Guys, you are all the absolute best! I say this because I am the absolute worst. I don’t even know how long it’s been since I last wrote a post for you, probably about as long as it’s been since I posted a podcast.
It’s all been a bit of an adjustment the last few months. I’ve moved into my forever home, which is very exciting. It’s been about three and a half months since we moved in, and we have mostly stopped unpacking – not that we have finished, we’ve reached the point where we don’t really unpack any more unless we need something that hasn’t found it’s place yet.
Beastie turned ten, and got three fish in a tank for his birthday – a collaborative effort with my parents, Mrs Teddybear, and myself. He loved it. I posted a video of him squeaking his excitement on my instagram (which I’m pretty sure a link can be found in my profile – but I’ll check).
We’ve had a pellet fire installed, in place of the open fire that was original, just in time for the coldest part of winter. It’s almost funny, because despite being the coldest part of winter, it’s behaving like spring outside. I have one of many rhododendrons in full flower, three jonquils in flower, camellias which are just getting started flowering, one tiny yellow rose (though they’ve been pruned fairly hard so I don’t expect any more until much, much later in the year).
I have a proper garden, full of flowers, and Dad built me a raised vegetable garden. If you do follow me on instagram you’ve almost certainly seen pictures of that – it has a reading bench! (Secretly, it’s also a kneeling bench for when I need to reach the middle of the structure – which is the back of the vegetable section, because my Dad knows me so well, in addition to the fact that certain plants prefer not to share their space, that he has sectioned it up for me.) I even have my herbs moved in, except for the parsley, it likes to take over. I did it myself too. I even have four fledgling strawberry plants in their own special section, and a row each of beetroot and carrot – those two are a bit experimental, it is still winter after all. But with any luck the raised bed and sunny position will keep them from freezing and they will germinate in the next couple of weeks. I even have some bok choy sprouting in a little recycled cardboard … thing inside the house.
Considering the fact that I think of myself as more of a black thumb, I’m ridiculously excited about my garden. The roses all got badly over grown, and have been pruned, and there are A LOT of weeds coming up through the white stones, and bark (depending on which individual garden). I’ve taken up composting, which will be great for when we start pulling out the excessive bulbs (most of which are starting to come up) next year after they die down.
I haven’t been doing nearly as much writing as I would like/need to. As I’ve been focusing on getting a number of projects off my bench, so to speak. Two of which are time sensitive, one is somewhat ongoing, and one I need better light (and all four of them are distinct projects). As for time sensitive, one is my party dress for my thirty-second birthday which is just over a month away, and I have made a dress form (with the gleeful help of Mrs Teddybear, and Dad – who built the frame for it which resembles the gallows from the spelling game: hangman).
I’ve been going to Stitch Kitchen sewing bees, helping with the Borrow Bags project. It’s fun, and social, and gets me out of the house once a week.
My health hasn’t been super awesome lately. I spent a night in ED, on my son’s birthday – one of very few times I was glad he wasn’t with me that week. I’ve invented a meal replacement shake/smoothie that works for me because whatever is wrong with me (and we still don’t know, even after nearly ten years) affects my appetite, some days, is nonexistent to middling. And liquid calories are better than no calories.
I’ve been reading a lot. The lack of energy from Captain Nemo (Peach has given my unknown condition a name) has left me with a lot of time on my hands. I can’t remember everything that I’ve read, though I have been relatively diligent about adding them to my Goodreads read list, so feel free to follow along. Not that my ‘To Read’ list has gotten any shorter with all the reading. In fact I’ve added books to the shelves, I even found some books that have been in boxes for years. I picked up a pretty good haul at this year’s 24 hour book sale – some of which were even research books for one of my story ideas. Ssshh it’s a secret, so I can’t tell you what it’s about yet.
But I’m super excited for NaNoWriMo this November and getting back to my Ode to Gorgeous Boy, that isn’t really poetry, it’s just poeticising a novel for descriptive purposes. I also have one book, my Vegas wedding one, that I’ve grown to hate, but I have to finish it before I can bury it. I have a lot more open stories on the board than I generally like. And I had hoped to finish at least one of them, but I haven’t had the mental energy.
In saying that, my mental health is pretty damn good. My recent stint as a hermit has more to do with saving money for my birthday bash than not wanting to go out. I want nothing more than to get out, and do things and socialise. But I go to the sewing bee when I can, and Mrs Teddybear comes most weeks.
In more ‘Author-y’ news, I have decided to stop the podcasts – which you may have noticed, if you’ve been following them. I just can’t manage it. And though, if you’ve been following along, it’s probably obvious that I’m no longer updating it; but I felt that you all deserved an explanation.
I’ve also made new friends on Twitter, if your really interested in meeting other writers on Twitter, especially if you’re a new writer, or a writer new to Twitter, the place to start is by searching up #WritersTable. It is a great group of writers, who support each other both on the writing front and holding each other up, in the face of any mental health/anxiety gremlins.
I need to post a lot more often than I have been, but every time I have picked up the laptop to write a post… the words just wouldn’t come. It was like I didn’t know what to say to you since I moved into my new home.
I have plans to write up a post with a couple of recipes, but maybe I’ll do that tomorrow. Otherwise, you know as well as I do by now, I don’t post on a schedule, but as inspiration strikes. So I’ll see you in the near future with more ramblings from a writer.
Talia's Writing Nook 