Well, so much for good intentions! My last entry here was on October 31st, 2013, it's now 20th September 2014. The time has simply flown as it has been a very busy year interspersed with illness, the worst being this summer when I had gastric 'flu. I have never felt so ill in my life, I even had the Dr in, which is very unusual for me. Actually that was quite funny as I'd already worked out my own diagnosis, gastric 'flu and after examining me he agreed. Somewhere in my GP notes it must have mentioned that I worked for the NHS, retired now of course, and I saw him looking at some of my psychology books, such as, 'An Introduction to Object Relations' and 'Practical Jung. Later I saw that he'd looked up my profile on LinkedIn, bet that gave him a surprise. Oh dear I clean forgot about this post. just been so busy, that's what comes of being retired - never a moment to yourself. I will just round this off and, hopefully, write another blog post soon. It is exactly a year since I had the gastric flu' so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there is no repeat.

NaNoWriMo 2013

It's October 31st today. For many people it is Hallowe'en, a time for fun & frolics, for the Pagans among us it is the Celtic festival of Samhain and in Mexico it is 'El Dia de los Muertos. For me, and for many others around the world, it is NaNoWriMo Eve, the last day of freedom and relaxation for a whole month. Every spare moment from now on will be taken up with writing our 'grande oeuvre' or, more likely, fighting writer's block. By November 30th many will be basking in the success of having written a 50,000 word novel in 30 days whilst awaiting their winner's T-shirt, others will shrug their shoulders and vow to do better next year, still others will still be suffering from the writer's block that set in on the first day. All, hopefully, will have had fun, if not with their novel at least on the boards, many will have made new friends. Originally I wasn't going to do NaNo this year as I have too much other work on board including journal editing and writing a chapter for the next edition of the Handbook of Counselling Psychology. However I had a dream, literally, and the plot for NaNo was there before me. It is a wartime mystery set on a USAAF airfield somewhere in East Anglia. More of the plot in my next post. Besides writing for NaNo I intend to edit and polish the story for the Ipswich Arts Festival (IpArt) next summer. I just hope I don't get writer's block after the first word.

In Memoriam - Script Frenzy

Well, here I am and 6 months have passed since the last post here. I avoided making a New Year's Resolution about updating my blog in the hope it might encourage me to do so - it didn't. Still never mind I'm here now and the quill is sharpened, pity my wits don't match my quill as I have hit writer's block. I;m hoping that a glass of Belgian Trappisten beer might help. Normally at this time of year, June, I'd be too busy to even contemplate blogging as I would be taking part in 'ScriptFrenzy', this was a competition where you had to produce a 100 page script, film, theatre, radio, whatever in 30 days. It was great fun while it lasted, 5 years or so but sadly it's popularity waned and now it is simply another part of NaNoWriMo, (National Novel Writing Month) in November. For those who don't know it NaNoWriMo sets you the task of writing a short novel, 60,000 words in 30 days. I have succeeded a few times though the results will never see the light of day as novels. The trick to achieving 60,000 and still having a life is not to edit or correct. It may sound a waste of time but I have mined what I have written to produce short stories, one of which I read at the Ipswich Arts Festival, (IpArt) a couple of years ago. I hope that I'll write some more here before a further 6 months have passed. In the mean time 'cheers; as I lift my glass

January 22nd was when I last posted here, So much for New Year Resolutions. Winter, Spring & Summer have gone by in the twinkling of an eye. New friends have come, some old friend have gone & others, in a seafaring term, have crossed the bar. It's been quite an eventful year, but more of that later. I just really wanted to touch base & restart this blog in advance of NaNoWriMo 2012. This year I'm determined to really get down to it and write 50,000 words by 30th November. I'll try an keep posting here too, but no promises.

Thrice!

This morning I posted the URL to this blog on my Twitter profile. Hopefully the sight of it sitting there will remind me to update with some degree of regularity.In fact it has already worked as I'm writing this now. Three times in one month is a record for me. I'm still trying to make sense of the weather. In the garden & orchard I've got bushes & shrubs which haven't fully shed their leaves from last year and others which are starting to show signs of coming into blossom two months early. Interesting times. I'm planning to increase the number of potted fruit trees I have this year. In that way I can increase the variety of apple, plum and pear tries without taking up too much space. I'm also going to move into citrus fruits. In the past I've successfully grown a small lemon tree in a pot and had fruit; very good with G & T. I'll keep you posted as to how it all works out.

Second Post

Well, I'm about to achieve a record, two blog posts in one year. Actually that isn't entirely true as I used to regularly blog on JournalSpace until it was sabotaged by a disgruntled ex-employee and all it's storage wiped. My heart went out of blogging then and anyway I had discovered Twitter & become hooked on micro-blogging. Anyway the time has come for me to start macro-blogging again, if that's the correct term.
I was thinking of running several specialist blogs at once, one for writing, one for horticulture/agriculture and one for food & cooking, however I think I'd better see if I can keep a general blog going first. If i find it's becoming a mess or that one topic is taking over then I'll reconsider.
At the moment the writing blog would be rather sparse as I've not done much in the past year. I read one short piece at the Ipswich Arts Festival (IpArt) and that was it. I didn't even finish National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this year for the first time in four years. so my first target is a short story for IpArt. I've got an idea which I started working on in NaNoWriMo and I think I'll see where that goes. Hopefully I'll be able to keep you updated with progress; or otherwise.
More about the other two areas in my next blog.

As I Was Saying....

On 28th July 2010 I wrote "Once upon a time....", unfortunately time whirled me away and now it's 6th of January 2012. Since I first wrote those words I have retired from the NHS where I'd worked for over 40 years. It was a wrench, not least because I feared that I would become bored and end up watching day-time television. Horror of horrors! Needless to say that did not come to pass, but rather, my activities have increased to such a degree that I wonder that I ever found time to work.

I've been able to put a lot more time into my garden, in particular the orchard and soft-fruit side, and it's beginning to shape up not just as a productive garden but as a wildlife habitat. These include a family of hedgehogs, numerous frogs and toads and, to my great pleasure, lizards. It is also a very cat-friendly garden with lots of places they can hide and play.

I have taken up sailing again & am trying to keep reasonably fit at the local sports club. I'm also in the process of taking up golf again after a 25 year gap. Back to basics again there for me. In addition, and as if all this is not enough, I am continuing to work professionally and academically, though not in the NHS. Something had to give and unfortunately that was my writing. I was able to produce a short piece that I read at the Ipswich Arts Festival (IpArt) but that was all. No ScriptFrenzy this year and I did not complete NaNoWriMo for the first time for several years although I acted as a NaNoWriMo University Instructor.

What of the coming year? Well that is still a virgin manuscript. I have many things I am committed to continuing, including a couple of committees at the yacht club, and I'm taking a 3 year part-time course in Medieval Latin Paleography run by the University of East Anglia and based at the local Records Office. One thing I won't be doing, as long as I am fit, is watch day-time television.

With that I'll sign off, not with "Once upon a time....", but with, "To be continued...".