The weather outside is SPITEFUL...

...and the fire is sooooo delightful! It's still snowing here. It's been snowing all week. And as the song says, 'It doesn't show signs of stopping'. I've struggled into work each day, never managing to make it on time but desperately trying to show willing. Every morning there's been a fresh layer of white stuff: the pavements are several inches higher than they were last week. The world has turned completely white and painfully cold. I'm already dreading my fuel bills...

And I'm beginning to think I can't do Christmas!!! With only days to go, I've done nothing so far which will have any impact. I'm totally devoid of gift ideas, and rather than go and do post-work shopping, I'm just dashing home to get into the warm as quickly as I can! It's mad!

Grouse and Partridge Christmas Tale is just about complete, however: a few tweaks and it'll be ready to go! I've put the last three on lulu as free downloads and the new one will be joining them in 2 weeks time. I'm donating money to Crisis again this year and making a smaller donation to the restoration of a rather lovely musical instrument - again, details will be made available once the story 'goes live'. Considering a special 'extras' web-page with a few links on as an added bonus... time willing!!

This is the second of my Winter's Night pictures...

In the Night Garden...

Winter is most definitely here! This is my garden - and the one next door - taken at 11.45 on Friday night. It's not a 'sepia-ized' version either: this is an ordinary colour photo taken without flash or other lighting, just the usual streetlights. It was an experiment and I wasn't sure if it would work, but I'd just walked back through this scene and the light was so bizarre I wanted to try and capture it.

It hasn't got above -1 C today and there's now about a foot of snow outside. It isn't snowing at the moment, but the sky is the same colour as the ground - greyish white!- and there are another 8 inches forecast for tonight.

As a traveller by public transport, I'm starting to worry already. I have a trip of 23 miles to work, followed by a one and 3/4 mile walk when I arrive at the station. The police and authorities are urging people not to travel unless it is an emergency - but I can't see that going down well as an excuse for not getting there tomorrow! Last time we had snow like this, there was no suggestion that we close.

Now don't get me wrong: I don't just want to 'skive off' - in fact, at the moment, given the way my job is, being off work would be very inconvenient - I have two impending interviews at the end of the week (one on each side of the table, as it were!)and I really want to be ready for both of them. But going to work in this - and it is much worse now than it was when I took this photo - just seems mindless madness! As I've said before, it's great when you can sit on the window-seat and watch it swirl down, knowing you don't have to brave it. Tonight, however, I doubt I'll be feeling quite as kindly disposed towards it!

On a lighter note, Drover and Bolph did build a snowman yesterday...but you'll have to wait until Dec 17th to find out where!

Reindeer time!

It's that time of the year again. And even if Starbucks are not going to indulge my needs at this festive time of the year, the other good thing about Christmas is the reindeer.

I love reindeer. Not the cartoony red-nosed variety (think the others let Rudolph off lightly, to be honest - he is unsufferably smug!) but the real ones! This chap was waiting to pull Santa's sleigh through my town on Sunday, just having a chomp on some lunch as he waited in the (quite frankly depressing!) rain.

We discovered a couple of years ago where they go for their r&r before the parade begins and it does mean you get a chance to see them 'up close and personal' before the crowds claim them! And I got better photos this year with a proper camera.

We've had a bit of snow here today, although it didn't stay, and it is FREEZING, so I suppose that's the official winter start. Of course it also means my heating has packed in - it doesn't do cold weather! I've done nothing about Christmas yet, (although I did buy some cards in London a couple of weeks ago - with reindeer on!).

HOWEVER I have made a start on the NEW Grouse and Partridge Christmas Tale which will be available to download on December 17th. After struggling with 'Harry', it's been lovely to get back to the old team. So far there's no reindeer in it... but there's still time!!

Woe! Woe! Woe!

If Starbucks are going to do Christmas without Dark Cherry Mochas, then I'm not doing Christmas! Seems perfectly reasonable to me...

Was it South Norfolk or North Suffolk we went to...?

The easy answer is - BOTH! And they were seriously lovely. I'm back now, wondering where my August is slipping to, but it was a lovely week. And the East Anglia Transport Mueum was the place to be on Sunday August 8th because a rather large number of fantastic vintage cycles arrived halfway through the afternoon - including Nancy's Bonnie! I recognised it by the sound of the engine! I didn't actually see Nancy herself - I suspect she was sampling the Victoria Sponge in the tea rooms - but I got some lovely photos of the bike with my new camera! (Attentive followers may recall that my other camera had a nasty accident with a very large cup of coffee last summer...!)

Cake recommendations? Couldn't possibly choose one we ate so many...but the mixed berry scones in Norwich Cathedral Refectory would have given Mary's a run for their money, and the Coffee and Walnut Cake at Wroxham Barnes was a serious contender...

The most lovely word in the English Language?

HOLIDAYS!!!!

Here we go again...

Spotted this fella in Manchester outside the astoundingly beautiful John Rylands Library - a cathedral for bookworms! We visited it last Sunday while making a pilgrimage to Salford for BRB's 'Romeo and Juliet'. An amazing weekend - only slightly marred by the fact that somewhere on Piccadilly station I left a Harvey Nichols foodhall bag...!

Two weeks to go until the summer break and instead of winding down, I seem to be powering up! My research for the 'new project' has stepped up several notches and I'm planning how to make the best use of the summer and the university libraries near by - none of them, it must be admitted, as beautiful as JR's but all well stocked
I've also booked a flying visit to the Edinburgh book festival where I'm going to do a crime writing workshop and then see Ian Rankin again: once was not enough!

Perhaps, most bizarrely, I've set the wheels in motion to direct a musical at school: it's five years since I last did one, and that was such a fantastic experience that I said 'never again' : I didn't think it could be bettered! Now, almost at the anniversary of the first night, I still don't think it can be bettered, but I'm curious to see whether it can be matched! The school I work in has changed enormously over the past few years and I think a show may be exactly what it needs.

It's certainly what I need: last time we did a show I was writing 'Scotch Mist' at the same time - and I quickly discovered that the more creative I am forced to be, the more creative I become! So, as well as everything else this summer, I'm going to be planning and plotting a production in my head! That, and working out exactly where I'm going to be able to store all these books I'm still buying. Now, if only I could get someone to build me a gothic revival Library...




Whoops! Forgot about the cake!!! Two this time - i) an Eccles cake at the above Library's lovely coffee shop - so curranty!! - in honour of the Eccles tram we took to Salford and ii) half a huge slice of chocolate cake at Gibside Hall this afternoon - it was the black cherry conserve and the proper butter icing that made it so wicked! I feel the waistline expanding already...