Last week was dominated by two visitations – one from our old Friends Sue and Alex from Birmingham, and secondly from step-son Tom, from Santiago de Compostela, in Spain. The weather, for once, co-operated. Sue and Alex had absolutely glorious sun for their seaside break, and it was the same for Tom, with one noisy overnight storm. Meanwhile, the work of planting up the new side garden continues, and we have a new giant wind-spinner. Monday morning this week was a meeting of our Stanza Poetry Anthology planning group, night was my novel-writing group, this in Robertsbridge. A bracing ride over there in an open-topped car…
One little point to start with. Battleaxe was told that at the Barefoot Opera performance of Cenerentola in Rye on Saturday night, people in the queue were overheard saying that they had read an excellent review of the production in Hastings Battleaxe. This post. Thanks for reading, whoever you are, and hope you enjoyed the production!
The photo at the top shows me and the Brummies striding across the churchyard in Winchelsea. We had a glorious, high-summer walk – a short excursion that Philosopher and I often enjoy and I have referred to on here often – out the back of Winchelsea village then down through the New Gate, round across the levels and along the canal, climb back up to Winchelsea via the Strand Gate and go to the pub for lunch.! It was a sunny, cloudless day, one of the first we have had for ages. I say cloudless, but here is a photo that Philosopher took of a solitary cloud reflected in the canal, and another great picture of a kestrel sitting on a post. My iphone camera is very good and most of the photos on this blog were taken with successive versions of the iphone, but Philosopher’s camera is so much better at close-ups.
Here is the latest on the garden transformation. Am very pleased with the new wind spinner. As you can see, it is a big one so we had to bury it very deep and reduce its height in order to mitigate the effect of Hastings winds.
Have been doing general garden improvement elsewhere too – in the old days, we had many, many pots and two huge half-barrrels with shrubs/roses on the side decking. Both tubs are too rotten to keep – but what an effort collapsing them, disposing of plants and soil etc… Then all the other plants need rehousing… This morning we went to Blackbrooks, supposedly to just get a few more rock plants for the centre bed, but ended up with three pairs of sale shoes, two pies for our lunch and a wedding present… I’ll write about the wedding in another post.
The Stanza poetry anthology will have its launch on Friday 20 October, at the White Rock Hotel. Am quite pleased that we are using the same printers that did ‘Lines and Wrinkles’ for me. The Stanza slim volume is being issued in aid of the Refugee Buddy Project. I’ll be plugging the launch on here shortly, but readers, save the date – 5-7pm.
My novel is coming along very well – have only 1.5 chapters left to write – apart from all the edits and revisions, of course. It will end up about 90,000 words. Have changed the name of the village, sadly, from Compton Pauncefoot (see this post) to a more fictional-sounding Crampton Perceval. Still have not got a title for the great work though…
On Monday, the group met at member Emma’s house in Robertsbridge. Three of us drove over there in member Trevor’s open-topped mini. I sat in the back. It was a beautiful summer’s evening and we could look up and admire the cloud patterns, but I was reminded of why I’d never want an open-topped car again. I had one once, a silly little Ford StreetKa. You were wind-blown to bits, and the Grace Kelly headscarf look has never suited me… then I was burned to a crisp on hot days or frozen solid on cold days. And the noise! Deafening! One of my customers told me I shouldn’t drive the thing. ‘You’d be safer in a polystrene cup,’ he sneered.
