative to scythes, and advertised it to men of the household, saying they need no longer get a man in to do the grass: they could do it themselves with the added benefits of getting fresh air and exercise. I suppose in those days people rich enough to afford lawns as opposed to growing their own veg could also afford to keep a gardener on hand.

The program is abridged from The Grass is Greener by Tom Fort.