Hubby hits the Big Four-Oh today! He's hiding in his den at the moment, playing a Rolling Stones concert at full blast. He's probably trying to hear them over the booming jets of The Red Arrows , who've been terrorising the local heron population. Emily and I were watching the planes zooming around, trailing red and blue smoke and making big synchronised loops, etc. A flock of five grumpy herons from the nearby nature reserve came flapping overhead, trying to hide. Ten second later they frantically flew back again, chased by a red jet. I spent the morning up a step-ladder, painting primer and undercoat onto the new plaster walls in the bathroom. I probably spent more time trying to fit the ladders round the basin and toilet bowl, so I could reach into awkward corners, than actually doing any painting.

If you feel inclined to wander into a newsagent's shop any time soon, take a peek at the September 2007 edition of Prediction , which is the UK's main New Age magazine. I've a non-fiction folklore article on page 37. This publication can be purchased on-line also, at http://www.predictionmagazine.co.uk/ Did anyone see the asteroids zooming overhead on Sunday night? I sat on my patio, with Emily on my knee, to view the sky-sparklies scooting by. Fun!

I finished chapter 3 of Rowan today. I'm trying out a new-to-me method of writing. Actually it's a pretty standard process which is used by many. My working week runs from Tuesday-Saturday, and I'm aiming to write a minimum of 1,000 words of Rowan on each of those days. Any extra is a bonus. I'm not going to give myself earache if I can't keep to this 100%, but certainly I intend to try. Also, I'll be writing this first draft without labouring over any revision. That will be tackled in the second and subsequent drafts. I began Rowan on Monday while Richard was in bed sleeping off the awful migraine which kept him awake and in pain for much of Sunday night. He spent most of Monday asleep and took Tuesday off work as he still looked pale and felt lethargic. The dogs took him for a walk on Tuesday afteroon, and clearly he survived that.

A big thank you goes to everyone who made the inaugural scheduled chat in the Circle of Hands chat room such fun! Who would have thought the gathering would have lasted for over three hours? It was a pleasure to chat with such eloquent and creative people.  Another will be scheduled in a few weeks time. I’ll let you know the date and time in due course. Meanwhile, sometime today my niece is due to arrive! Tomorrow, she has to attend an induction day and her parental home is too far from the venue to enable her to arrive on time. So she’ll be travelling from here instead, which will make things easier for her. And then she’ll be back at her own home to finalise her plans to move into The Big Wide World and university life. When I left home, my worldly possessions consisted of two small pans, one kitchen knife, a pile of books and cassette tapes, an acoustic guitar (which I never did learn to play), six cups, six plates, zealously guarded sheets of poetry, a spider plant...

Heidi Ruby Miller has been running a series of interviews with authors. From the list of fifteen questions, the subject is asked to pick six to reply to. Her website lists the authors - 56 to date - who have taken part in her project. See this here:- http://www.moonstonewritings.com/interviews.html Or for the latest one (with me as the subject) you could just scoot over to:- http://ambasadora.livejournal.com/129800.html?view=520456#t520456 *** Yesterday afternoon found us sitting in a solicitor’s office, drawing up details to be included in our updated Will, such as our desire for a Living Will and for certain specific funeral arrangements. We’ve been meaning to update these documents for ages. Enough of procrastination! There’s no point in waiting for one of us to drop dead and then go, “Oops, we really needed to update our legal stuff! Quick, reanimate him/her and wheel us off to the lawyer’s office!” And today we have glorious sunshine! That’s a rarity this summer. Mos...

Saw three great films this weekend – the first being Half Light , with Demi Moore in the well-played lead role as a writer grieving for her son. She goes to live on a remote Scottish island to write her book, only to be drawn into quite another kind of story when she learns that the dark and tastefully dishevelled lighthouse keeper she’s been spending time with has been dead for seven years. The film wasn’t shot in Scotland at all, actually, but in Anglesey and Gwynedd in Wales, and in Cornwall. The lighting and use of colour throughout was beautifully done, and the story held my interest completely. The Illusionist tells a clever tale of a stage entertainer. It’s a wonderful example of how people see what they want to see, and believe what they want to believe, and how the magician skilfully pulled the wool over their eyes whilst never telling even one lie. I won’t spoil the plot by saying more. This was an elegant and intelligent film, and if you’ve not seen it already then I re...

Today it isn't raining. This may seem like a trite observation, but for the last month this occurrence has been rare. And so my two adorable little monsters are currently sitting on the step to enjoy the…. Well, the insipid greyness could hardly be described as sunshine, but it’s more cheerful than the recent monsoon conditions. You’ve heard of the usefulness of chocolate frying pans, no doubt. But have you heard about vacuum cleaners that can’t cope with fluff? Well, you have now. We, unfortunately, are the “proud” owners of one such gadget. To be fair, maybe it was never designed to tackle the kapok innards of toy fluffy zebras. And no doubt toy fluffy zebras were never intended to be disembowelled and trampled into rugs by an enthusiastic puppy. I even picked up the bigger clumps of kapok by hand, but the pesky vacuum still jammed. So there it was, upside down on the operating table – I mean “dining table” – so I could unscrew its various bits in the hope of hooking out the bl...