Tuesday 17 Jan 2023: Snowdrops (not ours in the pic)

Despite having ‘no plans beyond shopping’, we had a really busy weekend in the end.

Saturday

On Saturday we got up early (yes, really – at the weekend!) and we headed out to Murderhell (Meadowhall – it always used to be our ‘local’ shopping precinct before we moved away). We had a good wander, bought the MiL her birthday present, a card and some giftwrap, and we bought dinner, which we ate in the car as the food court was rammed. On our way home we stopped off at the pet shop to get the dog his food, and we decided to do the shopping at the superstore opposite the pet shop…

…well, it wasn’t half as nice as the one we usually go to. It isn’t as new, so not as well-maintained. The women’s toilets were out of order – two out of three, but they let people use the one that wasn’t as out of order as the other one – and there was a cleaner in there telling everyone to use the changing room (it was engaged) and the disabled toilet (also engaged, and a genuinely disabled person had to wait for the not-disabled people to hurry up and finish). This all resulted in a massive queue, so I gave up. The poet went to the blokes’ loo and there was no queue there.

We dropped the shopping off at home, wrote the MiL’s card and tucked her pressies into a gift bag, collected the dog and headed to the MiL’s to drop it off. Only she wasn’t in. She was at her granddaughters. So we went back home and the poet’s daughter said they’d drop in when she was taking her grandmother home. We’d just put all of the shopping away and sat down with a cup of tea when they arrived. It was nice to see them and they stayed for a while.

After tea (the poet made a spaghetti bolognaise and we had meringue nests with yoghurt, fruit and honey) we watched a Johnny Depp film we’d seen before but didn’t quite remember. I read quite a lot of the current NetGalley book in the hope I might have a book review ready for Tuesday. I also spent a lot of time contemplating my locked room mystery assignment.

Sunday

We didn’t get up quite so early on Sunday but when we did I made us porridge with berries and honey and then the poet went out to prune three of the four fruit trees.

The trees will need more work in the autumn, but as they already have new growth on them, he didn’t want to cut it all back again. Another tree he’s left for now is one that’s growing horizontally behind the big apple and pear trees. Underneath its overhanging branch, which is very thick, is a bank of snowdrops growing where the moss from the tree has covered the grass. 

When he came in he settled down at his desk to work on some music while I did my catch-up work, starting with some competitions (to give me a head-start on the week ahead) and starting this blog post. After dinner, the poet made an apple and berry crumble to have with our tea. (He’s getting really good at these crumbles – I clearly taught him well!)

The current kickstarter I’m backing met its ‘special’ extra stretch goal, so as as a backer that means I get another book thrown in as well as another pop-up writers’ workshop. And we’re not far off the penultimate stretch goal…

After a bit of a faff, I got down to some more work, starting with more consolidation as well as a new scene for Catch the Rainbow. By the end of the session, I’d renamed some of the scenes as well, added 1,993 words, and saved it to Scene 10.

On either side of tea I worked on the ghostwriting and added 1,677 words. Then I called it a day.

Monday

The poet had an early start on Monday as he had to drive up north, so I managed to get up on time too, an hour after he left.

I did the social media stuff over breakfast and read a few chapters of the NetGalley book (CLIENT WORK), then I went to my desk and cleared the day’s competitions. (FAFF) This didn’t take as long as Mondays usually do because I’d done some at the weekend. Next up, I started my next online writing workshop, this time a lecture on writing into the dark. I only watched two sessions, though, because I still had a lot of other work to get through. (PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT)

Then I opened up Diary of a Pussycat and continued to apply the edits and add the new exercises to the next few chapters. (NON-FICTION)

We had a flurry of snow, which distracted me, and when it stopped snowing, the garden was alive with birds: blackbirds, collared doves, wood pigeons, sparrows, magpies, starlings… That made me wonder if perhaps there might be more snow on the way, and of course I was broken then, having to keep looking out of the window for more snow… but we had blue sky then for a while.

Catch the Rainbow was next, and I realised that I’d been categorising this one wrong. I’ve been putting it down as EDITING, but I’m actually still WRITING it, even though there is a completed draft. It’s on my plan for the year as WRITING, so I’m going to call it that from now on… until I really do start EDITING it. So, I wrote up a few more scenes, noted one was missing, and added another 1,228 words. (WRITING)

Client work for the day began with some Monkey Dust work. They have their first gig of the year coming up at the end of the month, so I had to create the graphics, share them, and then create a Facebook event too and invite a few people. (CLIENT WORK)

The second client job was the editing work. I only managed a single chapter this time as it was a bit longer than the others and I was a bit behind. (CLIENT WORK)

The third client job was ghostwriting. (CLIENT WORK)

Today

There should be a book review here today, but I think it will be here tomorrow now after all as I hadn’t quite finished reading the book. I don’t want to drag it out another week.

Sign up for my newsletter
If you would like to receive my newsletter, please follow this link or use the form below to sign up and receive your first free short story.

And don’t forget, you can unsubscribe at any time.