January brings the snow...

 What a surprise that isn't!  To rearrage a line by John Lennon, 'And so that was Christmas...' It comes, and then, suddenly, it goes again: the decorations are all packed away, the tree is heading off to be recycled, the house looks vast and bare and inhospitable and we're all back to work: its like none of it ever happened!

Except there are still a few edible goodies stashed around the place and I'm still reveling in my Christmas presents. One of the best this year was a reprint of the 1900 Baedecker Guide to London for tourists: it was L.P. Hartley who said the past was a foriegn country and if he was right, I really thought I ought to read the guidebook before I went. It's amazing and fascinating to read alongside my Dorling Kindersley London book to see what has changed and what has not! I've spent this weekend up to my ears in research, trying to kick-start some life into my writing.


My herd, grazing on chintz!

 I've had some lovely comments from people about the Christmas story - which has now disappeared from Lulu, as the festive season is behind us - and I did spend a day before I went back to work re-reading the work I'd done last year on the new book and making some changes. I really want to do this - and the only thing stopping me, really, is me...I think perhaps I've wanted to tell this story for so long, I'm no longer sure how to!Thanks to everyone who bought/downloaded the Christmas story, a sizeable donation was sent to Crisis just before Christmas and a (rather smaller!) donation is ready to go off to the Wurlitzer Trust. The extras page will stay open for a bit longer, even though the story is no longer available.

Always makes me think of Grouse!

To my amazement, I discovered the other day that the partner of one of my regular (and very loyal) readers is not only an organist, but actually knows someone who has a Wurlitzer in his front room!! If only I'd known before, I could have relied a little less on Wikipedia!! Should I ever need to re-write, I know where to go for help!
Finally, I'm going to try the '100 book challenge' this year and use this blog to keep a record of what I read - that'll get a page to itself too!

The pictures are my decorations on Twelfth Night, just before I dismantled everything: I just wanted to make the festive season last a little longer!