Another long day

Louis woke me up at 4, but at least this time a- he wasn’t sick, and b – he didn’t fidget when he climbed on to my bed.

I made a sale to My Weekly today for their annual which is good. I only wish Norah would buy some more for Fiction Feast. When I don’t hear from her for a few weeks, it starts to get scary. Sometimes a fertile imagination has its downside.

I finished my Writers Forum  column and sent that off so that I’m now a month ahead. NAWG sent me lots of entry forms and flyers for the festival so that I can start taking those round with me. I also called the Little Ripon Bookshop to get more advertising material for Ripon Yarns. SO far there are just three people booked onto my workshop, but Gill didn’t seem too worried, not yet anyway.

I’ve been having trouble with a story. The theme is north and south and it’s for the new Leeds branch of Liars League. I needed to get it to less than two thousand words. I’ve more or less done that now so it should be ready to submit by Thursday latest. I hope so as I really need to get some new stories done. Other things keep cropping up, like my once a month submission to My Weekly and people sending me rewrites of stories that I’ve critiqued. When things like that happen, I prefer to do them as soon as possible so that I don’t forget.

When I was at Kath’s the other night, she gave me the Lonely Hearts page out of the paper. I had a look through but the ones that looked interesting didn’t say where they were, how old they were, and possibly most important, how tall they were. So I decided to put an ad in and see if I get any replies. I’ve no idea how long it is before the ad goes in, so will wait at least ten days before calling to see if I’ve had any responses. I hope I do better than I did at the speed dating!

I’ve just been tidying up some of the garden which means puling up weeds, trimming grass, cutting back brambles and hawthorn. Louis was out there with me. He kept wanting to play and when I wouldn’t kept finding things to chew that he shouldn’t – bits of pot, and plastic mainly. I had great fun wrestling one piece out of his mouth. Then I saw a frog. The garden is home to literally hundreds, so that’s not unusual. What worried me was what would Louis do if he saw it too. So I had to shoo the little creature back into the undergrowth before he spotted it. I can forgive dogs almost anything, But if he ate a frog….

Another broken night

Louis got me up at half five last night, which is better than four but still not great. I still think he’s lovely though.

I spent quite a while today revising my talk for Heydays on Wednesday, making it more upbeat.  I might be depressed but I don’t need to make everyone else miserable.

The beauty of it is, if it goes well, it’s eminently adaptable to almost any audience. If I  change the readings I could even go back to the same group a year later.

The next instalment of my column is also almost ready to roll, and my north and south story is well underway. Took Louis to Temple Newsam park this afternoon as I needed a break. When we arrived, he managed to run off before John (my lodger) could grab him. Louis likes to play catch me if you can and was dodging around the car park thinking this is great fun while I was having kittens in case a car drove in.

Using a pincer movement, we managed to catch him before any harm was done, but that’s a lesson learned – next time put his lead on while he’s still in the car.

Before dinner, I forced myself to go outside and plant the last sorry looking courgettes and tomatoes. Then I found room for some black kale  and planted out some rudbeckias, and a gloxinia. So long as I feel up to it, I’ll do another hour after dinner and have a go at some of the weeds. The potatoes need earthing up too. Shame I can’t remember which ones are the earlies and which are the main crop!

The bathroom is ALMOST done

Today started early – 4 a.m. when I heard Louis scratching the door. I went down and he’d been sick in the kitchen, not much, probably he was feeling a bit stressed. I mopped it up and went back to bed, but then he started whimpering, so back down I went. In the end he slept in my bedroom, but it wasn’t ideal. Have to see what happens to night.

I finished the report on the Pumpkin stories so that’s ready to send off tomorrow, then did some more work on my north and south story. The trouble is, I’m pretty sure Liars League won’t want it. It’s too much of a womag story.

Decorating the bathroom seems to be taking for ever so I decided to crack on with it today. I finished the last, trick bits of wallpapering (it took hours) then put up some more border tiles – only to find out I didn’t have enough. I have no idea how that happened. I checked the measurements at least three times. Now I’ll have to go back to the shop. Instead of leaving an edge of plaster showing, I covered the edge with wallpaper, lightly stuck on so that I can remove it when I get round to fishing the job. I still have quite a lot of grouting to do too, but I have to say (nobody else will ) that it looks a million times better than it did. Or would if I hadn’t managed to scratch the bath by wearing shoes to get a better grip when stretching for the awkward bits.

I was so worn out (again) I slumped in front of the TV where, luckily for me, they were showing the French Open tennis final. I’m a great Federer fan, but Nadal’s brilliant so I don’t mind too much which of them wins.

It’s raining now so any thoughts of an hour in the garden have to be shelved. I need to have another think about the talk I'm giving on Wednesday to make sure I don’t run out of material.

Two different dogs, two different old ladies.

I spent a very pleasant evening yesterday at a friend’s house, drinking wine and chatting. She’s 85, almost the same age as my mother and could hardly be more different. She’s given me a recipe for date and ginger buns which I plan to have a go at as soon as I find some more energy.

It feels like it’s been quite a long day as I had to get up early for the arrival of Louis, the chocolate Labrador. I was just sticking on a few more border tiles when his owner arrived early.

The difference between this dog and the last one is staggering. He’s been no trouble at all (so far!). I had a bit of trouble walking him though. When he saw two dogs on the other side of the road he pulled so hard to try and get to them, he almost had me on the floor.And the slobber isn't exactly pleasant, but at least he's cuddly and affectionate.

Workwise, I finished my judges report on the NAWG pumpkin stories, plus my short story for the Bridport prize. Now I’m working on a story for Liars league, theme North and South.

Having spent the last half hour moving furniture to accommodate a rug my lodger came home from an auction with, I’m not thoroughly done for, so it’s time for a coffee and a slump.

Hot Hot Hot

It’s like Turkey in July today. Far too hot for me. I went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park but I started to melt and had to leave.

It would be fine if the weather changed gradually but one day it’s cold, the next it’s baking.That's England for you.

I had the men from Window Doctor coming at 11 to fix my French door, so thought I’d get the fiddly bit round the small bathroom window papered.  Of course, they arrived early!

I spent some more time on a story for the Bridport Prize. It’ s  only 2200 words so I’m not sure it’s long enough, but I said I’ll enter so I will.

A neighbour gave me a tray of peppers which, because they want the seed tray back, I had to plant straightaway. Now, a cool shower is calling!

Tomorrow, Louie, a 3.5 year old labrador arrives. I hope he’s not as mad as the last one!

Bridport or bust

Had a lie in, then did some more grouting. After that it was time for lunch and off to my crossword group.

This afternoon I worked on my Bridport Prize entries, completing a piece of flash fiction and a poem. Tomorrow I’ll finish the story I’ve been working on for the past few months. I don’t usually enter but having read recent winners, felt I might as well ‘have a go’. Now for an hour in the garden as it’s cooled down a bit.  

Funny old day.

The people from the council came to check me out for the dog boarding licence. They arrived at 9 and left at gone 11. There were so many rules and guidelines and precautions. Nothing was left to common sense. Frankly, it was insulting and mostly a waste of time.

I had no problem with them wanting to see the house and I was perfectly happy to meet them and have a chat, but it went on so long, I was getting to the point where I’d had enough. I felt as though my smile had been nailed into place by the time they went.

They finally said all was OK, but they’re still going back to the agency again to check out a few more details with them.

I think it’s bureaucracy gone mad.  I’d already read through and checked all the rules and conditions and guidelines before I sent in the application. At least it’s over for now, until they change the rules again.

Once they’d gone I started work on planning next week talk for Heydays, the over 55s organisation that takes over the West Yorkshire playhouse on Wednesdays. I have to talk from 10.30 to 11. 45 but when I tested my material, I ran out after 45 minutes. I had to have a quick rethink. I’ve decided to pepper the talk with short pieces of my writing, some of which are quite amusing (at least I think they are) to get up to the required length. Any time at the end can be used for questions.

I’ll try out the new format a few days before the event. At least once it’s done, I can use the same framework for similar talks.

As part of the planning, I looked back through some of my old fish keeping articles. They brought back wonderful memories of the days when everything I wrote was snapped up or commissioned, my words as well as my photos.

Then a bit of a downer. I finally had an email reply from Devon Country Council saying they’d received my letter and would be getting back to me to discuss the matter further.  

I wrote straight back and told them I didn’t want to discuss it.

I also told them I wasn’t up to talking about it because the depression I’ve battled for many years has come back.

I’ve been doing well since I moved to Leeds and hate the fact that I’ve been dragged back down into the pit thanks to something that rally wasn’t my fault. I only hope I can keep doing things and going out and meeting people. I .learned the last time I was ill how important that is, so hopefully I’ll be able to climb out of this fairly soon. All I know is that talking to Devon Social Services isn’t going to make things any better. What’s done is done. All I want is to make sure that they don’t do the same thing to somebody else, then (maybe) I can  get on with my life.