Hubby and I went down to rural Danehill in West Sussex last Saturday, where Youngest Sister and Brother-In-Law run the village store, to celebrate the village Tree-lighting ceremony - you know - like Trafalgar Square but on much much smaller scale. Of course Saturday night just had to be the coldest of the winter so far so it was a very chilly group of us that stood singing Christmas carols as the tree-lights twinkled and frost paved the way for snow. It was sooooo lovely, though; thousands of stars, everyone muffled up in gloves and scarfs and hats, mulled wine and warm mince pies doing the rounds, excited children tearing about, Father Christmas ho-ho-ho-ing in his jolliest fashion; it was like stepping back into that old Judy Garland movie "Meet Me In St Louis" and really brought the Christmas spirit into all our hearts. The only thing missing was the snow but that came in droves on Sunday morning when Neice # 2 convinced Hubby and I that we should go and meet her horse Billy.
Now I absolutely love horses. I think they are gentle giants with the lovliest liquid eyes and softest velvet noses and sweetest natures imaginable. Unfortunately I am also horribly horribly allergic to them so that, even though I took two anti-histimines and kept my distance from thoroughbred Billy, I felt my sinuses clog, my eyes stream and my chest tighten from the second I entered his snowy field and watched him canter towards Neice # 2 and regard her with complete and utter adoration. By the time we got back to the house, I was in the first early throws of asthma and had to get very liberal with the inhaler. I did not actually feel a hundred per cent again until yesterday morning, but it was worth it to see the look of pride on her face. The things aunties do for gorgeous neices!
Hubby greeted me last night when I got home with the excellent news that his shares had sold so we can actually afford to go out and do some Christmas shopping soon. What a relief. I know we'd have coped somehow without them if we'd had to, but it does take a certain amount of the burden off knowing we can do it without breaking the bank, now. We still can't go as mad as we did a few years back when we remortgaged but we can afford to give ourselves a Christmas budget which makes the whole thing a lot more enjoyable. And guess what? We have got Eldest Grand-daughter and Youngest Grandson staying with us this weekend and I am sure we will take them into Christmassy Croydon on Saturday. It will be interesting to see how they react to the singing Christmas tree in Centrale and moving mannequins in Whitgift after Eldest Grand-daughter's clear distaste last year. Hopefully she will not be averse to going to see Santa although, I have to confess, the grotto in Whitgift is a sad disappointment after last year's winter wonderland. I guess even Santa must be feeling the pinch a bit!
And as Christmas is now less than a month away, I have got to say how very impatient I am for the Christmas break to begin so that I can write and write and write and work on my new project. Who knows - maybe next year, I really will be able to cut the hours at the day job and do what I am meant to be doing with my life. Well - I can live in hope, can't I? Maybe I will drop Santa a letter - how should it go? Oh yes ... Santa baby, forgot to mention one little thing.......
Wednesday 26 November 2008
Thursday 20 November 2008
WOO-HOO!!!!!!
Guess what, Blogspot Buddies? I am writing again! What a huge relief; I was beginning to think I'd lost it forever. I am very excited about my new work in progress because it is one of those projects that seems to come from nowhere, yet feels as if it has been waiting somewhere at the back of my mind forever. If it carries on developing at the rate it currently is, I could be sitting on something amazing. And this all came about because I did something I haven't done in ages - I sat back and looked at the whole picture.
As you know, I have had a couple of very dificult years in a row - my health, Mother's health. personal stuff going on in our lives (including the arrival of three grandchildren after having just one grandson for ten years), the job situation and so on. Lollypop came along and took on Yucketypoo, taking me by surprise when they then commissioned two sequels where none had ever been planned. The whirligig of having that published, the ups and downs of creating the sequels so that they were as fresh and original as the first one and tying that entire package together has probably made for the most difficult time in my entire writing career. As I got more and more tied up with Yucks 2 and 3, everything else in my writing life kind of fell by the wayside. In short, I felt completely at a loss. Where I'd been tootling along my entire life writing and publishing the odd poem here, article there and meeting the odd commission, all of a sudden there was a pre-destined path I had never expected or envisaged and I just didn't handle it terribly well. The harder I tried to find the writer I once was, the less likely it became that I would. I think maybe I even burned myself out to a point.
The other week I resigned from being group host to the Young Children and Haiku groups on Writewords because I was finding it more and more difficult to give them any degree of attention. I haven't quit Writewords, you understand; I have just taken a breather. Around the same time, I signed up for NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month) where the gauntlet is thrown down for writers of all levels to come up with a 50,000 word novel between November 1st and November 30th. If they achieve it, they get a certificate and if they don't - well they can always try again next year. I will not be getting the certificate this year. A week and a half in and I suddenly saw a new possibility and here I am, three weeks in, rediscovering within myself what it is like to be an active writer again. And I am quite happy to continue along this path for as long as this new work will have me. I feel suddenly free and unfettered. I am writing again because I want to; no more, no less. It is a good feeling.
I won't give too much away about the new project, just in case it changes its mind and puts itself on the back burner again. But I will come back to my blog more often now that I have got something worth telling you about.
Catch up soon.
As you know, I have had a couple of very dificult years in a row - my health, Mother's health. personal stuff going on in our lives (including the arrival of three grandchildren after having just one grandson for ten years), the job situation and so on. Lollypop came along and took on Yucketypoo, taking me by surprise when they then commissioned two sequels where none had ever been planned. The whirligig of having that published, the ups and downs of creating the sequels so that they were as fresh and original as the first one and tying that entire package together has probably made for the most difficult time in my entire writing career. As I got more and more tied up with Yucks 2 and 3, everything else in my writing life kind of fell by the wayside. In short, I felt completely at a loss. Where I'd been tootling along my entire life writing and publishing the odd poem here, article there and meeting the odd commission, all of a sudden there was a pre-destined path I had never expected or envisaged and I just didn't handle it terribly well. The harder I tried to find the writer I once was, the less likely it became that I would. I think maybe I even burned myself out to a point.
The other week I resigned from being group host to the Young Children and Haiku groups on Writewords because I was finding it more and more difficult to give them any degree of attention. I haven't quit Writewords, you understand; I have just taken a breather. Around the same time, I signed up for NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month) where the gauntlet is thrown down for writers of all levels to come up with a 50,000 word novel between November 1st and November 30th. If they achieve it, they get a certificate and if they don't - well they can always try again next year. I will not be getting the certificate this year. A week and a half in and I suddenly saw a new possibility and here I am, three weeks in, rediscovering within myself what it is like to be an active writer again. And I am quite happy to continue along this path for as long as this new work will have me. I feel suddenly free and unfettered. I am writing again because I want to; no more, no less. It is a good feeling.
I won't give too much away about the new project, just in case it changes its mind and puts itself on the back burner again. But I will come back to my blog more often now that I have got something worth telling you about.
Catch up soon.
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