Having been prompted into action by a phone call from a friend wondering if I was all right, "or had I fallen off the planet?" I thought I'd better put in a quick update. Not that much has changed.
Family to lunch on Easter Sunday, and we spent most of the afternoon in the garden, which I have tried to do every day since! Glorious weather, and since my friend Chris redesigned my garden, and he and my son Miles created it, I just love being out there. It even promotes comments from young people passing through. Young chap visiting our "lodger" (son Leo's homeless friend) popped his head round the sitting room door to say goodbye and how much he admired my garden. Golly.
Deadline for current mss extended - not by me - so delighted. Going to try and break back into the short story market, so I've been buying the main contenders for a few weeks and reading stories by friends, including a serial called White Oaks by Lyn McCulloch. Do hope it appears in book form.
Big daughter Lou and her partner Jarrod have finally completed on their first house together. Owned house, that is, obviously they've been living in a house together for some time! Very excited and full of plans, but there's quite a lot of work to do, and the builders start next week. Spookily, when a friend called round to help me drink my whiskey last night, we discovered that the previous owners had been friends of his. Now, this isn't even in the same town, so even spookier. Mind you, it has happened before. A friend, Di, was moving to Bristol and telling me all about her cute new house. "Is it in a little courtyard?" I asked. "Yes." "Is it No. 3?" Mouth open:"Yes". "Is it King Dick's Lane?" Squeals of disbelief. I had actually stayed in that house, which belonged to the youngest sister of one of my best friends. Di and I lived in Whitstable, house was in Bristol, my old friend lives in Suffolk. So how much of a coincidence was that?
Must do some work, do some shopping and check up on the garden. Oh, and if anyone's interested my Philly (http://phillyontour.blogspot.com/) is having a whale of a time. The last pictures she sent were of her jumping out of an aeroplane. Oh, good.
