Tinsel, Varnish and Typing

Chester, yesterday; arrived at via a 'short cut' which actually took us almost an hour longer.  The shops have already plastered themselves in Xmas tat but, despite this thankfully temporary aberration, Chester remains one of my favourite places.  Not that I actually bought much:  one bottle of artist's varnish, and a copy of Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Angel's Game.

Today the house smells of varnish.  Both Portrait of an Anunnaki and Vlad were long overdue a protective layer of artist's varnish.  I've already warned Richard to wear a gas mask when he comes home.  He should be used to it by now though!  Our home always smells of something - linseed oil, turps, spicy cooking or heady incense.  Or various combinations of these. 

Portrait of an Anunnaki: http://hubpages.com/hub/Portrait-of-John

Vlad:  http://hubpages.com/hub/Portrait-of-Vlad-Dracula

The park is in full autumnal colour now, as I found when the dogs took me for a walk.  I needed a break from typing up Fabian anyway.  When my computer had to be wiped to be freed from a virus a while ago, I lost various files including around ten chapters of Fabian.  Fortunately I had printed-out versions, but having to re-type these has reminded me of how laborious the old manual typewriters were, when a writer's only recourse was to re-type an entire MS - no doubt several times in succession as any editing process requires.  Just re-typing these few chapters has been tedious enough; I'd much sooner be doing something more creative.

My sister-in-law is now home from hospital.  Read about her fight with cancer here:  http://2e0dtoeric.livejournal.com/