Tagged... Six Questions to Answer.

I’ve been tagged by Jamarra, and have to answer the six questions below.

Q1) Do you think you’re hot?
No, not really, but I hope my novels are. Others seem to think they are, so fingers crossed.


Q2) Upload a picture or wallpaper you’re using at the moment

I’m a member of a photographic club and we have an exhibition coming up in 3 weeks time, so I have been preparing exhibits. This is my first exhibition and I’m nervous because I don’t really know what I’m doing. I have discovered (on reading photography forums) that photography, like writing, rarely pays well. Neither does gardening. And scientists are underpaid in this country. Trust me to pick the poorly paid endeavours.

This is a small version of one of my exhibits. The usual remarks about copyright hold true. Please do not use this image without permission.


I have had this, and other images made into greetings cards which I hope to sell at the exhibition. The problem is that to make even a tiny profit I have to charge quite a lot per card, and I’m not sure people will pay that when they can get a dozen cards at the supermarket. I did approach a card company about my photos, and got all excited when they wanted to see some. But they declined, saying the were too “Fine Art” for their market. I’m convinced it was a kindly put-down to avoid hurting my feelings.


Q3) When did you last eat chicken? This morning, for breakfast, before it went off. I can’t abide wasting food, which is why I resemble a dustbin.

Q4) The song you listened to recently?
The dawn chorus. I love the liquid notes of the blackbird.


Q5) What are you thinking as you do this?

I’m tossing up whether to do some writing or whether to do some housework. I expect the housework will win this time because it has been horribly neglected over the last few days. (Months, years.) And part of me is daydreaming about a book deal, but I don’t really dare to give much credence to those dreams.

Q6) Have you any nicknames?

My kids, bless their little hearts, call me Mumsie, which reminds me of Walter the Softy in the Beano, or Mudder, which is reminiscent of bovines. I have one or two online names which I won’t disclose.

Tag three blogging pals? Oh, crumbs.

The Elephant in the Writing Room
http://theelephantinthewritingroom.blogspot.com/

Good old Sally


Karen
http://writewritingwritten.blogspot.com/

I see from Karen’s post that she’s just had a very similar experience to mine. I read through something that had been mulching for a while and found some mistakes, including some pretty basic ones. And then I was told that there were some other flaws, now fixed, I hope. When revising a ms I end up with ms-blindness where I stop reading what I wrote and skim-read instead…. A fresh pair of experienced and analytical eyes always helps.

Womagwriter
http://womagwriter.blogspot.com/

Always a good source of advice.

Very Excited Now

I have some revision of a manuscript to do, which is really exciting. My brain is buzzing and I can hardly wait to get started.

So Excited

And so nervous.

I can't say why, not yet.

Jarmarra knows but won't spill the beans.

New Blog

My photogallery has vanished, if anyone is curious. And I haven't the heart to do it all over again. Not just now, anyway.

My Photogallery

I decided to put my favourite photos up on a separate blog. Do please take a look.

Is it just me?

... or does this photograph remind you of a famous painting?



Just me huh?

This is accidental. I didn't realise until I looked at the photos afterwards.


I took this indoors under someone else's studio lights at a photographic club's playing around evening. I don't think I got any really good photos and I think I'll stick with natural light for the moment. I quite like photographing things in my back garden.

Mind you at the moment it's all a bit of a mess because I'm rearranging the pots on the patio and having a hack-back session.

We've having an exhibition in June. I'm excited about it but I need to make sure I'm prepared.

January 2011 Books

It’s that time of year again, where I start to get restless, start making over-ambitious plans and yearning for a bigger garden. That’s an impossibility. So what about an allotment? Well, the dilatory way our Parish Council are going about finding some land for allotments means I won’t see extra growing space for a number of years, it seems, if ever. And being realistic, with my writing, unless the allotment was within yards of the house, it’s unlikely I could really have the time to attend to it on occasions. And even more realistically, would I eat all the produce? Probably not. So I will have to make the best of what I have, and that is a very shady veg patch which is far from ideal.

I had three books for Christmas, and I thought I would review them here.

The first is Carol Klein’s new book on Propagation “Grow Your Own garden”. I have always admired Carol Klein as a presenter, partly I think, because her tastes chime with mine, and partly because she is so enthusiastic and genuine. I met her at Hampton Court Flower Show a number of years ago when I bought a signed copy of her “Plant Personalities”, a lovely book, luscious photographs, and Carol’s voice shines clearly in her exuberant text.

My great expectations of her new book were not disappointed. Of course I know how to take cuttings and propagate plants, but that doesn’t detract from the enjoyment of vicariously propagating and from being inspired to get out there and start preparing for the coming year. This is, after all, why we buy more books. My first basic gardening books told me what I needed to know, but inspiration needs rekindling every so often, and that’s what this book does. I have read it from cover to cover, practically in one sitting, and I know it’s a book I will pick up and browse when I just want a few minutes’ time out. I will also refer to it when I want to check out what works for Carol Klein. I agree whole-heartedly with topping seeds with gravel. It works well fro me too. My only issue is with Carol's description of John Innes composts, where she talks about John Innes Seed compost and then potting on into John Innes No. 1, which confused me as I thought John Innes Seed compost and John Innes no 1 are the same thing.

The second book was from my beloved hubby, a treatise on the plants of Crete since we will be going there later this year. “Flowers of Crete” by John Fielding and Nicolas Turland, Ed Brian Matthew (ISBN 1 84246 X). I’m not sure I’ll be taking the book though, as it’s enormous. It’s very thorough and good to browse through. I also like the chapters on the local geology, geography and farming because that’s something often missed out by holiday guides. Many times I have been abroad and yearned to ask questions of local people about how they grow crops, prune their olives, and so on, but I don’t have the language. One thing I like to do is understand the environment which we’re visiting, but I don’t have the geological background to have more than a superficial understanding from what I see on the ground. I wish the book came in dvd form too so that I could take it on holiday on my netbook, which would save weight. The problem would be that people could easily rip it off, and that would be a real shame for the authors whose life's work this is.

The third book I was given was “Wild Wonders of Europe“ Peter Cairns, Florian Mullers, Staffan Wistrand and Bridget Wijnberg. This is basically a collection of gorgeous photographs by 78 (or 79…there seems to be some confusion with the two different figures in the book) in 48 countries, showing our natural world. It’s lovely just to browse through and admire in a quiet moment. Some photographs are quite experimental and not everyone’s cup of tea, but the quality is exceptional.

As growing photographer myself I found this book both inspirational and daunting. I remarked to my hubby that I didn’t feel I would ever get that good, but he said that some of my photos matched theirs for quality. One in particular is a picture face on to a damselfly, and I have a very similar shot myself. It’s encouraging that others think such shots worthy of inclusion in such works, because in both his and my photo, the depth of field is such that the body of the fly is out of focus, so all the attention is on that predatory head.