Busy Month

It’s been over a month since I last blogged. I know, it’s disgraceful. What can I say? I’ve been working overtime, finishing the garden, and writing, so there’s honestly not been a moment spare. But I have no more overtime scheduled now until October, and the garden is more or less finished, so there are no excuses for not finishing my work-in-progress and writing my blog on time.

Last time we chatted, I was doing a spontaneous summer fete at Framlingham. So, how did it go? Not well, I’m afraid. The weather was gorgeous, there were endless stalls of arts and crafts, footfall was reasonably high, and I sold three books. Yep. Just three. It seems people in Framlingham are not readers. Moreover, they were aggressively illiterate. I would politely ask if they were readers, and they would glare angrily at me. What do you mean?! Do I look like I read?! How dare you suggest such a thing?

Time and again, I was shot down. So many times, I ended up riddled with bullet holes. It was an utter waste of time and money and of a beautiful Sunday when I could have been doing a variety of other things. I will not be doing any more fairs in Framlingham. It simply wasn’t worth it. But I had already booked to do an indie book fair in Framlingham this Saturday. I booked before this disaster occurred, so there’s not much I can do other than hope, as it’s an actual book fair, that it will bring the readers out in force. Or maybe no one reads in Framlingham. Who knows.

Since then, I’ve worked two weeks of overtime, and the weather went from summer back to winter to autumn and then back up to summer again. Yesterday, the weather was so gorgeous that we were able to sit outside all day and have lunch out there. It’s my mother’s birthday on the 12^th, and it’s Father’s Day on Sunday, so my parents came round for lunch to celebrate both of these occasions. It was so nice to be able to sit outside in my beautiful garden and eat lunch.

How is the garden going? Well, I’m happy to report that it is finished. There is nothing left to do now except to give the fences a top-up lick of paint, fill in any obvious gaps in the planting, and just generally maintain everything. My brother managed to find another three pallets somewhere and dropped them off at my parents’ house. Dad then took them apart and knocked out all the nails. I picked them up and brought them home, then spent the whole weekend applying three good coats of paint. I counted them up. We had 38 slats of varying widths and lengths. Would it be enough?

Dad called around to continue putting them up. We finished the run we’d begun previously and then assessed what was left to do. Part of the pergola roof runs alongside the bathroom extension, so there was a bit of cutting and patching to do there. We used the slightly wider boards so they wouldn’t look odd butting up to the thinner ones already up. We had just enough of the wider boards to fill to the end of the extension. Then we used the next thinnest boards. The pile of planks we had left was rapidly being depleted.

We won’t have enough, Dad kept saying.

We will, I replied, trying to sound confident. I’ve counted; we should have just enough.

And we did. Just. Only because the pergola goes to a point, so we needed shorter and shorter planks and were able to use up oddments. But it’s finished and looks amazing. The neighbour’s honeysuckle is making itself at home on it, and my rambling rose has already reached the top and is spreading out. I was hoping to get flowers on my rose this summer, but so far there’s been no sign of any buds. My boss, who knows about these things, says that as it’s the first summer of being in, I may not get any flowers this year, which is disappointing.

All finished.

Dad is not a fan of the rose. When he was working on the roof the damn thing viciously attacked him. He got his own back with a pair of secateurs, but I think that just made the rose angry.

Evil Rose.

A friend came to lunch a couple of weeks ago, and before we ate, we went to the local garden centre, and she helped me spend £100 on plants. That’s the best kind of shopping, isn’t it? All the fun of looking and choosing, none of the pain of paying for it. I bought two different kinds of hydrangeas, both white. One is already covered with huge flowers and has black twisty stems. It’s beautiful and has settled nicely in the garden. The other isn’t out yet, but apparently will have clusters of large white flowers. I also got all the plants needed for my hanging basket and pots. Lots of petunias in white, and purple, and some lovely ones that are deep purple with white splashes all over them. Also, white geraniums and some other purple and white flowering plants. Yes, the colour scheme of the pots in my front garden is purple and white again.

Beautiful hydrangea.

In bud, just waiting for it to bloom.

Bought this tall hydrangea last year. It’s just coming into flower now.

I can’t wait until the plants in my garden bloom. As I planted them in September last year, I haven’t seen any of them in flower yet. Hopefully, as they are all summer-long flowering plants, they should all bloom at the same time. You may remember that I went for all white flowers, so they should look amazing.

Ferns under the pergola. They really love it there.

Quirky, retro tin signs to add character to a blank wall.

A lovely, lush, secluded place to eat.

I cannot believe how quickly this year is passing by. It’s the longest day soon, and then it’s all downhill back into winter. At least I have started writing again. I’ve managed about 20,000 words since we last chatted. I suddenly realised that the end of September is fast approaching. I have set myself the goal of having my new book published in time for the Norwich Comic-Con taking place at the last weekend of September. This will be my third year attending, so I need something new for my stall. A lot of people come back every year to buy another book. Last year at least I had Mage Quest, which was new, but this year unless I get my arse in gear and write like a maniac I will have nothing new to offer.

Will I get another book out after that before the end of the year? Possibly. The next book scheduled to be written after this current one will be book seven of the Blackwood Family Saga. These are short, formulaic books. The characters are already created and developed. The world-building is complete. The front and back pages, I can just copy and paste as they are the same throughout the whole series. I have a rough idea of the plot in my head. I can knock out a Blackwood book in two weeks if I have nothing else to do. But I will have a lot on my plate from the end of September onwards.

The lady I job share with is away for almost the whole of October, so I am doing double my usual workdays that month. Yay for a decent pay packet just before Christmas, not so yay for not having any time to write. Then there’s the fact that although I will have the whole summer to myself, Franki and Rys will be moving in at the end of September. Their Master’s course will be over, so they are moving back here whilst they look for jobs and somewhere to live. Depending on how long that takes, they could be living here for a while. It’s a distraction having them in the house. It’s hard to write when other people are banging around and generally making noise.

I guess, if they both get jobs quite quickly, then they should be out during the week, so on my one day off during the week, Wednesday, I can try to write. But they’ll both probably be here during the weekends. We’ll have to see how it goes.

It is a concern. Franki will be taking her first steps out in the big, wide world and will discover for herself just how cold and scary it can be in the land of adulthood. They need to find jobs, save money for the deposit on a flat somewhere, and she needs to learn to drive. All these things take time and money. Lots of time and money. I wish I could help more, but I barely have enough money to survive myself, let alone help them out beyond giving them somewhere to live.

It will be lovely, though, if they find jobs and a home locally. So, they’ll be nearby, just not in my house. It’s a very small house, and when there are three of us, plus the lodger and only one bathroom, it can get a bit cramped.

What else have I been up to? It was a friend’s birthday a couple of weeks ago, so we caught the train to the next town where they were having an open-air music festival. The weather had gone from being gloriously hot to cold and rainy, so many fingers were crossed that it would at least stay dry. We walked from the station to the site where the festival was being held. It was about a mile and a half, so not far, but when you’re lugging a backpack full of drinks, snacks, wet weather gear, and carrying a camping chair, it began to feel like 100 miles. My friend’s husband took pity on me and carried my backpack in exchange for me carrying his chair. It still felt like a very long way, though.

Reaching the site, we picked our spot and settled down. Drinks were poured as we waited for the rest of our party to arrive. Two of the birthday girl’s friends arrived with dogs. Now, I like most dogs, so I petted them after the owner assured me they were friendly. Hmm, yeah, one of them made a lunge for me and bit my hair. I was a bit startled. The poor thing got a huge mouthful of Aussie Miracle curl cream and curling mousse, though, so I think it regretted its choices.

The bands were diverse and great. There was a lot of 90s music played, and I lost track of how many times we heard Parklife. Chips were on sale, and to my joy, they weren’t fried in rapeseed oil. The rain stayed mostly away. It spit-spotted a couple of times, but as it was almost oppressively muggy, it didn’t matter at all. We stayed until the very end, when dusk was settling over the site and the last act came on. A brilliant 90s cover band, they played loud and proud all the classics from Oasis, Blur, Pulp, etc., and the crowd went wild. We were dancing in front of the stage. Someone started a conga that we managed to duck out of, and people just had a great time.

By now, it was dark, and we had that long trek back to the station ahead of us. Yes, my backpack was considerably lighter as I’d drunk all the drinks and eaten all the snacks, but my feet were killing me from all that dancing. Luckily, one of the birthday girl’s friends offered us a lift home in his nice cosy car, so that was a relief.

The next morning, my feet and legs throbbed with pain, and my throat was hoarse from all the singing, but it was worth it.

Speaking of birthdays, this time of year is ripe with them. I had my friends a couple of weeks ago; it was my goddaughters at the end of May. It was Mum’s on the 12^th. Father’s Day is on Sunday. My dad’s birthday is at the end of June. My birthday is mid-July, as is my niece’s. Franki’s birthday is mid-August, and another friend’s is at the end of August. All big birthdays that require cards, gifts, and outings. Summer is almost as expensive for me as Christmas.

Another expense coming up is that I need all my windows sanded down, filled, and re-stained.  The last time they were done was Spring 2020, so they desperately need to be done. I should have had it done last summer, but money and time got away from me. They must be done this summer, though. There are places where the wood is crumbling, so it needs to be filled and stained before the wet weather sets in again.

I floated my job on Bark, which is an online “find a tradesman” website. A couple of local decorators came back to me. One seemed promising, so we arranged for him to come and look at the job and give me a quote last Wednesday. My parents had also recommended a man in their village who was retired but still taking on little decorating jobs to keep himself busy. He painted their lounge last year and did a very good job of it.

The guy from Bark came around. He was a very nice man and seemed to know what he was talking about. Now, when the windows were last done in 2020, it cost me £400. I was, of course, expecting it to be more than that now. Prices have gone up across the board. The guy looked at the windows, then quoted me £1250. I was flabbergasted. It was three times what I paid last time. I thanked him, said I’d think about it and let him know, then texted my parents’ man. He phoned me back, arranged to call round later that day, arrived, looked at the job, and gave me a quote of £200-£300 cash, all the tea he could drink, and chocolate Hobnobs.

Umm, no brainer really.

So, that’s happening soon. It will be a relief to get them weatherproof before winter. I’m not a decorator, but I know enough to realise that jobs like that can’t be left. They go from being an expensive job to a very expensive job if you do.

Anyway, it’s getting late and I’m getting hungry. I am sorry I missed a blog. It wasn’t intentional. Life has been a bit heavy lately, and my heart has not been in a lot of things. But I am making a conscious effort to tick things off my to-do list, and the first was to catch up with my blog.

I hope wherever you are in the world, you are well. Stay safe, and I look forward to chatting with you next time.

Julia Blake