A day out and other doings...

Boy, has it been hot recently! We're struggling to keep ourselves from wilting - let alone the pot plants and lawn. (Especially since the kitchen was done - we discovered that the outside tap has stuck 'off' and we can't access the connection in the kitchen because the fitter fitted a cupboard in front of it. *sigh* Negotiations are ongoing...now with the small claims court. But that's another story.)

It's been awful to see the huge moor fires around Saddleworth - and even worse to think that some of them were started deliberately. And yet it doesn't look as though we're in for rain any time soon to help the firefighters...

It's been quiet on the Scribbles, but you know me. I'm beavering away behind the scenes, up to all sorts of things, so here's a catch up for you.

Gin Trip!
For my 50th and Squidgeling J's 18th last year, we were bought an Experience; an open top London bus pass, and gin and cakes at Mr Fogg's Gin Parlour. Now, have to say I'm not a huge fan of gin per se. It's far too dry on its own for me. But I don't mind the odd one when it's flavoured with something other than gin, if you see what I mean?

Anyway, we headed off to London on the Megabus - we arrived around lunchtime (neither of us could face the 6.30am pick up, so opted for a later one) and found a rather good picnic spot;

The bus tour was great - we sat up top (well, you have to, don't you?) and listened to Dave tell us all about the London landmarks. The only problem was that the traffic was really heavy, so our initial plan to go all the way to Tower Hill, get the boat back down the Thames and THEN go on to Mr Fogg's didn't happen...we had to get off much sooner to make our designated Gin Time. Think we'll have to go back another day, do the whole bus route. The highlight was seeing Big Ben. Well, not really 'seeing' it;

We had a mooch around Covent Garden, found the gin parlour and - oh my! It was literally the upstairs room of a pub, decked out like a Victorian lady's parlour, and we were waited on by girls in saloon-style outfits and gents in waistcoats and top hats. There was a very steampunk vibe about the outfits, which I loved. We had two hours to enjoy ourselves - which we did!

Cakes, with Showtime and Chorus Line cocktails

Oh, and a couple more complimentary Showtimes,
because we were both celebrating birthdays!

Only slightly tipsy, we had a wander through Chinatown, Leicester Square - and there we found The Lego Shop! And finally saw Big Ben.

It's not a very big shop at all, but it's got some fabulous models built into it - you could've had your photo taken in a life-size red telephone box, but the queue was so long, we didn't bother. The mural on the stairs was amazing - the London landscape, built in 3D.

And on a staircase - difficult to take without any random tourists!

We had a leisurely walk down to Trafalgar Square, along the mall and through Hyde Park, taking in the sights and watching the teeniest ducklings on the lake on the way. 

We got the Megabus back home - eventually. Who knew that Victoria Bus Station departures was in a totally different building to Victoria Bus Station arrivals? Not us...we had to ask the mechanics at the arrivals depot where the outgoing buses were...

Got back late and tired, but it was a lovely day.

Flowers!
We helped to do the flowers for a wedding at church - I knew the bride when she used to come to the church mums and toddlers group I helped to run some years ago, so it was lovely to be able to help out for her big day. The look was country-casual, and we had the most wonderful flowers to work with, courtesy of Fleurs en Fleur. The church smelt gorgeous on the Saturday morning, when - as a new church warden - I went up to see what had to be done specifically for a wedding as opposed to a normal Sunday service. The bride was radiant, and the flowers weren't bad either!

The peonies had the most delicious scent...

Faith.
The lovely Jody Klaire recently posted a picture of a cross that her partner had made for her, and I commented how lovely I thought it was. Em offered to make me one too, and earlier this week, a parcel arrived... Inside was my own beautiful cross, made by hand 'with joy, love and focus'. I was moved to tears.

My gorgeous cross, alongside my Anne Lamott 'bird by bird' reminder

Things have been very busy and a little difficult at this end faithwise recently, and this particular cross reminds me that the way of faith isn't smooth - it has its winding ways, but ultimately, it's still the way of the cross. And you know what, I think I can see the word 'love' written into the loops and swirls when I look at the cross sideways on - the absolute core of my belief.

Review and Interview.
Kingstone has recently been reviewed on Everybody's Reviewing, a blog site run in conjunction with Leicester's Everybody's Reading Festival. Of course I'm biased about my own book (though I try to be objective!) but I thought it was an excellent review, written by Evie who I know wants to be an author herself and was managing the blog as part of her work experience. Evie was also prepping an interview with me for the blog - lots of questions about Kingstone that really made me think about why I'd written certain things into the novel. I'll post a link to that, too, when it appears.

And finally...Writing.
The WIP's progressing - slow but sure. The hot weather isn't really conducive to lots of brain powery stuff, but I've been taking myself off to the garden room where I'm shaded and getting a few more hundred words down every time. It's been lovely to discover a blackbird's nest in a bush beside the garden room, so I keep nipping over to watch the babies through the branches whenever I hear the chirping that means mum or dad blackbird has returned. Those babies grow fast!

And that's probably caught you up with everything... I'm off to enjoy a bit more sun, and I hope you are too - but do take care of yourselves and those around you. 

Bye for now!

A Special Anniversary

Mr Squidge and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary earlier this week - our Silver Wedding.

I wrote about our wedding a little bit three years ago, when I was struck by the passage of time. Somehow, having reached twenty five years, it seems like a Very Significant Point has been reached. Still not a reason to splurge on pressies - though I did buy Mr Squidge some silver infinity cuff links. I have my ring - the one I made in my silversmithing classes - which I asked the curate at church to bless, and I'm now wearing that.

Instead, to mark the day, we decided we'd spend some time together. We visited Calke Abbey, our local National Trust house. It used to be called 'The house that time forgot', and has been kept pretty much as it was found when it was donated to the NT back in the 1980's, to represent the decline of many of the grand country houses. It's unusual in that everything in the property pretty much was there at the handing over - everything from a state bed, given as a wedding present in the 1700's and never used, to a room full of broken chairs and peeling wallpaper.

The grounds are lovely, too - the cow parsley was almost as tall as me, and the lawns were full of buttercups, pink clover, faded cowslips and others I couldn't identify.

Gorgeous wisteria in the kitchen garden

Shame - my sparkly silver shoes don't show up!

The path through the cow parsley

Later we went out for a lovely meal in the evening at the Thai Grand. I don't usually take photos of my food, but the vegetable rose on the mixed platter of starters deserved one!

The only sore point - literally - of the evening was that after rejecting a good half dozen outfits and finally deciding on a dress (as one does, sometimes), I couldn't wear the shoes I usually wear with the dress, because we were walking into town and they had four inch heels. Then I spotted my twenty five year old wedding shoes and tried them on. They'll do, I thought. Still fit, feel fine.

Except by the time we got to the restaurant, I had some very bad torn blisters on my heels. And the very bottom of the shoe heels had dropped off! We assumed the glue had gone brittle with time and somewhere along our route are two little bits of plastic...

But going back to the wedding, it was strange to look through the official photo album again. There are many in those photos who are no longer with us. There are children who have grown up. Heads which have turned a lot greyer - including my own. But equally there are a lot of family and friends still with us - and seeing the joy on their faces as they celebrated with us on our big day made me smile all over again. In fact, I remember my cheeks aching the day after, from smiling so much...

I had a look at the flowers in my bouquet, too - lots of orchids... I remember really wanting lily of the valley, but it was too late in the season.

We started to think about what we've achieved in the last twenty five years. Two kids are probably the biggest thing, though putting up Bob, our windmill, and being published come a close second - they're our other 'babies'! We've enjoyed holidays where we've been skiing, sunbathing, and sailing. (Not all at the same time, I hasten to add!) We've worked on our house and garden to turn them into a home. We've celebrated milestones for ourselves and others.

Wears you out, thinking about it all. I wonder what'll be in store over the next - God-willing - twenty five years?

Nearly there...

Wish I could say the title relates to my writing, but I'm finding it hard going at the moment.

Being a woman of a certain age, hormones seem to be stealing away my concentration. If I'm not completely fuzzle-brained, I seem to be not sleeping, or experiencing wicked migraines (which knock me out for a good 24 hours) or feeling like I just want to crawl into a hole until this whole hormone lark bogs off - for good!

I am trying to work through it...and there are a few things that have given me a boost this week.

The first - I have a kitchen floor! After five months...

You might remember we started our kitchen back in July, (you can see some of the progress here) and we are still only just getting the finishing touches in place, because of reasons beyond our control. Whilst I love a lot of the new kitchen, there's a fair bit of the process and end result that I am less than pleased with - so much so, that if I could turn the clock back, I would never have gone with the company we used. The annoying thing is, you only tend to have a major refit like this perhaps once in your lifetime, so you put the work into looking for a company you think will do the best job and who comes up with what you want, and then it feels as though they let you down. Big time. I'm going to live out the rest of my days knowing that my kitchen is less than perfect...but I am grateful that it is done. Almost. Just touching up of paintwork, realigning the radiator, putting on a new drawer front because the fitter scratched it when he did some glueing... *sigh*

Be positive, Katherine. Be positive.

The second thing to make me smile this week was this: a mini book charm necklace by Sleeping_Beauty5.

You know I already have a StarMark necklace of my own, which I bought when I knew StarMark was going to be published. In fact, MY StarMark ended up being THE StarMark on the cover of the book (with a few clever manipulations by Bink's cover designer!)

small charm on the left, StarMark necklace charm on the right...

I wear it to author talks, especially at schools, and thought it might be nice to ring the changes and get something to represent Kingstone, too. Now, on the cover, you might remember that there is a sun, moon, mountain image?

You can get half sun, half moon charms, but nothing with the mountain bit, so I'd given up. Until I saw Sleeping Beauty's ad on ebay for a miniature Twilight book charm. I contacted her, asked if she would consider making a custom one for me, (her very first custom job, I'm pleased to say!) and within a week I received it.

I'd agreed with Mr Squidge that it should be a Christmas pressie, but I couldn't resist a peek, or sharing Sleeping Beauty5's handiwork with you all...

The book and the charm

And here, to give you an idea of the size and detail possible...

The colour is a little bluer than the real thing, but not by much

Even down to the spine...

And the blurb on the back!

It's been squirrelled away to Mr Squidge's secret pressie stash place (ie under the bed) and I shall probably forget all about it until Christmas Day!

But also, looking ahead to Christmas, we had our last flower night at church. I decided to make an Advent arrangement - inspired by those we saw last year in Germany when we visited friends. Those same friends will be coming over here this year - next week in fact - for an early Christmas dinner. Here's what I created:

So things are looking up - my head doesn't hurt today, I have a new floor in the kitchen, it's starting to feel a bit Christmassy...

Things can only get better, eh?

When NIBS met Trefoil Guild

Last night, I did an author talk - not at a school, but to  the local Trefoil Guild.

I was a guider with the Guide Association for twenty years from the age of eighteen - in fact that's where the name Squidge came from. The Trefoil Guild began as a way of old guides keeping in contact with their units, and has grown and developed to become a section in its own right within the Guiding Movement.

The Trefoil Guild in our District meet at the same place we meet for NIBS (the writing group). NIBS often meets on the same date upstairs, while they meet downstairs.

Because I know many of the current Guild, I was asked to go a Trefoil meeting to tell them about my writing. It just so happened that the date they requested was also a NIBS night, so we combined the two...

It's the first time I've given a talk to a social group. I decided early on that it wasn't just going to be me, talking. I would make Trefoil work, too.

After the 'this is me and how I got to where I am' talk, we tried a few exercises.

Trefoil Guild in their red and beige uniforms

I started with 'I remember...' about school days. As most of the ladies are older, their memories included things like travelling on the utility bus with its wooden seats, but there were other memories that could have been set in any school today. Like being the model that the class painted on a 9th birthday, or going into assembly in alphabetical order. But it warmed everybody's pens and pencils up...

I demonstrated my story bag items, and shared a few of the ideas that the children I've worked with have come up with in the past; the flame-farting dragon who loved baked beans went down well.

There's always a rainbow sock in the bag...but only one!

And then...you guessed it...paint colours! On one table we had a 'Cup of custard' to go with the raisinless 'Raisin Pudding'. On another, a spurned woman burnt the orchid (Burnt Orchid) sent by her lover. 'Benjamin's Buttons' were always green, but he hated green. And 'Bavarian Hops' was going to be developed into an Alpine dance...

Pens, pencils and brain cells hard at work!

The ladies certainly seemed to enjoy themselves, and it gave me the confidence that even in a shorter, evening social meeting, you can still share your writing journey and get people writing for themselves and having fun with words.

And look what they gave me as a thank you - a beautiful orchid, because they'd heard I liked them and mine were often in flower (unlike my mum, whose orchid flowers die back and from then on only send up leaves...)

A tumbleweed blog?

I've not written a blog for weeks. Sorry. Not because I'm deserting the blog, but you know sometimes, life just seems to get in the way? There's so much going on that you could tell people, but actually, there's no time to write it all down? Well, yeah - that.

So here's a very brief summary of what's been happening.

The kitchen: Still unfinished. Still waiting for two doors, a working radiator, a floor, for cupboards to be straightened and niggly snags to be ironed out. But everything works, so we have moved back in and we're gradually beginning to remember where we've put the saucepans and bottles of squash and the Tupperware lids.

Birthdays: I am now the mother of an adult. Squidgeling J celebrated her 18th birthday and we held a joint 'open house' for family and friends to enjoy her 18th and my belated 50th. It was a lovely day, the highlight of which was the rainbow layer cake J made for me. Can you believe that we don't have a single photo of it, though? I was so busy with food and chat, I never managed to pick up the camera...

GCSE's: Squidgeling T did really well, with A's, 7's and 8's (which are A's and A*'s in last year's money!) a C (Spanish. Not a surprise) and B in FSMQ. He's now in 6th form at a new school, hard at work.

University: We're in the final countdown before Squidgeling J leaves home for Bristol. I'm a little conflicted over this - I know she'll be fine, but I can't help worrying. We've been making lists and buying bits and pieces and packing and yes, I have shed a few tears on the QT...

Writing: This year, I decided not to go to the Festival of Writing because of its closeness to Fresher's Week at Bristol. But I HAVE been writing. I'm about halfway into my rewrite of Rurik, doing bits and pieces every now and again. I can't wait to be able to carve out some time every day and work through even more of the old material to make it read even better.

Flowers: I helped one of the other churches in town with the arrangements for their flower festival. Situated in St. Joseph's Chapel, I plumped for a woodworking theme...

Library: We have popped into the library at school, but what we can do is a little limited at the moment because we are waiting for an update to the system in a couple of weeks.

So there we are. A very speedy catch up. Hopefully there will be more time to write blogs in the near future, and I'll manage at least one a week from here on... 

Half a century old

Last week, I was fifty.

I wasn't bothered by it - age is just a number, after all - but it was a funny old day.

For a start, I had hormones. Yes, I know we all have them, but at a certain time in a lady's life, we get even more of the little blighters. So a fair chunk of my birthday was spent tearful and emotional, which made everyone think I was upset about the big 5-0, when it was simply my body choosing the worst possible moment for an outbreak of hormonal angst.

Secondly, it's exam season here and both Squidgelings are in the thick of it, so no huge celebratory get-togethers planned for the sake of revision. Squidgeling T had an exam in the morning, so all presents were delayed until he got home just before lunch. In the meantime I went shopping, made a couple of appointments, and opened some cards.

I had suggested that it would be perfectly okay for folks not to buy me anything, because I am very blessed and didn't need anything. But, as is the way, I was treated to lots of goodies from various friends and family who decided to spoil me on my 'big' birthday;

Basket of rainbow flowers, supplied by the lovely
Madeline's Gifts and Flowers

Gardening featured...and yes, that is a basket of chocolate frogs

Of course there were books...to read and to write in

New cycling gloves after the old ones perished (only lasted me twenty seven years)
a personalised bracelet with my name - spelled correctly!
rainbow mat, and my super startled sheep.

Other presents arrived over the course of the day - a writer's toolkit, a hamper from our financial consultant, potful of cornflowers, a pottery heart, beautifully scented lavender and bay candle, and a 'vintage' t-shirt which states '1967 - all original parts' on the front!

Family Squidge went out for lunch at The Griffin Inn, Swithland. I don't usually take pictures of my food, but I ate the best lamb dish I have ever tasted. I swear there was half a sheep on my plate... Lunch was definitely the highlight of my day. So nice to spend time with my family, eating good food and having a laugh in lovely surroundings.

Birthday drinks - the wine glass isn't really THAT ginormous!

Half a rather delicious lamb...

Family Squidge

All told, it was a pretty low key day, really. I don't feel any different - in fact I feel a lot better than I did, because the hormones have made themselves scarce for the moment! - I don't look any different, (I'm already grey!) and life isn't any different to what it was before.

Except that I'm fifty.

Or - as one person put it - twenty five for the second time.

Hey ho. Here's to my Fabulous Fifties, and whatever comes next.

Being lazy - again!

The last week has been totally hectic because of the church flower festival. The only writing I've managed are blogs about the festival over on a different blog site, so forgive me if I send you over there now to have a peek at what's kept me SO busy!

Having said that, I'm hoping to get a bit more of Kingstone drafted before I go to York for the Festival of Writing  - yes, it really is that time again! - and the evenings are drawing in, so I can cosy up in the lounge with my notebook and pen...

There's also the StarMark competition - got to find a winner!

So I'll leave you with storytelling in flowers for now and come back to you when I'm writing 'properly' again.

What I've been doing - but on another blog!

Been a bit busy recently...here's what I've been up to! Flowers, flowers and more flowers...

A flowery moment...

Been too busy to write over the last week, as I've been preparing for two separate holidays, helping Squidgeling J to make an infinity dress, celebrating Squidgeling T's birthday AND decorated church for a wedding!

Thought you might like to see what we created for the wedding, so here's the link to the St Mary in Charnwood Church flower blog, with lots of pictures of gorgeous flowers to ogle at...

Blog posts will be a bit thin over the next couple of weeks, but I'll tell you all about my adventures soon - I promise! In the meantime, make the most of this warm weather in the UK (summer might FINALLY have arrived!), enjoy your holiday time wherever and whatever you get up to, and fellow scribblers - keep scribbling!

Stop the world, I want to get off!

The first week of June - gone! And not a blog post to show for it, all because I'm spectacularly busy at the moment with preparations for our church Flower Festival in August, a family holiday some time in July, Charnwood 2016 and a weekend with my old uni friends. Let's take 'em in turn...

The Flower Festival. I have still to create my final design plans for the three different hymns I'm representing. I'm trying to do something a bit modern for the entrance, which has meant poring over the internet for the mechanics I need to make it happen. Finally found them, but I'm still not sure I've got things clear in my head. I also take responsibility for producing the programme, so I've been typing up various hymns...

Family holiday. The Squidges are going sailing! Abroad! On a proper sail boat that we learn how to be crew for! Both Squidges Jnr and Most Jnr have been on a sailing course with Scouting, and Mr Squidge used to windsurf so they've all got a bit of an idea what's expected. Me? I've done nothing. Methinks my idea of lying about on deck, sunbathing, while the rest of the family make the boat go, is a bit of a dream...

Charnwood 2016. This is Leicestershire Guiding and Scouting's International camp, held once every five years. I've been to every one since the age of 12 (2001 was a brief visit rather than camping, as T was only two weeks old at the time; he'd arrived early!) I'm on the faith team this year, so I have been sourcing simple liturgies for morning and evening prayers, making special faith team neckers to identify us, preparing mountboards to be decorated during camp, and filling in endless forms...

Reunion. It's quite a few years since we all got together, and we're off to Banbury for a couple of days of prosecco, nibbles and catching up! So there are a few foody items to purchase before I go, clothes to pack (wouldn't you know that this glorious weather isn't going to last for us?), and the family to organise in my absence.

You will notice that there's nothing about writing here at all. I'm still in a bit of a dry spell and wordless when it comes to stories, and we're still waiting for the paperback of StarMark to hit the shelves in the UK. The good news is, the paperback's out in the US and it has been selling, so fingers crossed it will be a similar story on this side of the pond.

I also have a couple of knitting projects to finish for friends' babies...a hexie quilt to complete...the ironing pile to tackle...an author page to set up for Amazon US...and everything 'normal' and 'routine' to do in the house.

Maybe things'll ease off around October?

Creativity continues...

I said the other day that I'd been creating. Well now, I can share some photos, because the baby jackets have arrived at their destination! And there are a whole load of other things I've been playing with to tell you about too... Here we go:

Knitting!

Two cute baby jackets...

The multi-coloured one was the mum-to-be's choice of wool, and I found buttons in exactly the right shades of orange, green and turquoise to complement it.

This one was a pattern I saw when I was choosing fabric for my next patchwork project (more of that in a mo). I fell in love with it and decided to knit it as a surprise. I've now got to knit the helmet and bootees that go with it, and two more of the same for another friend who's expecting.

Crochet!

I follow a blog written by Liz (who I used to sing with in the choir when we were both much, much younger!) called In Stitches Daily. Liz is a fellow crafter - spins her own wool, knits, crochets, sews clothes and furnishings - and she happened to write a post about crotchet and how easy it was after I'd commented on something different. Crochet is something I've never mastered...but Liz inspired me to have a go. I knew a basic chain, double and triple stitch, but that's it.

I rooted out a very ancient Twilley's 'How to crochet' book for instructions on how to make a granny square and went for it.

Couldn't understand a bloomin' word.

Resorted to the internet and found some pictures, which helped, and began to crochet. It took a few goes, but I'm pleased to say that I've knitted two Granny squares. Hooray! Quite what I'm going to do with them, I have no idea...but I now know how they are made. Hope Liz'll be impressed, anyway!

Patchwork!

I suppose this bit ought to be called Patchwork Tales Part 4, because it deals with the choosing of materials. I'm going to be doing a course to make a confetti quilt and I've always wanted to make a rainbow quilt...so I've bought fabric that I hope will work to do both. If you want to have a look at one version of a confetti quilt, take a look at this one by Lady Havantine... The example in Quorn Country Crafts is a white base too, but I have an idea to try it with black, in the hope that it will look a bit like stained glass...

Here are the colours I've chosen so far, all cut into 5x5 inch squares to match the charm pack size which the course uses.

I'm hoping that seven colours will be enough, but the beauty of doing the course on site at the shop means I can nip out and choose something extra if I'm short.

Flowers!

Today, we decorated church for Easter, so I even managed a flower arrangement... Here's the link to the St Mary in Charnwood Flower blog, though it won't be posted until Easter Sunday, as I like to keep the flowers a surprise until the first Easter service...

Now all I have to do is finish off the odds-and-sods socks that I was knitting prior to the baby jackets, and I'll be all creativitied out!

Playing with flowers

I know - I should be writing. But I'm struggling with something I really WANT to write - the story just isn't clear at the moment - so I'm revisiting Rurik. Unfortunately, that made me a bit despondent, because he needs  lot of work to bring him up to StarMark and Kingstone standard.

So I did something different and completely non-wordy instead.

Squidgeling T enjoys musical theatre - performing it, that is. Over the last couple of years, we've watched his confidence grow on the stage, resulting in a lead role in the musical We Will Rock You (performed last week at school), and a small solo part in Grease, performed by a local amateur youth musical theatre group - ACT One.

ACT One spend a lot of time raising money for their productions, and one of the ways they do that is to hold a raffle at every performance. To support them, we've donated raffle prizes, as do a lot of other families and friends of the young people.

This year, I offered a flower arrangement. I wanted to make it Grease-themed, but not so much that it was intrusive. Yesterday, I headed into town to find some inspiration...

The obvious choice was to use pink flowers for the Pink Ladies. But how to incorporate the T-birds? I toyed with the idea of finding a 'Greased Lightning' car, but that's pretty specific and I don't think Matchbox would do a 1950's car now... On to other ideas, then.

I'd had a sneaky peek at the set when I was helping front-of-house on Wednesday evening, so I knew there were black and white steps on stage. This led me to black and white checked ribbon and black and white tissue paper, and then I found images of the text stitched on the back of the jackets worn by the cast...

Sorted!

Here's what I created this morning;

For the flower arrangers among you, I used baby pink roses, white-edged pink spray carnations, gypsophila, a bit of ruscus, and ivy from my garden. They were arranged in a flat dish on top of a plastic circular bowl filled with black and white tissue paper, with checked ribbon tied around the join. I added a couple of 'badges' stuck on the top of barbeque skewers; my nod to the musical without it being overpowering.

Let's hope that on Saturday, it encourages folks to buy the raffle tickets, because then the young performers will be able to continue putting on their amazing shows and concerts.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Not blogged for a week - blame it on the usual pre-Christmas *stuff*, plus a funeral and lots of social events (not many of them mine, I hasten to add...but I do a good impression of a taxi driver for the family!)

There WILL be a blog soon, though - because tomorrow, I'm going to be an angel.

(Stop sniggering at the back. Yes, I did mean YOU!)

In the meantime, have a look at the blog I wrote about the Christmas flowers we arranged today at church, because I'm off to choir practise!

See you soon...

November - the month of too much to do

There's something a bit depressing about the latter half of November. I don't think it's the nights drawing in, because I love shutting my curtains and cosying up in the lounge with the telly and a blazing fire. I don't think it's the fact that we've had Remembrance Events - in Loughborough, that's counteracted (for me) by our annual town fair, with lights and music and candy floss. Although once the fair's been, my thoughts do turn to Christmas...

And then it starts to get flippin' busy! My mum often tells me off for taking on too much for Christmas, because when I say 'yes' in October, I forget that I have to plan and action things in November to make them actually happen in December. Between now and Christmas Day, here's what's on, (assuming  I've remembered everything):

Black tie dinner with friends
Church council social
Two music concerts (in different schools)
Four choir practises
Three sketch rehearsals
Two carol services (featuring both said sketch and choir items)
A creative writing day for Y6 children
Helping at 'Experience Christmas' (held at the primary school in our parish)
At least one trip to Yorkshire
NIBS Christmas session
Editing StarMark (before the 14th Jan, so I've got a little bit longer...)
Outline plan for creative writing session for ESOL students at the College
Decorating church for Christmas
Two Christmas Eve Crib services

Add on top of that the present-buying, food-shopping, card-writing and house-decorating that is part of my normal Christmas... I ought to say no, but...

So if you see me and I look a bit frazzled over the next few weeks, you'll know why! How's your Christmas preparation going?

A second blog

You're probably aware that I do a bit of flower arranging...and I often blog about it here. I've blogged about things like the Miss Piggy Rose, and Lonely Bouquet and our church's Flower Festival for example.

For some time, I've been toying with the idea of setting up a separate blog just for flowery things. And as most of the time the displays are created for church, I've set one up as 'Flowers at St Mary in Charnwood Church, Nanpantan.'

I'll probably still post here about flowery things - they won't suddenly disappear from the Scribbles! But the second blog is more of a reference site I suppose; a record of ideas and themes and inspiration for other interested flower arrangers and church flower teams, rather than an ongoing conversation like the Scribbles. I'll aim to blog at least once a month and build up the Flower Festival pages over time.

So if you want to pop over and see the many ways we decorate our 'little church in the woods', just click HERE...

Forgot an important birthday...

The big day completely passed me by... no card, co cake, no celebration of any kind.

Ooops. Poor Scribbles.

Because - can you believe it? - Squidge's Scribbles has been up and running for 2 whole years as of last weekend! Two years!

Happy Belated Birthday, Squidge's Scribbles!

And what a year it's been... all 135 posts of it!

As regular readers will know, this blog was set up first and foremost because I'm an author.

The last twelve months have seen the publication of several short stories in KlicBait Volume 1 and A Seeming Glass, as well as the second book of Granny Rainbow stories - More Granny Rainbow. I've been on author visits, held reading sessions at the library and helped to set up a local creative writing group, NIBS (otherwise known as the Nanpantan Improving Body of Scribblers!) I went to the Festival of Writing in York again, and raised money for charity through auctioning my books for Comic Relief and Authors for Nepal. I continued to write bits of flash fiction and shorts, posting them here on the blog for you to enjoy.

The highlight of my authorly year was the news that, after spending last November editing StarMark (I did NaNoEdMo instead of NaNoWriMo), the novel was picked up by Bedazzled Ink in the US and will be published this autumn.

I discovered that I like writing 'nasty' and after a setback on Ani's story, I began a brand new story as part of my 100 days of writing challenge I set myself (working title - The King Stone) and I'm delighted to say that after 65 days (out of 76 days since I began) the s****y first draft is almost finished!

Oh - and the Scribbles won their first award!

But it's not just writing that I blog about. You're just as likely to find me writing about home and family. Like the problems we had with the new bathroom, or when the stove was fitted. Or I'll tell you about flower arranging with toilet rolls, or wedding bouquets or the Miss Piggy rose... Being a photographer's model... Relaxing with some colouring in... My skiing holiday... Perhaps even what Mr Squidge has been up to...

And you - lovely reader of the Scribbles - you've probably been with me for a goodly chunk of the past year, haven't you? There are over 50 of you officially following this blog, but I know many more dip in and out to see what's going on in my life. It's still a surprise to me when someone says they've seen my latest blog post, especially if I don't know they 'follow' me - it can feel sometimes like I'm just writing this for my own pleasure. (Which I probably am because it's my on-line diary!) I forget that I've invited you in to share it as well...but I love the fact you're here! Thank you for still being interested.

So - Happy Birthday to the Scribbles, and let's see what this next year brings to celebrate around the time of a third birthday...

Gardening...

In the twenty years since we've been in our house, our garden has undergone some changes. The biggest was just after T was born - a friend who is also a landscape gardener helped us to revamp the rather boring, straight-pathed and plain-grassed area into something with a bit more movement in it and a stone patio, so the kids could play out even when the grass was wet.

When it was first done, it looked amazing. After nearly fourteen years, it's in need of some TLC.

Thing is, I love my garden. I just don't like gardening.

I like being outdoors - preferably reading a good book in the shade or soaking up a few rays. I really envy people with lovely gardens. I know you have to put the effort in, but gardening just doesn't float my boat. I don't think I have any shade of green in my fingers at all. I do not like being outdoors if it means I'm getting scratched or stung or prickled by various weeds when I try to pull them out. It's so demoralising to spend several hours weeding a border, only to see that the next time it rains, up the weeds pop again.

Mr Squidge keeps saying it looks lovely - really full borders. Thing is, I know what they're full of...

Perennial forget-me-not. You just can't get the roots out. The other year, I hoed all the tops off, hoping that would weaken the roots. Did it heck! I have a forest of the damn things behind the climbing frame this year...

Brambles. These I don't mind so much, as wild blackberries are always so full of flavour and we make a rather lovely blackberry wine with them. However, I don't want them everywhere.

Stingers. Sneaky little... You can guarantee they'll find the only bit of unprotected skin to leave their mark.

Bindweed. Just...ugh.

Grass. Not the lawn sort - the feathery kind that grows in-between everything and you can't get the roots out.

*sigh*

I do try. I dig and fork and pull and tug, but never seem to make an impression. Perhaps I just need to accept there'll be a certain amount of wildness in my garden and enjoy it anyway...

Lilac and apple blossom at the end of my garden...