There are now three ebooks out there with my name on them.
You can find the links for them on the side bar and they are available for sale across the globe.
All three are also available in paperback, with ‘Fragments’ going live and properly in the next few days.
Fragments is fiction, with the two others being non-fiction.
Over the last eighteen months, I have been working on this.
‘Fragments’.
So far, all of my writing projects have drawn upon the allotment and have been non-fiction. Writing about the allotment, was wonderful. I enjoyed it immensely; like the allotment, it was organic, gave me a huge sense of pleasure and fulfilment whilst teaching me some very valuable lessons. I am proud of the two gardening books, I would not have written them or unleashed them-yes, like The Kraken-if I didn’t think of them as having value or a be part of me, for that matter. There may still be further gardening books; I will never say never. I have plot cook book scheduled for later this year, so allotmenteering is still very much part of my world and the contributions that I want to make to the universe. (Thanks Humanistic approaches to counselling, I have been listening, yes.)
Fragments is a bit-well, very different. This is fiction, and my first foray into this corner of Indie publishing. The process has been an interesting journey; there were good days, bad days; the notebooks got hauled to Brighton, to Italy and to Lanzarote.
I wrote whilst sunburned in the Canaries, whilst my feet were swollen having trekked to the Vatican. I wrote, in between lessons at work and tutted loudly when told that my handwriting looked like Sanskrit. (I did actually laugh at that one, I was definitely writing in English!). I wrote, when the daydreams were so intense that I picked up my pen and let it have a mind of it’s own; I was not going to argue. (It’s a Parker Sonnet, and I love it. There are two, and Gods forbid anything happens to them.)
The book is currently available in ebook, and in the course of the next few days will be available in paperback. It is the paperback cover that you see above and with the blurb. You can click on the image in the side bar to get your copy. I won’t give you chapter and verse about what ‘Fragments’ is about-see above!
I even got arty and created the cover. A spot of pastels did the trick, and the image is called ‘Fabric’ of the Universe. The two gardening books, have creatures on them rather than human beings. I am still thinking about having humans on covers, and I’m exploring this with upcoming works.
What’s next? As mentioned before, there is cookbook on the agenda. There is also the romance novella-Retreating to Peace-which is part of the Peace series and is another step in a different direction.
Oh, allotment, I have missed you. It has been a while, too long a while.
With the rain holding off, the sunshine out and time to take stock, I was always going to come back to you. A bit like me, you are a little fuzzy around the edges, worn out and need a bit of R&R.
I have found my trowel, my gauntlet gloves; I even have a vague plan as to how how we are going to get back together and make a success of things a again. 2016 was rubbish, yes. That was demoralising, but we all have a duff year. It just happened to be 2016.
There are seedlings; chillies, tomatoes and aubergines. The heated prop has done it’s job, and there is the window sill shuffle. Beyond the seedlings, there is a to-do list. There’s no garlic this year; we’ve missed the boat there.
I really need to review both seed boxes; some seeds are no longer viable and are therefore taking up space. I definitely need new seeds. But first, the raised beds need tidying up and I’ve spent a few hours pulling grass up and out. There is a plan, to put more raised beds on the half of the plot over the next year. Open ground and I are just not working; there is grass everywhere and the strawberries are staging some kind of revolution. The strawberries, I can dig up and plug back in.
Then there are the raspberries; the autumn fall gold are okay, starting to revive themselves. The other are having a moment and wondering what they are supposed to do.
Did I mention the storm damage? Poor poly, looking a little beleaguered and in need of new cover.
There is certainly a lot to take in, to do and get my head around. All of which will be done around the ‘real-life’ aspects of work and training. I will be making as much time as possible; the plot is a part of my life and I am re-claiming it.
One raised bed at a time, slowly but surely.
Come bring it, 2017. We’ve got growing to do.
Flaming storms Doris and Euan, they have a lot of answer for.
I received a note from an allotment neighbour late on Tuesday night, saying that should pop down the plot. I couldn’t do anything at the time, it was wet, windy and my wellingtons didn’t particularly want to venture out. In the morning, Mama F took a walk whilst I had lie in. She then called me and I fell out of bed, feeling as though I was about to take penalties for England.
Not having had breakfast, I dressed in my plot clothes and sluggged a cuppa. I took a wlak down to the plot. The wendy house-the walk in green house-lay in a forlorn, crumpled heap. It was goner, and truly. There have been many dramas over the years with the wendy; it was anchored down, dug in; Physics had gone into it. Now, it was gone. Then there was the poly tunnel, with it’s ceiling sheared off. A conifer had tried to shake hands, and well, smacked it one. There were three trees down, and I got the rough end of the stick, as it were. Mama F and I tidied up the wrought up wendy, there are no plans to replace that at this sage. The Poly is the big thing, I will have to replace the cover. I didn’t expect it to go flying off to kansas-three of the sides of the cover, are beneath lots of dirt and weight down. Dirt which will now have to be dug away to free the cover. I am lucky, that the frame is steel; the plot neighbour who had sent me the note was not so lucky.
I will not lie, I am rather peeved off-high tension and raised anxiety, peeved off. Muscle tension may have gone through the roof a little. I would have hit something, had I the aim and energy. The storms have put a slight kick in the plans.
But we have seeds to sow!
You can find the video here
You know, I opened that fresh packet of aubergine seeds, and there was nothing in there. I’ve re-sown some black beauty but will get some more of those seeds that didn’t exist.
I am now off to type up a book, the last week has been rather hectic and I need to meet a self imposed deadline..
And if you haven’t already, check out the Inspector Montalbano novels. I am feeling a big book obsession-fuelled by the young montalbano tv series-he’s cute, clever, broken; binge watching most of season two was epic. I want the first series too! Honestly, sat there reading and giggling as you read, that feeling has rather cheered me up this week.
As well as sowing seeds, there are a couple of writing projects that are waiting in weeks for different points of this year. All being well, these will available in March/April and then in December. There is a cook book pencilled for somewhere in the middle!
‘Retreating to Peace’ sees me work alongside a smashing group of indie authors on the Peace Series. You can find details here about the authors involved.
Very brief update today. Have finally got around to sowing aubergines. I have sown Black Beauty which is the traditional, purple skinned variety, as well as Clara, which is a white skinned variety.
I’ve not had much success with sowing and growing aubergines. The one time that I did have a fruit, the plants were called Black Prince and were rescued from a garden centre. I am going to remain undaunted and try again. These seeds are being popped into the heated prop and all being well, we shall see the seedcases crack and seedlings appear.
It’s been such a long time since I last donned anything remotely bollywood. I was feeling a bit wistful, and remembering some of the outfits that I have worn. These are three saris that I loved wearing and are rather special to me. Purple, as my favourite colour. Pink and polka dots was something of a vintage look, and a green one that I could just about breathe in.
No, I don’t wander down the plot wearing these. Wouldn’t go with the red wellingtons, now would they!
Fellow blogger Sara Venn talks about what flowers mean to us in her recent blog on the The Physic Blogger and brings the fore the British Flower Industry.
A week tomorrow, it is the Feast Of Saint Valentine. For some it is brilliant, a day of unbridled slush where there are hearts, roses and bottles of prosecco all over the shop. For others, it will no doubt be just another Tuesday (Guess which camp I fall into….)
There will be lots of roses. In all sorts of different colours, scents and pretty packaging. It is hard to imagine Valentine’s Day without roses. Though if we are savvy enough; if we try to create social change and move from minority towards majority views, we might be able to change the traditional flower for something else.
How about a dandelion?
The things get everywhere; are fairly robust, hard to get rid of and turn up when you least expect.
Don’t suppose that reminds you of love and romance?
Well, it could, if we changed our thinking patterns.
I joke, and say don’t buy me roses.
Buy me diamonds instead. (Ethical ones, please, thank you.)
And why?
Lemme show you.
Those weren’t flown in from the African Continent. Those were plugged into the clay of my allotment over the course of years and have become an established part of my allotment. One half the allotment, has an avenue of roses that are interspersed with fruit trees. In high summer-it does sometimes turn up, yes-that half smells amazing! Then, it comes to dead heading and having cut flowers at home. I have tried-and failed-to tot up how much each bouquet-and it’s usually one every nine days-might cost. It is difficult to put a price on those bouquets, least of all because of the intrinsic value. I love my roses, they make me smile, and remind me that whilst some days can be really quite shoddy, something thorny, can produce something wonderful.
As you can see, I do like my roses. They do mean a lot to me, especially as they are home grow with love and care.
Don’t buy me roses, diamonds are in short supply.
Give me seeds and you might just bowl a maiden over.
There are two parts to this blog post. The first involves the stash of home brewed wine that is developing rather nicely.
Today, I have bottled up a batch of Rhubarb and currant wine. This has been lingering for sometime and was brewed in August last year. One of many different varieties, the batch was racked off into small bottles, wrapped up and stowed away. When bottled, it was actually transparent-you could see right through it, and there was little or no sediment left behind. Like all the others, this batch has been wrapped up in brown paper so that it doesn’t fade. I have taken a quick inventory, and we do have something of a stash developing. To date, we have bottled up:
There is apple wine, blackberry and mixed berry and Rhubarb and goosebery left to do later in the year.
Most of the wine is transparent on racking, and you can see right through it. It is only through repeated racking that you get wine that is completely see through whilst keeping it’s natural colour. As the wines are so varied, they will need to be stored and allowed to mature sufficiently. I have to say though, that the blackberry ones are a rather nice claret colour that does look rather proper! There id definitely more than one way to preserve alloment produce, and Petal plonk isn’t too bad at all.
That’s the home brew developments today. Then come the mooli pods. Mama F has found some Mooli pods-these are seed pods from bolted radiishes-in the freezer.
Very simple to make, Mama F created a sauteed base of onions, garlic and ginger before adding the mooli pods, tomatoes and potatoes. We might not have got any radishes, but the seed pods are edible and you can see use the produce that you do get quite effectively.
Bit of an update for you. I have just potted up four additional baby chillies.
You can also find the video here.
As you can see there are quite a few pots and not an awful lot of window sill space. These will no doubt find themselves shuffling around the house before settling into the poly tunnel sometime during June/July. There are three varieties of chilli that have been sown; jalepeno, cayenne and purple haze.
I will keeping an eye on these on the coming weeks as it is still rather cold and light levels are yet to increase. For now, the seedlings are growing slowly, and I don’t mind that. Taking their time, the seedlings can establish in their pots and gradually become stronger. Chillies need a long growing season and the early stages of development are important for the growing season to eventually be productive.
With the chillies now on the window sill, the next job is it sow aubergines and tomatoes. I am likely to sow the aubergines first and then tomatoes a few weeks later. They are part of the same family, and neither should be sown too early. I really don’t fancy gangly, leggy seedlings that keel over and another set have to be sown. Mama F did actually ask this morning if I had baby aubergine varieties, and pootled off to check the seed catalogues. I’ve not had much success with home sown and grown aubergines. I have got the odd flower, but not fruit. Every year, I debate as to whether or not I will sow them, this year was no different. I suspect Mama F and I will end up competing, trying to grow them in two different plots. With Mama F then competing with her sister-last year, my aunt managed to grow an aubergine, and there was excitement-so you can imagine the drama.
There is half a plan now as to how the growing season might start this year. Before long, I will be thinking about beans, squashes and things. There are so many things that I need to double check before things kick off and properly.
In the meantime, I will be keeping an eye on the seedlings, and hoping that they don’t keel over!
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