seventeen twenty two

I have been getting jobs done today such as cleaning the car, inside and out and cleaning the garden - in the process of putting it to bed for the winter. Cleared hellebores, pulsitilla, and chopped back hard some of the low hedging bushes. Many had dropped branches onto the ground and rooted up new plants while I wasn't looking over the summer. It's hard to imagine how overgrown it was now I have scraped it all back under the tree. I am going to dig a vegetable trench for next spring and sort out the trellis idea, I've decided. Aching muscles made me stop in the end, so I had a nice hot bath in the middle of the afternoon followed by a walk out with Halo.

Going to do yet another edit of the story now. I have used almost a ream of paper in editing it. I find I can't pick out my mistakes when it's on the screen - must be an acquired skill..

Five fifty six

OK I have completed the first draft. 

Six ten

I have reached the stage of actually writing my next tma02 short story. Having spent a longish time thinking and trying to come up with a workable idea. But I have suddenly hit a block 1700 words in and now having all manner of doubts about it all. I've been enjoying writing it so far though, I can seem to get right into it, emotionally and in my head. I am writing quite close to my memories and even kept some names in a couple of cases, for certain characters. The story has taken on a bit of a life of its own - or it had until I ran into this stumbling block. So today is going to be trying to find a way forwards. Now writing this at six am (still sleepy but I've decided I'll have a cup of tea and then resume a bit of sleep...)I've just had a thought or two occur to me, maybe to write into the story or emphasise at this point in the story the blocked and trapped nature of the main protagonist... Ok job done for this morning page!

Just woke up

Last night I was extremely tired. I encountered someone who said that there was some sort of sleeping bug going around:symptoms are feeling like you can't keep your eyes open and nausea. I feel fine this morning. Quite energised. But the sleep cycle stat for last night shows a rather strange sleep pattern. For those of you who don't know, sleep cycle is a cool app that makes use of the accelerometer in the iPad to record movement level during the night and hence produce a graph of levels of sleep (awake, asleep and deep sleep).

Today I am looking forward to a day off. I'm scheduled to work 1-1 with students this afternoon but due to strikes etc and school closures I am not seeing them. I have enjoyed working with them up to now. Wondering about their history given that they both apparently entered the country as unaccompanied asylum seekers, and now in OCC care system - and here I am teaching them extra maths. I could use that as a prompt for my short fiction. Speaking of which still no ideas or inspiration.

27th November

Blog day 1.

I usually write in my journal. I set this blog up a while ago and then abandoned it in favour of the journal again. Now I have revived the blog - the plan is to put up my writing efforts and anything else that I fancy along the way.

Yesterday I pruned my big ash tree, revealing an abandoned pigeon's nest. The pigeons got in there in the summer but I think they moved out after being raided by red kites. There were some eggs broken open at the base of the trunk and it was sad to see them there.