Guesthouse Paradiso

Hello, I've just got back from a few days dog/house/ guesthouse sitting in the lake district. I've had the most fantastic time. In and amongst dog walking, chicken feeding, mountain biking, cooking, cleaning, gardening and a whole host of other fantastic activites I found a good few hours to write at a lovely little desk. Not only that but the local village of Kirby Lonsdale provided a lot of inspiration.
All in all a fantastic few days, although I might need a holiday to recover!

If you would like to stay at Gale Green Cottage you can find more information here;
http://www.galegreen.com/

Thanks

Ian xx

Bree...cheesy or not?

Dear all
When I started writing this blog I thought I'd update it all the time with hundreds of ideas and endless anecdotes. Hmmm, you're thinking. And I agree. I just don't seem to have a lot to write about. Oh I write a lot of stories. But do you really care how I sat at my desk at 5am tapping keys and reeling out another as yet unpublished story? No, so I started writing about the plants I was growing. Yes they're still doing well, and actually I have some photos to upload, but they're not with me at the moment...
Ah so today I thought I'd tell you about The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, the latest addition to the Twilight Series. Named after one of the characters, not Brie the cheese. Having read the other Twilight books I wanted to read it, but wasn't desperate. However I found it very entertaining. Mianly becasue I like to hear a story from a different perspective. What else was going on that Bella could not see? Whilst only short the story shed details on what else was going on, and gave a few interesting insights. The only slight problem was that since I read Eclipse I really couldn't remember what had happened in that book. I only had a vague idea of a battle. Only in the last few pages or so of Bree Tanner's adventure did it all come flooding back. And yes it was really worth it for those few pages. A lot of pieces suddenly slotted together as bits of Eclipse flooded back (character traits etc) and it made the whole thing really interesting. I was talking about the story with someone at work too and they pointed out a lot of other exciting little details to do with the original series' protagonists. I must have missed them, but they were there and made it all the better for Twilight fans.
If you like Twilight read it you'll find out some nice details and be entertained. If you don't then don't. It's as simple as that.
So all in all is the Short Second Life of Bree Tanner a bit cheesy? Not in my opinion no :-)

Ian xxx

The carnivorous plants are doing well...

I did intend to post some lovely pictures of my vegetable garden along with these (taken at the start of May) so that you might compare. However the weather is against me! It's done nothing but rain all week and my lovely enormous carrot and co are looking a bit bedragged. The potatoes are looking massive too (above ground anyway) and the lettices are not far from being harvested! Unfortuantely all this wet weather has brought out the slugs so now it's back to the one man war against the foul invaders! Hopefully I'll get some nice sunny pictures up soon. There's a sun flower climbing its way up the wall and with any luck it'll flower soon too. If the sun ever turns up again!
Oh and you might be able to see the lovingly constructed cage that keeps the rabbits off my larger vegetables. So far it's worked a treat.
Writing still goes well,
Ian xxx

Ps. the title of this post is taken from a Terry Pratchett sleeve note.

The Constant Gardener

You're probably not wondering how my gardening is going. But I'll tell you anyway. I've only just uploaded these pictures even though I took them quite some time ago for good reason. I'm just not quite sure what it is yet. Anyway as you can see I dug a brand new vegetable patch this year. It's mainly growing potatoes. It has a lovely net cover.
The original vegetable patch now has a very rabbit-proof net 'cage' around it too. To keep away unwanted pests! You'll be pleased to know that so far it's working and the rather bizzare weather so far has kept the slugs away. I'll post a few more pictures in a while but for now you'll be glad to know it's going really well (I'm glad too). Heavy rain and lots of sunshine means that everything is growing like mad. I've got lettices, potatoes and that old stalwart of a carrot all on the go. Fingers crossed there will be a harest soon. I'll update you retrospectively again later.
Ian xx
Ps the writing is going really well. Fingers crossed!