Tuesday 25 March 2025: We managed some gardening

I seem to be getting back up to steam on the workflow. Friday was a good day, even if I didn’t get a lot of actual writing done for the great novella challenge. I was still busy doing plenty of other things.

Saturday

On Saturday, we did the shopping. We started by getting cash, then we went to the butcher’s for our weekly meat, and then we went to the household store to replenish the garden bird food.  We needed to buy everything. 

We went to the DIY superstore next to get a connection for the hose that will fit on one of our taps. The taps in our house are all weird, with not a single standard amongst them. The outside tap, which would have been great, has been disconnected, and we haven’t got around to reconnecting it. But we were able to finally get the right attachment for one of the bathroom taps. 

This will help with filling the campervan with fresh water too. Last time, the hose was tentatively connected to a kitchen tap but it blew off, sending water everywhere. At least it was clean. What we wanted it for this time, though, was so the poet could start up the jet-washer.

We also bought chitting potatoes from the DIY store, and then we went to the supermarket to get our usual weekly shop. On the way home we dropped in on the mother-in-law and arranged to take her out for Mother’s Day this weekend. (It’s Mother’s Day in the UK on Sunday.) Two of the kids are going to come with us too.

Sunday

Sunday was a Big Day in the garden. We’ve been trying to decide where to start on our overgrown garden, but bad weather and then my hospital stay has foiled us at every turn. Now, at last, we were able to get in the garden and do something at least. The poet spend 2½ hours first jet-washing the patio slabs, the small wall, the bird table, the bird bath and the bird drinkers, and then repointing the small wall. 

While he did that, I fed the birds, emptied all the house bins, and chitted the potatoes. And supplied coffee. And we decided that perhaps doing jobs radiating from the house might be the best way to tackle it all. We’re also alternating one Sunday in the garden with one Sunday out in the van, and I think the next time we’re in the garden, the poet is going to go out sideways from the house, one way or the other. 

One way is a lot of debris that needs clearing and burning, plus a greenhouse that needs repairing and a few bushes that need chopping back. The other way is a stepped path that needs jet-washing, brambles that need chopping back, and ivy clambering all over the garage that needs pulling out. 

All the time the poet was working outside, the garden birds were having a right shout at him. Anyone would think they were starving hungry! But it was a big job jobbed, even though he felt it by the end, especially his fingers where he was holding the trigger on the jet-washer.

I had a look for Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and was surprised to see that we can’t buy single issues any more. We can pay for Kindle Unlimited and have it included in our subscription, but there’s no way I’m taking out a KU subscription. I could have paid for a single issue on one of the magazine apps, but they wanted almost 8 quid for just one issue. 

So I resorted to buying direct from Dell Magazines for only 6 dollars per issue, on subscription. It works out at almost half what the magazine app are charging for it. The best thing, though, was as soon as I downloaded it, I could collect it on Google Play Books and on Kobo. I could also email it to my Kindle Paperwhite and all of my Kindle apps, and I could side-load it to my Kobo Clara Colour. Without having to do battle with DRM. Yes, I bought it, I paid for it, and it was mine to read wherever and however I wish. Perhaps I’ll start doing more of that in the future.

The pirates will have already found out how to de-DRM ebooks (hell, they’re pirating books that haven’t even been formally released yet!), and I’ve seen lots of arguments and claims that the pirate sites themselves aren’t actually impacting authors’ sales. It’s still theft, though. Still illegal. Still piracy.

However, Meta using a pirate site to train its AI is another matter, but apparently even that may be considered by some as ‘fair use’, providing it wasn’t a pirate copy they used in the first place. DRM, though, stops me and others buying books on places where it’s used. And that does hurt authors. Especially when those authors have everything tied up on an exclusive licence.

Anyway, I enrolled on a webinar from Jessica Brody (Save the Cat Writes a Novel and Writing Mastery Academy) for today. It’s at 6pm UK time, which is outside my working day, but if I don’t make it, she’ll send a recording out to everyone who registered. 

Monday

I made my dirty cuppa first thing Monday morning, and while the kettle boiled I fed the birds. By the time I hit my desk, I’d already shared Monday’s blog post to BlueSky. I started off a Pomodoro and proof-read Mavis Braithwaite Strikes Again. It didn’t take a whole Pomodoro, though, so I also started today’s blog post.

I had my midday breakfast and while I was eating it I discovered there’s a Tweetdeck-like thing for BlueSky. So I had a look at it, logged in, and started to custom and use it. It’s called deck.blue. I’m gradually moving away from Facebook and directing people to here. I’m also gradually using BlueSky more than I have been. 

I found a milkman who delivers to our village 3 times a week. It’s dearer than buying from the supermarket, but it’s fresh milk, in returnable glass bottles, and it’s supporting local businesses. I decided to give it a try for a few weeks. So far I’ve had 2 friends give poor reviews of the company. Too early, too noisy, setting doorbell cameras off, milk left in the sun to go off. We do prefer our milk in time for breakfast and I suppose any milkman will set off doorbell cameras. But we’ll see how we get on for a few weeks and take it from there.

I sat and stared at The Christmas Tree Mystery for a long time and ended up fleshing out the outline for the first three chapters/Act 1. I created names and back stories for the extra suspects and the extra victim. Then, as I hadn’t heard anything, I fired off that email to the client edit author to see how he’s getting on with the queries I sent him before I went into hospital. 

The poet came home and applied weed killer to the patio, got the hoe out on some more weeds between slabs, and then he vacuumed the whole house. It’s difficult to concentrate when he’s in the house but not at ‘work’. I sat with the office window open to let in some fresh air and kept getting distracted by birdsong. But I finally managed the first scene of the first chapter.

Here’s yesterday’s task list: 

1. share Monday’s blog

1. write and schedule Tuesday’s blog
2. write Act 1 of The Christmas Tree Mystery
3. proofread Mavis Braithwaite Strikes Again
4. client edit

And here’s today’s:

1. share Tuesday’s blog

1. write and schedule Wednesday’s blog
2. pre-write Act 2 of The Christmas Tree Mystery
3. finish writing The Ace of Swords
4. client edit
5. fast drafting webinar