Time and tide wait for no woman.
Time has certainly caught up with me and this new profile picture is right up to date. I look a lot older these days and have often felt it this year as creativity deserted me while domestic dramas took over. Our beautiful daughter gave us our first grandchild in 2020 and this year, any day now, her sister will be born. Not only that, but we have a grandson too, who was born in May to our lovely daughter-in-law. So two big happy events this year but these joys were clouded by my beloved husband’s unexpected health crisis with cancer.
It’s been a tough time with trying delays, cancellations and decisions to be made and sometimes all we ever felt we did was wait for the next deadline. However, I am more pleased than I can ever express that he now has the all-clear after successful but major surgery.
I have had loads of spare time but no spare headspace while the waiting continued, seemingly for aeons. As such, I haven’t done much writing at all. I have tinkered with projects and spent quite a bit of time researching but mostly just fretting and doing lots of physical activities (which half killed me) as a distraction.
We celebrated the good news with another trip to Devon, going back to the posh hotel spa with a gorgeous infinity pool and massive jacuzzi. After a long meditation in a steam room with a fantastic white quartz crystal in its centre, and just before I was completely boiled alive, I had some tinglings of the muse returning. The feeling didn’t last long sadly, but oh, the joy of its return was immensely reassuring. The hotel in question was Boringdon Hall, just outside the maritime city of Plymouth. Both Queen Elizabeth 1st and Sir Francis Drake stayed there and I’m sure their spirits contributed to the ideas that surfaced during my stay.
We went to Plymouth Hoe to look out over the water where so many ships had been launched throughout history. Our dog, Sky, part border collie, part dolphin, was strolling down the grassy embankment that lead down to the sea wall. Between the green sward (of bowling fame where the Spanish Armada was sighted) lay a busy road and roundabout. Sky, when behaving as a dog, is incredibly sweet and obedient. Not so when he imagines he is a dolphin. He caught sight of the stretch of water ahead of us and simply took off towards it at a rate of knots (perhaps nautical ones?) However much we yelled at him, which is never normally necessary, he ignored us and pelted on down the steep slope, heading for the busy main road. We caught up with him with inches to spare at the gap in the railings – no gate! – just managing to stop him before he hurtled across the road, jumped over the sea wall and into the briny far below. Stress levels that had been lowered in the pampered environs of the spa now rose to red alert and took some persuading to go back down again!
So, what with one thing and another, I shan’t be publishing a new book this year. I’ve started three though! Hopefully, life will settle down in 2023 and that elusive muse will sit on my shoulder again, whispering encouragement in my ears. I hope so and will keep you lovely readers posted here.
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