Not sure I can read the bottom line …
I was doing a bit of research for my upcoming visit to the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital and LOVE the signage. Not sure I can read the bottom line though (yeah yeah … ).
All a bit of a blur …
1. Rosebay willowherb alongside the railway track between Crewe and Shrewsbury.
2. A trip to Hay on Wye that involved visiting as many bookshops as we could in 2.5 days. Had to drag OH out of one before he (to quote himself) ‘got into trouble’. Bought a copy of Ann Patchett’s Run, Walt Whitman’s I Sing the Body Electric plus a copy of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress for my mother (don’t ask).
3. In between bookshops we took kittens to the vets to have them neutered; played with kittens, mopped up kitten sick after someone (not us) fed them custard; we walked from Hay to Clyro (which is no great distance, but there is a big hill in the middle with excellent views of the Black Mountains) – then we all tested many glorious cakes at the Granary: including Bakewell tart (more a whore of a gateau), a squidgy chocolate brownie thing that could only be eaten with a spoon and a caramelised (very buttery) flapjack.
4. Wrote the draft of a short story before we went and another when we came back, started reading three books and cut back half the garden.
The back door is open. There is a fly buzzing round the kitchen. Summer is good. And I’m looking forward to Friday when I get my new lenses fitted so that finally I can focus on it all.
The finished article …
TA-DA. Knitted thing is not only finished but I am wearing it. This is important: to extend the knitting/writing metaphor (see previous post) – it’s no good finishing knitted thing/novel-like-thing unless it’s something you want to wear/read.
Black and white
Sorting through an art folder this morning I found some charcoal drawings I did about ten years ago. This is one of them. Something I like about working in black and white is that without colour to identify or define objects, the drawing, though figurative, has the sort of ambiguity about it that I rather like in an artwork. I like this quality in fiction too.
Brooks Glenbrook Saddle Holdall for sale
FOR SALE
Brooks Saddlebag / Holdall in Black.
As new/excellent condition £45
RRP £92.89 (Brooks website).
Suitable for touring and vintage bikes.
Buyer to collect (Lancashire).
Specification here.
Contact: dot7seven at gmail dot com
Interludes (and a little insomnia) …
Well that’s where I was. In bed looking at the cat who was watching me read Lydia Davis. The fireworks have stopped (for now) but my mind starts wandering (never a good thing late at night) so I think I might as well get up and write. Then I’m downstairs in the kitchen and the stove’s still warm and I make some coffee … I won’t ramble on, you (probably) know how it is.
It’s also day 6 / 7 of NaNo (looks at watch). No it’s definitely day 7 and I’ve written around 9,000 words so far. I was quite impressed with the first 6,000 and then got even more excited when I realised how themes and characters overlapped with what I wrote (and did nothing with) last year. So that’ll be something to think about in the edit. But today I stalled, so I gave myself what I call an *interlude* day when I let myself write about anything. I’m not a plot driven writer, ergo I don’t plan either.
However, these *interludes* often get me going again. Letting go of what I’m *supposed* to be writing about frees me up to produce (what I describe as) creative soup; a mix of found things and stuff I see or things that have happened during the day – or sometimes – a pure stream of consciousness response to just being. So that’s where I am today, having an interlude, a break from the story to bring something creative back into it all – and (literally) getting very cold feet in the kitchen at two o’clock in the morning.
