Quickest of all posts while I take a short break. Now 6K words into the unicorns book (heh, that came out as Unicron to start with!) and four 'chapters' completely written (of 8, possibly 9, see how we go). Pretty relentless but working OK so far. Just hope they like it!

The view of the wisteria from our window. It smells glorious...

... and then it suddenly occurred to me. Transformers: Prime Starscream is a unicorn...

... back to it...

Labels: books, busyness, Starscream, unicorns

Been a busy week. A lot of gardening - lots of flowers this year - and planting out of peas, mangetout and sugarsnaps. Hopefully the forecast chilly nights won't do any serious damage...

Kai's ferritin level is now down to 1,986. YAY! Heading in the right direction and under 2,000 at last. Needs to get down to under 1,000 before they'll revise the schedule, so still some more vensections to come.

Ken has been down in Devon, staying with friends and researching for another book, since Wed (back tomorrow). Kai is taking a long time to recover from the bug. I'm still coughing, but mostly better. Which is just as well, as I have committed to a book...

Another of Chelsey's authors was supposed to write it, but found herself without enough time, so I was asked to step in. It's a little book (10K words) on unicorns. Stupidly short time to write it - next Friday, in fact - due to reasons. Don't ask. But it's unicorns. It's also apparently for a much younger demographic than I've ever written for before, and has to be breezy and snappy (rather than my usual 'staid and calm' style), which will be... interesting, and subject to heavy editing if they feel it needs it. But it's unicorns! How could I refuse?

So will be just a wee bit busy for the next week...

My everlasting orchid is doing its thing again...

(Anyone remember the Tetra of Immortality? Got it around 1999 and it didn't disappear - not die, we never found a corpse - until overnight on Sat Nov 5th 2005. Post from Sun 6th: It's a mystery... The Tetra of Immortality has vanished. Disappeared. Gone without a trace. Not there any more. Possibly disapparated. Lutra suggested it's returned to the Mothership... My orchid seems to be trying to outdo it. It's now flowered continuously since March 2014.)

Labels: books, busyness, garden, orchids

Let's see if I can remember what's happened...

Still coughing and spluttering with the cold/flu bug. It's a really nasty one and hangs on for weeks - and now Ken has it too. Oh joy. But we're coping.

This week has been much as usual. Shopping, much gardening, scanning/burning/filing the first batch of photo albums (next batch are all of Kai from birth to about 4 - 12 albums worth...) and general tidying up. Kim and I went to Almondsbury garden centre on Thursday: only bought a couple of bags of potting compost and a few small bits and pieces, but have now found the perfect conifer for out the front to prevent peeping toms from peering into my lounge. Wrong time of year to plant it though - need to move a couple of other plants first, so will get it in the autumn. It was a fun day, with loads of catching up and laughter (Kim has an evil sense of humour...)

I planted half my sweetcorn seeds (all of them would fill my lower raised bed, and I need half of it for peas, courgettes, marrows and pumpkins: will save the other half for next year) in the greenhouse on Wed, and they're already showing above the compost! Have also hardened off the first lot of pea plants and built the supports for them - will plant them out later this afternoon. Both beds now have copper tape around them, and I bought and applied some slug pellets from T&M which are guaranteed kid-, pet- and wildlife-safe, so fingers crossed everything will be OK.

Camellia in the front garden

The hatched nest of tiny spiders in the greenhouse.

I'm currently re-reading Doris Lessing's Shikasta series. Got it when it first came out (1979: I was at uni) and obviously liked it enough to collect the rest of the books, and mark my favourite bits by turning down the pages (Yes, Sue, I know that's a sin...), but re-reading it now... it has not aged well. That could be because much of it reads like history, depressingly, but despite the cleverness of the writing (for the time) and the prescience displayed I did not enjoy it. Currently half way through book 2, The Marriages Between Zone Three, Four and Five and basically pretty bored. Kai said he wanted to try Shikasta, despite my warnings, so I think he's aiming to try to tackle it soon. Be very interesting to hear his take on it!

Developments. It looks as though the work will take place at the back of the house, so hopefully the noise will be muted.

You might remember I use an Oral B electric toothbrush. It operates for two minutes of brushing before juddering to indicate time's up, and one recharge lasts about 9 - 10 days.

It takes 16 hours to fully recharge.

That's 16 hours for at most 20 minutes worth of cleaning.

We can remotely explore Mars and the outer reaches of the solar system, but can't make an energy efficient electric toothbrush. Something wrong somewhere...

New Doctor Who starts tonight. I'm havering. Peter Capaldi is my favourite Doctor (he's certainly the most alien) but I cannot ABIDE Matt Lucas. He makes me cringe. Sooooo... we'll see.

Labels: Almondsbury Garden Centre, busyness, days out, Dr Who, friends, garden

This is getting ridiculous...

What have we done? Well, tooth was aching over last weekend, then by Mon I was back in pain again. I was able to get a dentist appt on Tues: she tells me the pain is the root dying and drilled the outer rim of the tooth down a little so it doesn't hurt when I bite or chew, which is a great help. (Although I lost half a stone in weight last week when all I could eat was soup. Not the best way to lose weight but silver linings and all that...) It's a back molar, four roots, a big job, but hopefully it'll have settled down by the actual appt for the root canal at the end of the month.

Have spent more time watching DVDs: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, which is a delight: Renaissance, which is a bit of a disappointment, beautifully made, but lacking substance: The Man Who Fell To Earth, which I found better and more nuanced the second time around: all four Pirates of the Caribbean films in preparation for the new one, release date end of May: and tonight, in relation to the new YOPA adverts we keep seeing, Can't Stop The Music - funny and campy and shiny and frivolous, a cute end to the busy week. (Edit: apparently it's the real Village People in the advert!)

We've done a fair bit in the garden...

Pear tree in bloom.

and put up the new sliding door across the pantry (finally! Only taken us 25 years to tidy that corner up. The difference in temperature is quite significant).

And then there was this morning...

I slept very badly last night, kept waking up (last dregs of this blasted bug, I think. The cough is proving very resistant). Had just dropped off again at 8 when a quietish commotion from downstairs woke me up again. Could hear two voices, Ken and a stranger - turned out to be a young man (couple of years younger than Kai) asking to use the phone to ring for an ambulance and his father. He said he'd been at a nightclub and some people had ganged up on him and injected him with something. Given he was in tears, staggering and clutching his stomach we took him seriously and rang for the ambulance ourselves...

It took them half an hour to arrive, and two police cars arrived first, which didn't do much for his paranoia and trust issues. However, the ambulance took him off to the BRI. In the meantime his dad had rung Ken's phone, and they swapped details - the lad wasn't on any medication, was usually no trouble, and didn't take recreational drugs, though when I passed that on to the police officer I got a raised eyebrow and a wry smile.

Not the most salubrious of ways to start the weekend, but we did what we could and his dad thanked us. We're just wondering, why us? Does the house exude homeliness and comfort or something? I know I sometimes feel like mum to the world but I wasn't even the first person he saw.

Eh well. Guess my life is a soap opera.

This has appeared over the house opposite...

What is it? Ken suggested chimney extension: I pondered missile silo, or stage for an audience of giants. Though it's probably just to hold a waterproof cover while they do things to the roof. No doubt we'll find out soon. Just hope they aren't too noisy.

K&K were supposed to be heading out for the day but Kai is feeling pretty rough (he's reached the worst part of the bug now) so stayed home, pottered in the garden, and helped me get the wash hung out: Ken went off Bath-wards with Dawn to get a break from Bristol for a few hours. I had planned to devote the day to Poppy, but as usual when I try to make plans for me something happens to scupper them.

Maybe tomorrow...

Labels: busyness, films, garden, medical matters, strangeness and charm