Grand Lake Ink

Away the Lads!

2009-06-06T15:28:00.001-05:00

A belated congratulations to my local football team back in England, Burnley F.C. The Clarets victory over Sheffield United gained them promotion to the Premier League after an absence of 33years. (In fact, 33 years ago the Premier League didn’t exist, it was just Division One). Back in 1882, Burnley F.C. was one of the founder members of the Football League and is now finally back in its rightful place. Well done lads, I’m proud of you. My son-in-law took my 12-year-old grandson to Wembley to see the match, a thrilling experience for them both.

Digging in the Dirt

The other day I was playing in the muck, and finally getting a few flowers planted. I usually get it done much earlier than this, but it has been such a wet and stormy spring that the job kept getting put off. This particular day was really cloudy and cool, thus a perfect gardening day for me, as I loathe laboring in the heat. The weather reminded me of summer days in England, endless gray skies, with the ever-present threat of rain. In fact, I had no sooner put in the first plant than the heavens opened. Fortunately, it was only a heavy shower, so it didn’t deter me for long. And it’s a good thing that I got the gardening done when I did, today it’s hot and sunny again.

I have added more perennials to the garden this year, though it’s always hit and miss whether they come back, some are more tolerant of the cold winters than others. I will put some photos up, once the plants get established. Our veggie garden is coming along great, if you’re interested you can check out Mick’s blog at http://oklahomegrownveg.blogspot.com/

Toodle pip for now.

This and that

2009-05-17T17:38:00.004-05:00

Lendonwood Gardens - Grove, Oklahoma

It’s been a long time, but I’ve been ill – again! Surprise, surprise! By now, I’m sure you all must think that I’m a complete hypochondriac. The truth is, ordinarily I am not a sick person, but these past few months it just seems to have been one thing after another. (Sigh!)

This latest ailment was the flu, and it was a bad one. The doctor said he didn’t think it was swine flu, but as he gave me his diagnosis over the phone after telling me not to come into the office, I’m not sure how reliable it was. But he did put me on anti-viral meds as a precaution.

The worst thing about this flu, was when all the fever symptoms began to abate, I couldn’t keep any food down. On the plus side I did lose 8 pounds, but I would not recommend this particular method of weight loss. :-(

The illness also put me behind with my latest assignment for Oklahoma Living Magazine, as the doctor had told me to avoid all contact with people until my symptoms were gone. My editor did extend my deadline, but it was still a bit of a push to get it done in time. Sometimes the writing just refuses to flow. This piece was about a local mushroom farm – a fascinating place to visit – but tricky to write about.

Until I started doing my research for this article, I had no idea what a complex process growing mushrooms is. If you’re interested you can take a short video tour of a mushroom farm here: http://www.mushroominfo.com/aboutmushrooms/howmushroomsgrow.html
The site also has lots of information about mushrooms, and some great recipes.

There was yet more doom and gloom in our house this week. I got my entries back from the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation contest, and I won a big fat zero, not even so much as a measly honorable mention. Oh hum. On the plus side, I did get some excellent marks from the judges and some very favorable comments, but I guess others just did better. Oh well, you can’t win them all, and there’s always next year.

Way back when I last posted, I did say I would tell you what I was up to in 1973. In that dim and distant past, I was 16 and doing my O – levels at school. Back then they were called GCE’s, (General Certificate of Education). You took a GCE in each subject you studied, (provided the teacher thought you had a chance of passing), up to a maximum of 10. I took 7 and passed 7. Later, I did take 3 more and passed those too.

These exams are not like the tests you do here, where you get multiple choice answers to questions that you can have a stab at it even if you don’t know the answer. (Please correct me if I'm wrong, but that's the impression I get). You actually have to answer many questions in essay form, and marks are deducted for sloppy handwriting, poor spelling, grammar and punctuation. You have to know your stuff and be able to present it in a logical manner.

My granddaughter is taking these exams at the moment, though now they are called GCSE’s – General Certificate of Secondary Education. I’m wishing her lots of luck – not that she needs it – she is one smart cookie.

Also in 1973, I was dating my first boyfriend, he too was doing his GCE’s though we didn’t attend the same school. All my friends were really jealous of me, because he was so good looking and played bass guitar in a band. It was all very innocent, but they were happy days.

It was also the year I made my first trip to Italy. My mum had an Italian friend, and the previous year, she and her husband had decided to move back to Rome. In 1973 they invited us for a visit. It was a fantastic holiday. And when we got back to England I remember my mum phoning to get my GCE results, while I stood outside the phone box panicking. All in all, I have very fond memories of 1973.

Toodle pip for now.

1973 and all that.

2009-04-07T17:51:00.005-05:00

Our Garden is coming to life - Apple Blossom on our Fuji apple tree

Tulips

I’m back! At long last.

I thought I was going to get through flu season unscathed this year, but it wasn’t to be. I didn’t have flu, but I did have one stinker of a cold. To make matters worse, I had a story to write for Oklahoma Living Magazine about a local botanical garden, and if the illness wasn’t enough to thwart me, the weather had to conspire against me as well. Every time I would arrange an interview and a visit to the gardens there would be a thunderstorm, or a snowstorm, or freezing conditions, and it would have to be postponed. I had a few hairy moments when I thought this story would never get done, but I just snuck in under the wire. Oh hum.

More tulips

Also, early last year, I wrote a piece about my local vet who has volunteered his services in the Iditerod, that great Alaskan dog race, on four occasions. At the time I couldn’t provide a link to it as it wasn’t a feature story, but it has finally appeared in the archives. Even so, I can’t give a direct link, you’ll need to scroll through to pages 40-41 to read it, but if you’re interested you can find it here: http://www.ok-living.coop/media/February08.pdf

A dog sled team crossing the frozen Yukon River

Anyway, the dental problems are gradually getting sorted, at great expense I hasten to add. And I did have to cancel my last appointment because of my bad cold, but I am hoping that the next appointment may be the last, for a while at least.

I’m still doing well with the no smoking, it’s been just over 5 weeks now. Yay! I won’t say I don’t miss the ciggies, because I still do. Though I am now able to go for quite long periods without thinking about them. The worst times are still when I am writing under pressure of a deadline, then I could absolutely murder one. I was as grumpy as hell this past weekend, so I kicked Mick, and shouted at the cats. :-) Oh well, nobody said it was going to be easy.

Speaking of smoking, that reminds me of a fantastic British detective series I watched quite recently called Life on Mars. In it the main protagonist, a young detective, is involved in a car accident and finds himself transported back to 1973. He doesn’t know whether he’s dead, in a coma, or mad. To him, 1973 feels like being on another planet, hence the title. Anyway, my point is, what really strikes you about the program is the fact that everyone smokes, and a permanent fog of smoke hangs over every room in the police station.

It also got me thinking about 1973, because back then I hadn’t yet taken up with the evil weed, in fact I despised smoking, probably because both my parents smoked. It also brought back other memories of 1973, but more of that next time. If you were around in 1973, what were you doing back then?

Toodle pip for now.

A Few Bits and Bobs

2009-03-14T16:48:00.006-05:00

I know, I know, I’ve been slacking on the blogging front once again, and my sincere apologies for not getting around to visit with you much. I wish I could say I’ve been busy, but alas, I haven’t. In fact, I have been avoiding doing any writing because it still makes me crave the dreaded weed too much. I’m a sad case. But I need to get my act together, as I have two assignments coming up soon for Oklahoma Living Magazine. Anyway, as of this moment I have gone 13 days, 16 hours and 5 minutes without a fag (ciggie), and I do want to thank you all for your supportive comments on my last post, they were much appreciated.

I also want to say a big thank you to Pam, one of my cooking blog buddies, for the info about Allen Carr’s book, The Easy Way to Quit Smoking. I have almost finished reading his book, and have downloaded his audio tape from the Interweb. It does recommend reading the book before listening to the tape, so that’s what I’m doing. It’s been tremendously helpful, I only wish I had read it before I quit, as he does really dispel many of the myths about smoking that all smokers are guilty of believing.

Anyway, enough about my filthy old habit. Last month when I went to renew my tags, I was handed a new license plate.

Personally I preferred the old ones as they were much more colorful. What do you think?

There are, however, good reasons for the change, which if you’re interested you can read about here: http://www.reddirtreport.com/news.php?id=7519

Last weekend we thought spring had sprung in our little corner of the world. My daffs were up and basking in 70/80°F temps and bobbing in the balmy breezes.

Fortunately, my tulips were not going to be fooled into an early spring, and a good thing too, as Monday it rained and the wind began to blow from the north, so it was all change once again. Now my daffs are looking decidedly droopy. Oh hum.

Toodle pip for now.

Quitting Smoking and an Award

2009-03-01T18:40:00.003-06:00

"As an example to others, and not that I care for moderation myself, it has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain when awake." So said Mark Twain, and I have adhered to that same policy for 30 years. I’m a smokaholic! But today, I decided to quit.

That last statement is not strictly accurate, I actually decided to give up smoking before Christmas, and set a date of February 1st. But, then I got all stressed out over these dental problems, and the date got deferred to March 1st. The dental treatment isn’t over yet, I still have to go back for more tooth grinding to correct my bite, but I figured continuing to smoke will only exacerbate the gum disease. So I’m biting the bullet, well, not exactly, I’ve actually stuck on one of those nicotine patches, and am trying to give up.

Mark Twain understood a lot about smoking, "Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it hundreds of times." Twain was quite right, it is easy to give up, it’s not starting again that’s the problem. I can’t say I’ve tried to quit hundreds of times, but a few. I’ve tried nicotine gum and patches several times, I’ve been prescribed pills by the doctor, I’ve even tried hypnosis, but I’ve always started again.

The reason I always cave in is because I really enjoy smoking. On previous occasions when I’ve quit I do okay at first, but after a few months I start thinking about the torment of years without a cigarette, and then I snap. Once again Mark Twain was right on the money when he said, "...when they used to tell me I would shorten my life ten years by smoking, they little knew the devotee they were wasting their puerile words upon -- they little knew how trivial and valueless I would regard a decade that had no smoking in it!"

Today, I’m finding it very difficult to string a sentence together, I can’t write without a cigarette smoldering in the ashtray. I keep getting up and wandering listlessly around the house, gazing out of the window, fiddling with pens and pencils, molding a piece of silly putty. Nothing satisfies, because there is something missing from my life. It’s not that I’m craving nicotine, because this patch is feeding me a regular dose of that, but I am craving the simple pleasure of smoking. That’s because I’m an addict. Addictions, however, can be broken, and I am determined to do the best I can to break mine. Wish me luck.

An Award

Finally I must apologize to Josephine over at http://abritintn.blogspot.com/ she very kindly gave me this award and I am only now getting around to posting about it. I’m such a slacker! Thank you so much Josephine, I appreciate your passing it along to me. I’m going to pass the award onto Pam at http://pamokc.blogspot.com/

Toodle pip for now.

Watch Out! There’s a Virus About

2009-02-15T15:21:00.002-06:00

Today, on a quiet Sunday stroll around the Interweb, I was suddenly interrupted by a message, allegedly from Microsoft, warning me that several of my computer files were corrupted with a virus. It also told me to download software to clear the virus.

Immediately alarm bells began ringing in my head. Back in 2002, my old computer was struck by a virus, and the only way hubby could get rid of it was to completely wipe my hard-drive. At that time, I had no back-up system in place and lost everything.

This time, I looked at the web address where the message originated – there was no mention of Microsoft. I ought to have made a note of it, but didn’t. Sorry! I know it said www police, and ended with promo 3. I immediately closed down the Internet, and set my own anti-virus program running – it detected nothing. I then went onto the Internet, clicked on Tools, and Internet Options, and deleted my browsing history, and all cookies.

Just thought I should pass this along in case it happens to any of you. Be careful out there.

Toodle Pip for now.

Teething Troubles 2 and a Meme

2009-02-08T19:20:00.004-06:00

Ernest Shackleton's ship, Endurance,
trapped in the ice pack.
(Photo by Frank Hurley - 1915)

I’m sorry to read in the comments that several of you are also have teething troubles, you have my complete sympathy. I have to go back to the periodontist on Tuesday to have my bite corrected. This will mean 3 hours in the chair having my teeth ground into alignment, followed by a hefty bill. I can hardly wait. :-(

A while ago, Gill, at http://thatbritishwoman.blogspot.com/ challenged me to come up with 10 things I love beginning with the letter "A," so here we go, and in no particular order:

ANTARCTICA, I have a fascination with the place, and love reading about the early exploration of this icy continent by such men as Shackleton, Scott, and Amundson.
APPLE CRUMBLE, it’s one of my favorite puddings (desserts), especially when smothered in custard.
ANIMALS, especially my three cats. And I love elephants, even though I don’t have one around the place. We have a big yard, but not that big! But I was lucky enough to see elephants in the wild, on a trip to Kenya many moons ago.
ALPHABET, I love words, but then they are my stock and trade. I’m one of those people who picks up the dictionary to check a spelling or a definition and gets distracted by other words.
ARIZONA, I love the Grand Canyon, and have seen it twice. My step-daughter got married there.
ANNIE PROULX, I love all her books, but if I had to pick a favorite, it would be "That Old Ace in the Hole."
AFTERNOONS, I’m not a morning person, even though I get up early most days.
ALCOHOL, especially wine, and particularly cabernet sauvignon.
THE ADRIATIC SEA, I love the Greek Islands, and the sea that surrounds them is so beautiful and clear.
AMAZON, because I love books and reading.

I’ve changed the rules a bit as not everyone wants to play along with these meme games.

If you would like me to assign you a letter, let me know in your comment on this blog.
Write about ten things you love that begin with said letter.
Post the list on your blog, and invite your readers to play along.

Toodle pip for now.

Endurance, crushed by the ice pack.

Photo by Frank Hurley - 1915

Teething Troubles

2009-01-31T16:27:00.003-06:00

Does anyone else hate dentists as much as I do? When I lived in England I was really good about going to see the dentist, and went every six months. Since moving to the US, I have to say that my dental visits have been a bit erratic, to say the least. Probably because I know that whenever I go, despite having insurance, it’s going to cost a bloody arm and a leg. Hell, you need to re-mortgage the house just to get your teeth cleaned here.

So in mid-December, when I began experiencing some discomfort in an area of my gums, I thought, uh oh this feels expensive. But I called the dentist’s office, and was offered an appointment five weeks hence. I complained a bit, but as the pain was not bad, I didn’t make too much fuss.

By the time I got to see them last week, it was a lot worse. They took a whole bunch of x-rays, and scared me to death by telling me I definitely had something going on back there, but they didn’t know what. Of course, in my mind it had to be cancer of the jaw, at the very least. They also said I had lost quite a bit of bone around my teeth, so they were referring me to a periodontist. Needless to say, the nearest one was 50 miles away in Joplin, Missouri. (Sigh)

On Monday, I called the periodontist’s office, only to be told that the appointment would be for March. This time I did complain about the pain, and she gave me an appointment for Thursday. Then on Monday afternoon, the ice storm moved in. So not only am I bricking it wondering what’s wrong with my gum, but I’m also thinking I’m not even going to be able to get there.

On Tuesday, the weather conspired against me still further by adding a hefty layer of snow on top of the ice. And the trouble with this area of Oklahoma is they do little or nothing about gritting or plowing the roads, so the whole place just grinds to a halt.

So on Wednesday, when the receptionist called to find out if I would be at my appointment, we got chatting, and it turns out she travels to work from this area. She told me that all the main roads were clear, but the side streets were still bad. And I thought, well if she can get there, I can.

To cut a long story short, it turns out that the problem with my gum is something to do with my bite being out of line. The dentist gave it some fancy name which I can’t remember. Whatever it was, it wasn’t cancer of the jaw. You can’t imagine my relief. So he gave me some antibiotics, and told me to go back next week for my teeth grinding into line, which sounds like a lot of fun. :-( He also said he would give me his full diagnosis then. At least all the teeth are not going to have to come out, (another of my worries), or why bother grinding them.

I must just tell you this little anecdote about my time in the chair. This morning I was reading Sarah's blog: http://britgalusa.com/ and she was talking, among other things, about how we Brits have to curb our sarcasm here. The girl at the periodontist's who took my x-rays, also coated my teeth with a red dye, which helped to reveal plaque build-up. She said to me, "Most kids learn how to brush their teeth in kindergarten, here we have to teach adults how to do it." I wanted to reply, "That's funny, at school in England they taught us how to read and write." But I bit my tongue. It's no wonder I'm having all these oral problems. :-)

Anyway, on a brighter note, I did manage to get my entries in to the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation Contest. I normally send entries to seven or eight categories, but this year, with all the worry about my teeth, I couldn’t concentrate, and only entered four. I’ve sent in a short-short story, a short story, a feature article, and a piece of nostalgic prose. So it’s fingers crossed now. Wish me luck.

Toodle pip for now.

Interview with Gill, That British Woman

2009-01-25T12:59:00.001-06:00

You can find my interview with Gill here:

http://thatbritishwoman.blogspot.com/2009/01/i-am-being-interviewed.html

Thanks for playing along Gill.

Interview with Lakeland Jo

2009-01-24T11:46:00.002-06:00

I interviewed Lakeland Jo this week, you can read here answers here:

http://lifeinwindermere.blogspot.com/2009/01/exclusive.html

Thanks for playing along, Jo.

Interview

2009-01-17T18:25:00.004-06:00

I am being interviewed by Pam at http://pamokc.blogspot.com/ The rules are posted below, if you want to be interviewed by me, leave me a message telling me so and I'll come up with some questions.

Pam asked:

1. Since your move to Oklahoma, what do you find you like best about the area? Also what is most annoying?

One of the things I like best about living in this area of Oklahoma is the wide open spaces, and big yards/gardens. After 9 years of apartment living in California, I love that this house is on an acre lot, and none of the neighbors but right up against us. It’s also very peaceful, as the house is at the very end of a small cul-de-sac, so no one comes down here unless they’re coming to see us, or they’re lost.

And I love that people here are so darn friendly, I have made far more friends here than I ever did in California.

I also like that I am sort of famous in my little town, well, at the vet’s, the filling station, and the bank. :-)

One of the things I find most annoying about living in such a rural area is the fact that my nearest supermarket is 16 miles away, grocery shopping has had to become a detailed battle campaign.

I also dislike being so far away from the ocean, I love the sea and seafood, I miss being able to walk on the beach, and buy decent fish.

Another thing I hate is the way people abuse our beautiful countryside by throwing litter all over it. The local newspaper published an article from me on this very subject, but it hasn’t made a blind bit of difference.

The final annoying thing for me is the fact that there is no recycling program in this town/area. Although we compost, and donate our cans to the local humane society, all our plastics, glass, and paper go into the landfill, I hate that.

2. Lake District England vs. Lake District Oklahoma – is it safe to compare the two areas?

The short answer to that is, no. The long answer, absolutely not. :-)

Seriously, Pam, while this area of Lake District Oklahoma is very beautiful, the lakes here were man-made in order to supply the growing need for hydro electric power. So the lakes in these parts can in no way compare to the natural grandeur and majesty of the English Lakes. Sorry!

3. Have you always been a writer, and can you tell us a little bit more about how you came into your writing career?

No, I have not always been a writer, in fact, I am a relative newcomer to the craft, but, from a very early age, I loved books, and reading. I actually wrote my first short story in 2002, after reading Stephen King’s book, On Writing, which incidentally, I consider to be one of the best books on writing I have ever read. That first story was utter crap, as were subsequent ones, but the only way to learn this craft is to keep practicing.

For the first couple of years, I can only describe myself as a bit of a dabbler at this writing lark, and never saw myself giving up the day job to pursue it seriously. Then in October, 2004, I joined my writer’s group, Grand Lake Wordsmiths Unlimited, and they were so encouraging of my work, that I began branching out into non-fiction. Until joining the group I had only ever written fiction, mostly short stories, and I had started a novel, but threw in the towel on it after about 25,000 words. I did start another novel, and got slightly further with it than the first one, but still abandoned it.

Three other things contributed to my starting to take myself seriously as a writer.

Jobs are few and far between in this area, and I had been unsuccessful in my efforts to find one.
In May 2006, I won first place in the essay category of the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation annual contest. This was quickly followed by getting a few articles published in local papers, and then in August I got a break with Oklahoma Living Magazine. The article was a little 600 word piece about Oklahoman Sylvan Goldman, the inventor of the shopping cart, which I sent to the mag on spec. The editor liked it, and I have since written for them on a regular basis, as well as anyone else who will take my stuff.
My husband, Mick is so supportive of my writing. If he didn’t continue to toil away doing the day job, then I couldn’t continue to do this. I can only hope that one day I will earn enough to support us both. After all, one of my favorite writers, Annie Proulx, was 58 when her first book was published.

4. You say you are the reluctant cook – have you come to enjoy cooking more over time?

To be perfectly honest, I have to say that I did used to hate cooking, now I merely dislike it, so I must have come to enjoy it a bit more. :-) The funny thing is, cooking is something I’m good at, but if someone else would cook for me, I’d let them.

5. I love the name Ticklemouse. Can you tell me how he came to have this name, and a few other quirky, fun things about your cats.

Tommy Ticklemouse as a kitlet, helping out in Mick's office

Tommy morphed into Tommy Ticklemouse after living with us for a few days. Tommy first appeared in our yard as a stray kitten, enticed by the smell of our BBQ. We think he had been living under our shed, for how long we don’t know, but the poor little mite was starving. At first he would stand over by the wood pile and yowl at us, and Mick would say, "Ey up, little Tommy Tucker is here, singing for his supper," the line comes from a nursery rhyme.

We fed him, of course., and after a couple of nights he began to come over to the sit with us on the porch. A few days later he moved in, and then Mick began saying, "Little Tommy Ticklemouse, lived in a little house," from another nursery rhyme, and this time the name stuck. Tommy (AKA Tickle, Man of Mystery, amongst others), was the last cat to join our household, and I don’t think that he has ever forgotten that we rescued him, he is certainly the best natured, most loving and loveable of our 3 cats.

Wilson - Slobbo Puss

Wilson, (AKA Squeaky, Willie Wombat, Wilburn, among many others), was our first adoption from the humane society, and he was about 5 years old at the time. They had called him Sparky, I’ve no idea why, as he is spark out most of the time. Unfortunately for Wilson, he had been de-clawed, and had never been outside, so I began taking him for walks around our yard. The neighbors thought it was a hoot that he followed me around like a little dog. He will now happily wander around the yard on his own, or with the other cats. We have no fences to keep him in but he never ventures far, and he does at least get a bit of an outdoor life. Most of the time though, he’s our slobbo puss, our lounge lizard. He likes nothing better than a comfy knee to sit on, and his belly tickling.

Alvin - The Terminator

Alvin was another adoption from the humane society, but he was only a kitten when we got him. He was always a naughty little chipmunk, hence the name. Alvin is now a predator, (AKA Arnie,or The Terminator, amongst many others), he sleeps all day and hunts all night. He is a very aloof cat, and is definitely the alpha male amongst our lot, but he’s smart enough to recognize that mummy is numero uno in this pecking order. I don’t need an alarm clock with Alvin around, every morning at 7:30 am, he climbs on the bedroom window ledge and yowls at me to let him in.

Want to be interviewed by me? Here are the instructions:

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions).
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions and let me know when you have posted it, so I can link to it.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Oklahoma Writer's Federation Inc. (OWFI)

2009-01-11T16:42:00.003-06:00

Once again, my apologies for not having been around much this year, there is nothing wrong, but thank you Daffodilly for your concern.

January is always a very busy time for me as the deadline for the OWFI contest looms at the end of the month. There are 33 different categories covering a wide range of writing topics such as short stories, poetry, articles, essays, fiction and non fiction books. Which is great, as writers of all genres can find something to suit their style among the many options available.

Anyway, I’ve been working hard on my entries, writing some new stuff, and ensuring existing manuscripts are error free and contest ready. When my writer’s group, Grand Lake Wordsmiths Unlimited, met this week the conversation was all about the contest. We always check each other’s work before submission, as another pair of eyes is invaluable in seeking out mistakes. The main problem is, you know your own work so well that you tend to skim when reading, and end up missing errors.

I have been entering this contest for four years, and have won in two different categories, as well as being awarded places and honorable mentions. Entering writing contests is a good discipline for writers, as it forces you to revise, and edit your work, and to meet a deadline, just as you would have to for a publisher or editor.

If anyone is interested in joining OWFI, and you don’t need to be resident in Oklahoma to do so, you can find out more about them on their web site at: http://www.owfi.org/ As well as the contest, they also hold a writer’s conference every year in early May. It usually takes place in Oklahoma City, but this year it will be held in Norman, OK, and the key speaker is best-selling author, Tess Gerritson.

Toodle pip till next time.

Boxing Day

2008-12-26T13:10:00.004-06:00

Boxing Day which falls on the 26th December is a public holiday in Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and has nothing to do with pugilism, or getting rid of Christmas wrappings. It was originally a day when alms were distributed to the poor, and servants/employees received gifts in money and kind from their masters.

Alms or poor boxes were placed in every parish church. Traditionally, these were opened the day after Christmas and the money distributed to the poor of the parish.

Household servants were always required to work on Christmas Day, and were given the following day off to spend with their families. It was customary for their employers to give them gifts of money and food.

It was also a time when wealthy estate owners would box up their leftover food, and unwanted gifts, and distribute them among the tenant farmers who worked their land.

All these gifts were usually placed in wooden, or clay boxes, hence the term Boxing Day.

Boxing Day traditions have fallen somewhat by the wayside, today it is seen more as a day for hitting the Christmas sales than for giving to the poor. The original concept, however, has not been totally lost, as it is still customary to tip trades people such as the postman, milkman (yes, we actually get milk delivered to our doorsteps in Britain), newspaper boys and girls, and refuse collectors. Also, many employers do give bonuses to their employees at Christmas. Today though, these tips and bonuses are usually given before Christmas.

Happy Boxing Day everyone.

Happy Christmas

2008-12-24T16:35:00.003-06:00

I’m doing a bit of a cheat here, as I’ve posted both these items on my other blog, so my apologies to those of you who read both. It’s just that there’s not a lot happening around here, except the usual Christmasy things. I’ve been doing battle at the stores buying presis and groceries. Ensuring that the postal service stays in business by spending a fortune mailing cards and presis back to England. Decorating the Christmas tree, and hanging stockings on the fireplace for us and the cats. As well as baking up a storm. It’s also been bloody perishingly cold, my neighbor told me today that her outside thermometer registered 0°F on Sunday and Monday nights. Brrrrrr.

But I did want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who takes the trouble to stop by here and comment, and to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and the best of New Years.

I hope this joke gives you a giggle.

HOLIDAY FRUITCAKE

With Christmas coming, here’s a fruitcake recipe that will help take the stress out of this normally stressful time.

Ingredients:

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups dried fruit
1 tsp salt
1 cup brown sugar
3 oz lemon juice
1 cup nuts
1 gallon Absolut Vodka

First sample the vodka to check for freshness. Take a large bowl. Check the vodka again to be sure it is of the highest quality.

Pour 1 level cup of the vodka and drink it. Repeat. Repeat again.

Turn on electric mixer; beat 1 cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add water, eggs and 1 tsp sugar and beat again.

Make surr the vodka is still OK. Cry another tup.

Turn off mixers. Chuck in the cup of dried fruitt or something. Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck on the beaterers, pry it loose with a Drewsciver.

Sample the vodka to check for consistancity.

Next sniff two cups of salt. Or something. Who cares?

Check the vodka. Now sniff the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Spoon. Of sugar or something. Whatever.

Grease the oven. Turn the cake tin 350 degrees. Don’t forget to beat off the turner. Whip the bowl out the window. Check the vodka again.

Go to bed. Who the hell likes *!#&*^$ fruitcake anyway.

A Christmas Meme

I saw this on Jo’s blog http://lifeinwindermere.blogspot.com/ and as it’s Crimbo, I thought I’d enter into the spirit and play along. Feel free to join in, if you wish.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. I’m one of those sick individuals who actually likes wrapping presents.

2. Real tree or Artificial? It has to be real, messy, but I love the smell.

3. When do you put up the tree? The weekend before Christmas.

4. When do you take the tree down? On the twelfth day of Crimbo.

5. Do you like eggnog? No, it’s too sweet.

6. Favourite gift received as a child? A doll’s house.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My dad.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Mick, he’s easily pleased.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? No.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards. Mail.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? When I first moved to California, my mother-in-law always sent me tights (hose), in that ghastly shade of American tan. (Well, she was in her late 70’s then, bless her, and I suppose they were cheap to mail). The thing is, I hardly ever wore tights in California, and certainly not American tan.

12. Favourite Christmas Movie? The Great Escape. I know, I know, it’s not a Christmas movie, but they used to show it every year in England at Christmas, so I always associate it with the holiday.

13. When do you start shopping? Usually, end of October through November. I like to get everything sorted out before Thanksgiving. I can’t bear the madding crowds of Black Friday onwards.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don’t think so, though I may have put some in the bin.

15. Favourite thing to eat at Christmas? Turkey with all the trimmings.

16. Lights on the tree? Of course, but not the flashing ones, I hate those.

17. Favourite Christmas song? There are a few, all ancient, but I like them anyway. Do they know it’s Christmas by Band Aid, Mistletoe and Wine by Cliff Richard, I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday by Roy Wood, and White Christmas by Bing Crosby. For carols, I think Silent Night.

18, Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home. Christmas in England is always so much more fun than the US, but I hate travelling in winter, and I hate flying anytime.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? No.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Neither, I don’t put anything on top of the tree.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The crowds, and the commercialism.

23. Favourite ornament, theme or color? A few miniature sweaters I knitted my self.

24. Favourite for Christmas dinner? Turkey and all the trimmings.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? For a publisher to show some interest in my book.

An Award

2008-12-13T15:09:00.004-06:00

Sarah over at http://www.britgalusa.com/ gave me the above award a couple of weeks ago, and I am only now getting round to posting it. Which only goes to show how little I deserve this award, as I have been anything but a superior scribbler of late. But thank you for thinking of me, Sarah, I do appreciate it, and I do promise to mend my ways. In fact, there are quite a few things I want to change about my lifestyle come the New Year, but more about that some other time.

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how hectic this time of year is, because you already know that. Usually, I like to have all my Christmas presents and cards bought before Thanksgiving, that way I am spared the madding crowds from Black Friday* onwards.

This year, that wasn’t possible, and last Saturday was a case in point. Mick and I went Christmas shopping in Joplin, Missouri, along with the rest of the four states, me thinks. The main highlights of the day were to be a visit to the bookstore, and lunch at a pub style restaurant that serves a pretty mean fish and chips. Now I love bookstores, and had we spent the rest of the day in there things would have been just fine, but we didn’t.

After the bookstore we went to the mall. After seeing the endless lines in every shop, we decided, forget about it, and went in search of lunch. Mick dropped me at the door of the restaurant while he went in search of a parking space on the crowded lot. One glance inside told me that fish and chips was off the menu, there was a line of about 20 people waiting to be seated.

Outside, Mick was still circling, but he was so intent on finding a parking place he didn’t see me wildly gesticulating to him to pull over. So there I am chasing him around the parking lot, and I didn’t catch his eye until he actually found a spot. The relief on his face soon turned to dismay, when he saw me.

In the end, we had lunch at a Chinese place, followed by some grazing in Sam’s Club. They have that many free samples of food on offer in that store that you really don’t need to eat lunch. Anyway, we bought a load of food to stock our new freezer, and decided to call it a day.

I bought the remainder of my Christmas gifts on-line, all from the comfort of my own home, with no sodding queues to deal with.

*For the Brits, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving when the whole of America descends on the stores.

The Sky at Night

Also, I don’t know if you noticed the sky at night on Monday, December 1st, if you did, you would have seen a rare alignment of the Moon, Venus and Jupiter. It was quite a spectacle. I did take a photo but it didn’t turn out too good, so I cribbed this one off the net.

Here in Oklahoma, the crescent moon was standing on end, with Venus and Jupiter to its right.

British astrologer, Jonathan Cainer, http://www.cainer.com/ had this to say about the conjunction:

"Those two bright lights, so close to the Moon last night, were Venus and Jupiter. Their rare sunset spectacle does not, on its own, signify the end of the credit crunch. The pessimism genie has been let out of the bottle and it may take some months before enough optimists team up to chase it back in. Still, we should be encouraged by the planets of prosperity and good fortune aligning so closely this close to Christmas. It augurs well for a fruitful festive season a New Year, with a new President, pursuing new policies from which many benefit."

Let’s hope he’s right.

I'm late, I'm late!

2008-11-30T17:53:00.004-06:00

Jan Meng's studio at Hungry Holler

First of all, my apologies. I’ve been quite remiss with my blogging and commenting of late, but I will catch up with you all real soon. My arm is finally on the mend, and this week I have been frantically trying to catch up with the housework, and shopping prior to the holiday. And, as most of you know, if you don’t find me here, you’ll find me slaving over a hot stove at my other blog, Range Warfare. :-)

I hope everyone has had a very happy Thanksgiving. It’s not an English thing, but we’re certainly not averse to the time off. I am often asked what we do in England at Thanksgiving. My answer is always the same – nothing, because we have bugger all to be thankful for in England. Only joking folks. :-) Personally, I think I won the lottery of life being born British.

But I did cook us a roast dinner, not turkey though, as we like to have turkey at Christmas. We had roast lamb, and Mick made some mint sauce to go with it. It’s the first lamb we have had since we moved to Oklahoma 4½ years ago, it just doesn’t seem to be a very popular meat here. We bought this lamb joint on a recent trip to Missouri, but we have since managed to talk a local butcher into getting some for us. We also had roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, veggies and lashings of gravy, so basically, a traditional English Sunday lunch.

On Thanksgiving Day, the weather was absolutely perfect, sunny and about 68°F. Today, is quite a different story. I awoke to snow this morning! Temps are now in the low 40’s, and below freezing at night. Brrrrr! I’m not complaining too much, as I would far rather be cold than hot, and it’s a good reason for a log fire.

Also, if you’re interested, you can find my latest article for Oklahoma Living magazine here:

http://www.ok-living.coop/Feature_3.php

Oh, and btw, the typos are not mine, that should read wander/wandering.

The article is about a recent visit to a local arts center called, Hungry Holler, home of renowned artists, Jan and Marc Meng. Jan is a self confessed gourdphile, who creates beautiful works of art from homegrown gourds. The article shows some of her work on exhibit in their small rustic gallery. If you’d like to see more, check out their web site at: http://www.hungryholler.com/

A Gourd decorated with recycled bottle caps

Marc is known as the Zen Spoonmaster as he lovingly handcrafts cooking utensils from woods such as maple, wild cherry and walnut. Each spoon he creates is totally unique and will last a lifetime. Also the spatulas are made for right and left handed cooks.

I have begun my own collection as you can see below. I really enjoyed my visit to Hungry Holler and will certainly be making a return trip.

On a little side note. I posted about this article on Range Warfare and several people asked me where the spoons were, as it seems they have disappeared from their web site. When I checked it out, I noticed that they have updated the site, and I have e-mailed Jan Meng to find out what’s happened to the spoons. I’m sure it’s just a temporary glitch, and I’ll get back to you about it as soon as I hear. But check out the gourds anyway, they are fabulous.

Also a big Thank You to Sarah, I just noticed your comment about the award. I'll post about this real soon.

I hope you all have a good week.

Toodle pip for now.

Oh Deer!

2008-11-17T13:57:00.010-06:00

It’s true what they say, it doesn’t rain but it pours. Not only am I still having problems with my arm, but last week, Mick hit a deer on his way to work. He was driving on a two-lane highway, with a 55-MPH speed limit, when the deer ran right out in front of him and stopped. He had no chance to brake, or swerve to avoid it. The deer went right across the bonnet (hood).

The result:
Damage to Mick – zero
Damage to car – bad, but repairable
Damage to deer – terminal.

At first glance, the car doesn’t look too bad,

but one headlight is smashed, the bonnet (hood) is dented and warped,

and the side panel is cracked and hanging loose.

But at least Mick was only shaken, not stirred, and that’s the main thing. Still, one cannot help but wonder, what else is going to go wrong?

On a brighter note...

One of my friends got married at the weekend. She is, or was, a member of my writer’s group, The Grand Lake Wordsmiths. The blushing bride is a septuagenarian, and her beau, an octogenarian. I wish them lots of love and happiness in their future lives together. C. is moving to Missouri, and will be sadly missed by the writer’s group, she is an excellent writer and a masterful poet. Sorry, about the photo, they all came out a bit dark.

Worms

2008-11-12T15:19:00.004-06:00

Would you believe it’s now two weeks since Alvin bit me, and my arm is still not completely healed? One of his teeth went particularly deep, and it’s this that is still causing me problems. To compound matters, I had an allergic reaction to the first lot of antibiotics, and the bottom half of my face swelled up until I looked like a hamster with lip enhancements. Alvin, of course, made a full and quick recovery from his ailment, and shows no signs of remorse for having maimed his mummy.

Anyway, last week, just to add to my woes, I had to get a story into Oklahoma Living magazine by Wednesday, and typing was very difficult. But, not having much choice in the matter, I did it anyway. I am such a martyr to my trade. :-)

Writing with a pen or pencil was also very painful, worse than typing in fact, and I really can’t start my day without a cup of tea and my crossword. My favorite crossword is the cryptic one from a Scottish newspaper called The Herald. It’s one of the few newspapers that still offers a free printable crossword on-line every weekday. If you’re interested you can find it here: http://www.theherald.co.uk/crosswords/
I could have done the on-line version, but it’s just not the same. To me crosswords have to be done on paper.

Just to digress a moment, although the crossword was invented by an American, the Brits took the idea and came up with the cryptic crossword. These are particularly tricky crosswords, as you have to work out what the clue means before you can answer it. It’s like a battle of wits, and sometimes all out war, between the compiler and the solver.

Anyway, unable to do my crossword, I came across a word game on-line called Bookworm, and now I’m hooked. If you want to check it out you can find it here:
http://get.games.yahoo.com/proddesc?gamekey=bookworm#ffabtn
But I warn you, it’s addictive. I am now having to wean myself off it, but at least it kept me occupied during my incapacity.

I am a huge fan of word puzzles and word games, particularly Scrabble, but then I suppose words are my stock and trade. I call them worms, because they are so squiggly and squirmy that they wriggle away from you just when you need them the most.

On a final note, a big thank you to everyone who stopped by and commiserated with me in my hour of need, I really appreciated it.

Toodle pip for now.

Damn Cats and Ghostly Goings on in the Attic

2008-10-31T12:55:00.002-05:00

I’m sorry I haven’t been around much this week, and this is going to be the case for a while longer. On Monday and Tuesday, I wasn’t feeling very well. Then on Wednesday, my cat Alvin was ill, so I took him to see the vet. Unfortunately, while the vet took Alvin’s temperature, I held his head. I thought I had a firm grip on him, but he managed to get loose and sunk all his teeth into my arm.

As it was a very nasty bite, I went to the doctor for a tetanus shot. She also gave me antibiotics and painkillers, as she was particularly concerned that Alvin might have passed his infection onto me. She also told me to keep my forearm elevated for 2-3 days, so I’m not supposed to be typing, but I just wanted to let you know what was happening.

My right arm is red and swollen from the wrist to the elbow, and is extremely painful. It was so bad that I couldn’t get the childproof caps off the antibiotics and painkillers, and had to wait for Mick to get home from work before I could take any. :-) But the good news is, Alvin is recovering from his infection, so hopefully, normal service will be resumed with me very soon.

Anyway, as it’s Halloween, I’ll share some ghost stories with you. I posted this a while ago when no-one was reading this blog. I did want to add another ghost story to it, but that will have to wait for another time. Happy Halloween!

Ghostly Goings on in the Attic

Last weekend, my daughter called and told me that she had a ghost in the attic. My granddaughter had been using the attic as her bedroom, and saw this ghost on two occasions. Although my daughter thought she had probably dreamt it, she took it seriously and moved her to another bedroom. She then put two of her boys in the attic, and gave my granddaughter strict instructions not to mention the incident to them. The two boys also saw the ghost, each on separate occasions. This is what my granddaughter told me about the experience:

"It was really dark in my room, and I remember waking up, I didn't know what time it was. For some reason, I just felt really scared and I didn't know why, and I couldn't move anything but my eyes. I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye and so I looked. I thought it was dad, because it was about the same height and it looked like a man. It was a bit blurry, but I presumed that was because it was dark. It was bending down and picking stuff up and looking at them before putting them back down again. It was near my teddy bears so I thought it was picking them up. I can't remember anything else so I must have fallen asleep. I asked dad why he'd been messing with my teddy bears and he said he hadn't. He looked confused so I believed him. It was there the next night, doing the same thing, in the same spot. I carried on looking at it, and I just remember seeing it kind of fade from the bottom upwards, and seeing it with no legs."

This reminded me of a strange encounter of my own. At one time, back in England, I worked at an office where I used to run a job club (to help people improve their job search skills). The job club took place in two of the upstairs rooms in the office. In one room I did the training sessions, and the other room (which we called the resource room), was used by people to apply for jobs. In that room they had newspapers, magazines, telephones, stationery, computer, everything that they needed to apply for jobs. There was also an old typewriter in there that nobody ever used.

One day, I arrived early at the office, before anyone else got there. The canteen was upstairs, so I went up there to make myself a cup of tea. On passing the door to the resource room, I heard typing, which surprised me as I was sure none of the other staff were in yet. As soon as I opened the door the typing stopped, but there was no one in the room.

I did hear the typing several times while I worked there, and it always happened when the room wasn’t in use. I probably would have thought I was going nuts, but I later discovered that other staff had heard it, too.

And funnily enough, when I told the office manager about the mysterious typist, she told me yet another ghost story. She had been in charge of another office at the time, and one Sunday she got a call from the police. Neighbors across from the office building had seen lights on upstairs and thought it might be a break-in. When the manager and the police got there, there were no lights on, and no sign of a break-in.

But, what really mystified her was that the upstairs of the office wasn’t used. The office had originally been a church until it had undergone a conversion. The contractors who did the renovations had put in a false ceiling to hide the high church roof.

After another Sunday call-out due to lights being on in the upper story the manager thought there might be some sort of electrical fault, so she called in an electrician. He found that not only were there no lights up there, there wasn’t any electrical wiring either.

Spooky!

Autumnal Asides

2008-10-19T18:32:00.002-05:00

My Chrysanthemum looks lovely at the mo.

The weather here in Northeast Oklahoma has been absolutely perfect for the past few days, sunny, 75°F, with cooler nights and mornings. The skies have been the deepest of blues, and not a cloud in sight. A few trees have already lost most of their leaves, but the vast majority are only just beginning to change color. How is autumn panning out where you live?

It’s been a busy couple of weeks around here. I got my latest assignment done and into Oklahoma Living Magazine, ahead of deadline, but a couple of hundred words longer than it should have been. I hope the editor doesn’t cut it, she usually doesn’t, but you never know.

The article was about a local arts center, and I so enjoyed my visit there that I had a bit of a struggle when it came to writing the story. You see, I’m not allowed to include my own views and opinions in these articles, everything has to be written in third person. Anyway, I wrangled it eventually, and I really hope I have done the place justice. I’ll tell you more about it after the piece is published at the beginning of November.

I no sooner got that piece sent in, when I received an e-mail from the editor asking me to submit story ideas for next year’s editorial calendar. Truth be told, I didn’t have a single idea in my head, and only five days to come up with something! Anyway, after a lot of brainstorming, a lot of research, and a couple of sleepless nights, I did manage to put a list together, and got it in by the deadline. (Phew, wipes sweat from fevered brow). Now it’s fingers crossed that she throws a few crumbs my way for next year.

And as for "the bloody thing," (my book), if things go much slower they’re going to stop. I keep changing my mind about what I want to include, and then have to do a load more research, oh, hum.

And this week, I’m off to do another interview for my next Oklahoma Living story.

On a lighter note

I saw a funny joke this week on Jo’s blog at: http://lifeinwindermere.blogspot.com/

GORDON BROWN (British Prime Minister) was visiting a primary school and he visited one of the classes. They were in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings. The teacher asked Mr. BROWN if he would like to lead the discussion on the word 'tragedy'. So the illustrious leader asked the class for an example of a 'tragedy'.

A little boy stood up and offered: "If my best friend, who lives on a farm, is playing in the field & a tractor runs over him and kills him that would be a tragedy."

"No," said GORDON – "that would be an accident."

A little girl raised her hand: "If a school bus carrying fifty children drove over a cliff, killing everyone inside, that would be a tragedy"

"I'm afraid not," explained GORDON – "that's what we would call a great loss."

The room went silent. No other children volunteered.

GORDON searched the room. "Isn't there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?"

Finally, at the back of the room, little Johnny raised his hand... In a quiet voice he said, "If A plane carrying you and MR. DARLING (British Chancellor of the Exchequer) was struck by a 'friendly fire' missile & blown to smithereens, that would be a tragedy."

"Fantastic!" exclaimed GORDON. "That's right. And can you tell me why that would be tragedy?"

"Well," says little Johnny, "it has to be a tragedy, because it certainly wouldn't be a great loss, and it probably wouldn't be a f**king accident either!"

Toodle pip, ‘til next time.

ICE and an Award

2008-10-16T17:18:00.003-05:00

No, this isn't a post about last winter’s ice storms, but about a Canadian initiative called ICE which is an acronym "In Case of Emergency." I came across this post on Gill’s site at http://thatbritishwoman.blogspot.com/ and thought it made a lot of sense, but then the simple ideas usually do. Perhaps this is something we should be doing in the US?

"ICE - 'In Case of Emergency.' We all carry our cell phones with names & numbers stored in its memory but nobody, other than ourselves, knows which of these numbers belong to our closest family or friends. If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know who to call. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency? Hence the 'ICE' (In Case of Emergency) Campaign.

The concept of 'ICE' is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As cell (mobile) phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name 'ICE' (In Case Of Emergency).

The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always cell phones with patients, but they didn't know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose. In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as 'ICE.' For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc. A great idea that will make a difference!

Let's spread the concept of ICE by storing an ICE number in our cell phones today! Please forward this. It won't take too many 'forwards' before everybody will know about this. It really could save your life, or put a loved one's mind at rest. ICE will speak for you when you are not able to. "

An Award

My apologies to Sarah, http://www.britgalusa.com/ I’ve been a bit remiss in posting about the award she so kindly gave me. Thanks Sarah.

This award recognizes those readers that regularly show their support with comments, so I would like to pass this on to my few regulars. I don’t post as often as I’d like, but I also have a cooking blog and it gets very time consuming. But I do want to thank you for taking the time to stop by and for all your lovely comments. Pam, I would have included you, but Sarah beat me to it.

Denise at http://anenglishgirlrambles.blogspot.com/

Jo at http://lifeinwindermere.blogspot.com/

Raquel at http://kitchenmysteries.blogspot.com/

Gill at http://thatbritishwoman.blogspot.com/

Cats!

2008-10-04T19:55:00.002-05:00

We are in a battle of the wills with our cats at the moment, we are trying to change their diet, and they don’t like it! A few months ago hubby, Mick, joined an on-line cat forum, and has learnt a lot about cat nutrition, as well as general health and well being.

Apparently, dried food is not good for cats. It's full of carbohydrates, something that they can well do without as it lacks the moisture that is essential to a cat's digestive system. Cats are Obligate Carnivores, which means that to remain healthy they need to eat meat. They are naturally desert animals and have a low thirst drive, they depend on getting their required moisture intake from their kill. Dry food contains no moisture and dehydrates them, which can lead to kidney disease/failure, one of the biggest killers of cats. According to the folks on the cat forum, feeding your cat the worst wet food is better than the best dried food.

Wilson, the lounge lizard.

Wilson, at eight years old is a lost cause. When we adopted him from the Humane Society three years ago, he was a totally indoor cat, and had no claws. De-clawing is something else I strongly disagree with as it leads to all manner of physical and psychological problems, but that’s a whole other story.

When we adopted Wilson, the Humane Society gave us a bag of Science Diet, dried cat food. The first time I heard him crunching down on this food it seemed really funny as I had never known cats to eat biscuits. In England, cats ate canned meat, biscuits were for dogs, though I don’t know if this is the case nowadays.

In the early days, we did try to introduce Wilson to canned meat but he wouldn’t touch it, so we continued with the dried stuff. I wish now that we had been a bit more persistent with him, because three years on he is even more set in his ways, and adamantly refuses meat. But, we have switched him to a better dried food called Eagle Pack, Holistic Select. He has been eating this food for two weeks, and I’ve noticed he doesn’t eat anywhere near as much of it as the old stuff. And not because he doesn’t like it, but because it has a higher nutritional content than Science Diet. This can only do him good in the long run as he is very overweight.

Alvin, as a kitlet.

Alvin, (adopted as a kitten from the Humane Society), and now 3 years old, is more amenable to the wet food, but he still stubbornly sticks out for dry stuff if he’s that way inclined. Alvin is a very willful boy. On the other hand, he does catch plenty of his own food, small rabbits, mice and other rodents, so I’m not too worried about him. Still, I would prefer to get him off the dried food.

Tommy Ticklemouse, can't a cat get any privacy around here?

Tommy is 2 years old and has taken to the wet food without any problems, he just eats whatever’s in his dish. On occasions though, even he has stuck out for the dried stuff, but he’s not as bad as Alvin. Mind you, he has never been a picky eater. He wandered into our yard as a kitten, and the poor little mite was starving. He looked like a bag of bones with the skin thrown on, so he will pretty much eat anything and everything. Tommy is also not as murderous as Alvin, though he does catch an odd mouse, and eats Alvin’s leftovers, he, therefore, does need to eat more meat.

It’s going to be a slow process, as cats don’t like change, well not unless they’ve been consulted and agreed to it in the first place. We have had no problems with the switch to the Holistic Select dried food, but the canned food is going to take a little longer. The wet food is also Eagle Pack, Holistic Natural Canned Formulas.

Quote of the week: Dogs have owners, cats have staff! (source unknown).

Brits on Tour

2008-09-28T15:49:00.003-05:00

A while ago, Pam at http://pamokc.blogspot.com/ asked how a couple of Brits from northern England ended up in Oklahoma. I did tell her I would post about it one day, so here it is. I warn you though, this is a long, and rambling story, so do yourself a favor and stop reading right now.

It all started back in 1994 when we went to stay with an old friend of ours in the San Fernando Valley, just outside of LA. Towards the end of our vacation, Mick was offered a job at the company our friend worked for, and we told them we’d give the offer some thought when we got home.

Arriving home, and staring at the prospect of another miserable English winter, all that California sunshine was very tempting. But we both had good jobs, nice cars, and our own home, so we had a lot to lose, did we want to throw it all away on a whim? I think the thing that really swung it for us was, we were both of an age where we thought if we don’t do it now, we never will. In the end, we decided I would take a two year leave of absence from work, we would rent out our house, and come over for a year, thereby minimizing our risks.

We lived in the SF Valley for a year, and though we enjoyed it, the pace of life was a bit hectic for a couple from a small rural village in England. So, when Mick was offered a job in northern California, in a lovely little main street town called Benicia, forty miles outside San Francisco, we decided to give it a whirl. We lived there for 4 years, and absolutely loved it. While we were there, just before my leave of absence was coming to an end, the Civil Service (luckily for me), decided to jettison some staff, and as they don't make people redundant, I ended up getting early retirement.

Then Mick was offered a job back in southern California, at a place called Oxnard, which is right on the Pacific Coast. We had both always wanted to live by the ocean, so we moved again. The company Mick worked for sponsored Mick for his green card, and eventually we both became permanent residents here.

After that we decided to sell our house back in England, and buy something in California. But house prices were so high there that we couldn’t bring ourselves to take out a massive mortgage on a property we didn’t even like. That’s when we started looking into relocating. We spent a long time researching a lot of different states, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma. But something kept steering us towards Oklahoma, and we moved here in May 2004.

We took a monumental risk moving here, we neither of us had a job, we had no home to go to, and we didn’t know a soul here. Anyway, it all worked out well in the end, and we are both so glad we moved. Sure, there are disadvantages to living out in the sticks, but in my opinion the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

So that’s it in a nutshell.

Toodle pip ‘til next time.

British Telly

2008-09-21T16:31:00.002-05:00

I don’t watch much TV here as we don’t have cable, and on the two channels we can pick up choices of programming are very limited. I usually tell people that we are too tight to pay for cable, but the truth is, we coughed up the cash for cable for years when we lived in California, and still hardly ever found anything worth watching. When we moved to Oklahoma, we decided we wouldn’t bother with cable, and I must say, I haven’t missed it one bit.

Now with this digital TV thingy coming into play next year, we got one of those converter boxes and discovered we couldn’t get any channels at all. So that idea has been cast aside like a squeezed lemon.

Anyway, as luck would have it, Mick made a great discovery on an ex-pats forum. He found out about a couple of sites where you can download British telly programs for free. From what I can gather, it works a bit like shareware. People in the UK upload progs to the site, and when you download a program onto your computer, you leave it there for a while to "seed," meaning other people can access it and download it from you. Seeding scores you points, and the more points you have the more programs you can download.

I know it all sounds a bit complicated, and I confess I’m not totally au fait with how it works, but Mick assures me that if a technosaurus like him can do it, anybody can. Full instructions are available at both sites. You can find them at:

www.thebox.bz this is the better of the two sites as they have far more choice of programs.

www.uknova.com

There are literally thousands of programs to choose from, dramas, comedies, soaps, sports, documentaries, wildlife/nature, all sorts of stuff. Mick says that ex-pats from all over the world are using this system.

And, after you’ve downloaded a prog, you can transfer it onto a video memory stick, plug it into the front of your DVD player and watch it on your telly. So I’ve been watching British telly this week, and it’s been lovely. Jo at: http://lifeinwindermere.blogspot.com/ was talking about a new series "Tess of the D’Urbervilles, and I said I couldn’t comment as although I’d read the book I couldn’t get the series. Well now I can. How kewl is that?

Lipstick

2008-09-14T18:36:00.004-05:00

I usually steer well clear of politics on this blog, not being a citizen I am not allowed to vote. But I am a permanent resident here, and I pay my taxes, so I think that qualifies me to have an opinion. And, truth be told, I find it hard to keep my mouth shut about the latest debacle that is sweeping the nation, namely, Sarah Palin. I ask you, what is so special about this woman that it’s causing voters to regard John McCain with new eyes? After watching Charles Gibson’s interview with her last week I confess I’m totally mystified.

Palin managed to confuse, obfuscate, and generally waffle her way around every question she was asked. Questions about her experience in foreign policy were answered with her stance on energy issues, the proximity of Alaska to Russia, or the fact that she had met international trade delegates in her role as governor. She didn’t even appear to understand the question when Gibson asked her what she thought of the Bush doctrine.

Also, she seemed to think there was one rule for the USA and quite another for Russia, or any other country for that matter. She thought it was acceptable for American troops to cross borders into Pakistan (without authority from that government) in their quest to root out terrorists. She said, "In order to stop Islamic extremists, those terrorists who would seek to destroy America and our allies, we must do whatever it takes and we must not blink, Charlie, in making those tough decisions of where we go and even who we target."

Yet it was totally unacceptable for to Russia cross borders into neighboring Georgia. She said, "And we've got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable."

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. What about the US invasion of Iraq? They may not have been a democratic country, but there are other non-democratic countries in the world that we aren’t invading. My question is, what was the provocation in Iraq? And who decided that Russia wasn’t provoked?

The only question she answered directly was on the issue of abortion. Gibson asked her, "John McCain would allow abortion in cases of rape and incest. Do you believe in it only in the case where the life of the mother is in danger?"

Palin replied, "My personal opinion is that abortion allowed if the life of the mother is endangered. Please understand me on this. I do understand McCain's position on this. I do understand others who are very passionate about this issue who have a differing." (Any errors here are not mine but are in the ABC transcript of the interview).

Honestly, I was gobsmacked with this reply. This woman would set women’s rights back years, nay decades. And to say that women who have been raped, or been the victims of incest ― and in most cases of incest we are talking about very young girls ― should not be allowed an abortion is appalling.

If Palin is so worried about the high abortion rate in this country shouldn’t she be advocating free birth control for women, rather than taking this Draconian stance on abortion. But we all know that's not going to happen, considering John McCain voted against measures that would have mandated health insurance companies to cover birth control.

The prospect of four years with McCain at the helm fills me with horror, but what's even more scary is John McCain is no spring chicken, and this woman could end up running the country. Now, that really is something you should give some thought to before casting your vote.

If you missed the interview you’ll find it here:

http://abcnews.go.com/

But better still, read the transcript, it’s much easier to cut through the waffle, sorry, rhetoric:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=5782924&page=1

The British One Hundred

2008-09-11T16:45:00.004-05:00

I posted this list on my cooking blog yesterday, but I thought some of you might find it fun, so here's the British One Hundred.

In response to the Omnivores One Hundred, Helen at Food Stories: http://helengraves.co.uk/ has created The British One Hundred. I love lists so I couldn't resist having a go.

Here are the rules if you would like to play along:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Link back to Food Stories, if you would be so kind.

1. Grey squirrel. (Having eaten crocodile, wilderbeast, and zebra in Kenya, I think I’d give it a try).

2 Steak and kidney pie

3. Bubble and squeak

4. Spotted dick

5. Hot Cross Buns (A traditional Easter favorite)

6. Laver bread

7. Toad in the hole

8. Shepherds pie AND Cottage pie

9. Scotch egg

10. Parkin

11. Welsh rarebit

12. Jellied eels

13. Stilton

14. Marmite (I hate this stuff)

15. Ploughman’s lunch

16. Cucumber sandwiches

17. Coronation chicken

18. Gloucester old spot.

19. Cornish pasty

20. Samphire

21. Mince Pies

22. Winkles

23. Salad cream

24. Malt loaf

25. Haggis

26. Beans on toast

27. Cornish clotted cream tea

28. Pickled egg

29. Pork scratchings

30. Pork pie

31. Black pudding

32. Patum Peperium or Gentleman’s relish

33. Earl Grey tea

34. Elvers

35. HP Sauce

36. Potted shrimps

37. Stinking bishop

38. Elderflower cordial

39. Pea and ham soup

40. Aberdeen Angus Beef

41.Lemon Posset

42. Guinness

43. Cumberland sausage

44. Native oysters

45. A ‘full English’ breakfast

46. Cockles

47. Faggots

48. Eccles cake

49. Potted Cromer crab

50. Trifle

51. Stargazy pie

52. English mustard

53. Christmas pudding

54. Cullen skink

55. Liver and bacon with onions

56. Wood pigeon

57. Branston pickle

58. Oxtail soup

59. Piccalilli

60. Sorrel

62. Chicken tikka masala

63. Deep fried Mars Bar

64. Fish, chips and mushy peas

65. Pie and mash with liquor

66. Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding

67. Pickled onions

68. Cock-a-leekie soup

69. Rabbit and Hare

70. Bread sauce

71. Cauliflower cheese

72. Crumpets

73. Rice pudding

74. Bread and Butter Pudding

75. Bakewell tart

76. Kendall mint cake (horribly sweet)

77. Summer pudding

78. Lancashire hot pot (I'm from Lancashire, so I was weaned on this)

79. Beef Wellington

80. Eton mess

81. Neeps and tatties

82. Pimms

83. Scampi

84. Mint sauce

85. English strawberries and cream

86. Isle of Wight garlic

87. Mutton

88. Deep fried whitebait with tartare sauce

89. Angels on horseback

90. Omelette Arnold Bennett

91. Devilled kidneys

92. Partridge and pheasant

93. Stew and Dumplings

94. Arbroath smokies

95. Oyster loaves

96. Sloe gin

97. Damson jam

98. Soda bread

99. Quince jelly

100. Afternoon tea at the Ritz

I think I would add Bangers and Mash, Kippers, Victoria Sponge, Jam Roly Poly, and Lancashire cheese.

Which ones have you tried, and are there any you would like to add?

An Award!

2008-09-06T16:07:00.006-05:00

This is the first award I’ve received for this blog, and I’m absolutely thrilled. The honor was bestowed on me by Denise at: http://anenglishgirlrambles.blogspot.com

Thank you so much for thinking of me Denise. Now I have the pleasure of passing this along.

The rules that accompany this award are:

1. Put the logo on your blog;

2. Add a link to the person who has awarded you;

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs;

4. Add links to those blogs on yours and

5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

And my seven nominees are (pause for drum roll)

Pam at http://pamokc.blogspot.com/

Sarah at http://www.britgalusa.com/

Beth at http://jamandclottedcream.blogspot.com/

Raquel at http://kitchenmysteries.blogspot.com/

Daffodilly at http://britishdaffodilly.blogspot.com/

Toni at http://expatmum.blogspot.com/

Jo at http://lifeinwindermere.blogspot.com/

Fall

2008-09-03T16:12:00.002-05:00

Autumn Light

Could this be the start of fall? It started raining here yesterday evening, and it’s chucked it down all day today. Overnight our temperatures have plummeted 25 degrees, yesterday it was 90°F, today it’s 65°F. I’m not going to get too excited about it though, as I’m sure there’s still lots more hot weather to come, but hopefully more of the low 80’s rather than 90/100’s.

I am so ready for the fall. I’m sick of the heat, I’m fed up of feeling sweaty, I want to wear a cardi (cardigan/sweater), or even a coat. I want to see the leaves changing color on the trees, and the lovely yellow early morning/evening light. I want to see an end to stinging, biting, and bothersome bugs.

I’m looking forward to the long cold nights, cozying up in front of a blazing log fire with a good book, or some knitting. I’m longing to snuggle under my comforter after pressing the snooze button on the alarm clock. Just 10 more minutes.

I’m fed up of barbecuing and salads. I’m looking forward to homemade soups, casseroles and curries, and the smell of roast meat and Yorkshire pudding filling the house. I’m longing for mashed potatoes and gravy, Halloween candy, and Thanksgiving dinner.

Yes, I’m ready for fall.

A Very European Evening

2008-08-29T15:03:00.002-05:00

Turtle soup, anyone?

An English guy, Errol, and a German guy, Martin, have been delivering a training course at Mick’s place of work, so on Wednesday we invited them out for a meal.

By some amazing coincidence, Errol is from my home county of Lancashire and many of his relatives live in and around the area I’m from, so he knew the place well. And even though he now lives in South Carolina, he hadn’t lost his Lancashire accent at all. Martin lives in Germany, and though he spoke excellent English, I think he had a little trouble keeping up with three northerners at times.

We arrived at the restaurant at 6:30pm, but we were gassing that much it must have been about 7:30pm before we even ordered our starters (appetizers), and it had to be another hour before we got around to ordering a main course. By 9:30 we were the only ones left in the restaurant, and had the place stayed open later, I’m sure we would have still been there at midnight. I could see the staff milling around in the bar area waiting for us to leave. I’m surprised they didn’t start vacuuming the carpet by way of a hint (that has happened to me before), but no, they were much too polite for that.

Anyway it was a wonderful evening, with great company, (talk about laugh, I damn near wet myself), fabulous food, and a very patient server.

Writer's Rights

2008-08-21T18:12:00.003-05:00

In the comments on my last post I tried to explain why I can’t publish my article on the Black Death on my blog, and this got me thinking that I should maybe say a little something about writer's rights.

The vast majority of publications ask for "first serial rights," this means that the writer grants a magazine the right to publish their work one time only. After publication all rights to the work revert to the author.

Sometimes first rights will come with an additional proviso, usually some sort of time constraint. The magazine may ask to retain rights for three months, or they may pay you an additional fee to publish it on their web site for an agreed amount of time, in which case rights don’t revert to the author until that time has elapsed.

So if a magazine wants first rights to your work they don’t expect it to have been published elsewhere, and with most editors that also includes blogs.

Now in the case of the Black Death, I wrote this for a kid’s history magazine and if they publish it they want "all rights," that means exactly what it says. If a writer grants all rights to a piece of work it means they forfeit the right to use it ever again. A lot of children’s magazines take "all rights." Neither does this particular magazine publish articles on their web site, so no links either.

I should point out that I write very few things for publications that take all rights, for obvious reasons. In this case I don’t mind giving up all rights to the article, it’s what I call "a throw away piece." And it doesn’t mean that I can never write another article about the Black Death, after all, the magazine doesn’t own all rights to history, but it would have to be a different article.

I hope that clarifies things a bit. And this list of rights is not exhaustive, there are few others, but these are the main ones, so if any of you write with a view to publication make sure you know your rights.

Anyway, if the magazine doesn’t publish the Black Death, and there are seldom any guarantees in this game, then all rights revert to me, in which case I’ll post it up here.

And I'm sure you've all dozed off by now, so I'll wish you Night night and sweet dreams.

Sorted!

2008-08-15T18:13:00.002-05:00

I did get my driver’s license sorted out last week. It wasn’t too painful, I only had to wait about an hour before getting "processed," and I had a book with me so that passed the time along. The only painful part was there were no loos (restrooms) at the place, and I’d had two cups of tea before leaving home. I was just about ready to burst by the time I got back. %-(
Oh, and the other painful part, my photo, it’s quite gruesome, I just hope no one asks me for ID in the next four years!

The book I was reading and have since finished was Tess Gerritsen’s, The Bone Garden, and I confess I was a tad disappointed with it. Part of the book is set in "present day" and part in the 1830’s. The historical mystery was engrossing, but I found myself getting annoyed when it switched back to modern day. The present day aspects of the novel were just a ploy to introduce the historical, and IMHO, could have been omitted altogether and the novel would have been better for it. The ending was also a bit naff, (English slang term, used in a variety of ways, but in this case means cheesy, or clichéd). If you’re a fan of Gerritsen’s (as I am) you’ll read it, and for the most part enjoy it. But if you haven’t read her books before, I wouldn’t start with this one.

After doing some final revisions to my piece on the Black Death, and adding some discussion topics and activities for the kiddywinks, that was sorted and sent in on Monday. Whenever I write an article ― time permitting ― I like to leave it alone for several days before I do the final edit, that way I approach it with fresh eyes and am more likely to spot my mistakes.

Yesterday, I read it to my writer’s group, Grand Lake Wordsmiths Unlimited, and they all liked it. One of the members is a retired teacher and she really praised it, I only hope the editors like it as much. But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s a real hit and miss affair this writing lark.

In the meantime, I’m still working on "the bloody thing," which lately has been a bit like pulling teeth. This is a bit of a dumb expression, do dentists find it hard work pulling teeth? I do wonder sometimes if this book will ever be sorted. I also have a short story running around in my head that I know is going to demand to be written soon.

Anyway, I must dash, there’s dinner to be sorted.

Toodle pip.

The Big Read

2008-08-06T17:02:00.005-05:00

I saw this on my good friend Raquel’s blog at http://kitchenmysteries.blogspot.com/ and as I support any initiative that encourages people to read, I thought I’d reproduce it here.

The Big Read is being promoted by the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. you can find their web site at http://www.neabigread.org/

I’m not sure where this list comes from as it does not appear on their web site, it may just be some meme from the blogosphere. But allegedly, the Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of these 100 books. I guess that makes me an above average adult as I’ve read 56 of them. :-)

Anyway, wherever the list came from it’s fun to play along.

Bold: I have read.
Underline: Books I love. I haven't figured out how to underline so will put an asterisk *
Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve read only 6 and force books upon them!!

1. *Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen*

2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3. *Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte *

4. The Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling (I haven’t read the whole series, just 2 of them)

5. *To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee*

6. The Bible

7 . Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9. His Dark Materials – Phillip Pullman

10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 . The Complete works of Shakespeare (I haven’t read them all, but a lot of them)

15. *Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier*

16. The Hobbit --J.R.R. Tolkien

17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks

18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19. The Time Traveler's Wife

20. **Middlemarch - George Eliot** (I really love this one)

21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

26. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh

27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28. **Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck** (I really love this one)

29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 . The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 . Emma - Jane Austen

35. Persuasion - Jane Austen

36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41. Animal Farm - George Orwell

42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47. *Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy*

48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding

50. Atonement - Ian McEwan

51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52. Dune- Frank Herbert

53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54. *Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen*

55. **A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth** (Another of my faves)

56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville

71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72. Dracula - Bram Stoker

73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75. Ulysses - James Joyce

76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

77. Swallows and Amazons

78. Germinal - Emile Zola

79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80. Possession - AS Byatt

81. *A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens*

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85. *Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert*

86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White

88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom

89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton

91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92. The Little Prince – Antoine de St. Exupery

93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

94. Watership Down - Richard Adams

95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

96. A Town like Alice- Nevil Shute

97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98. Hamlet- William Shakespeare

99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

I will add a proviso, jsut because I haven't added an asterisk, doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the book. I enjoyed reading them all.

In addition, I think there should be something on this list from Annie Proulx, The Shipping News, That Old Ace in the Hole, or Accordion Crimes. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is also notable by its absence. I could think of lots more worthies, too.

Who would you include?

The Sorry Saga of the Driver's License

2008-08-03T15:21:00.003-05:00

Me and my bruvver. We're just two guys that love each other.

Well, it’s been a busy old week. I am still working on my book, which is now known as either the bloody thing, or that damn thing. I guess you could call them working titles. :-) Amazingly though, I do actually have a title for the bloody thing. I usually struggle to come up with titles for my stuff, most things I write don’t get a title until they’re finished. This one has a title, but it’s nowhere near finished.

I’ve also been working on a piece about the Black Death of 1347-1351 for a kid’s history magazine. That has proved a bit tricky. It’s difficult writing a piece about the Bubonic Plague, which killed a third of Europe’s population, without making it too gruesome for the kiddywinks.

Also this week, I had to go and renew my driver’s license, and what a nightmare that proved to be. I had intended to get to the licensing place early, but things didn’t quite go according to plan. Do they ever? And when I did finally set off, I got held up with a train for 20 bloody minutes while it shunted some carriages into an industrial park. I got to the licensing place just as they were closing for lunch. Come back at 1pm, they told me.

As the temperature was 97°F. with a heat index of 108°F. I went to the store to keep cool in their A/C. When I got back there, the place was packed with people, and I was told to sign in and come back at 2:30pm. I then went to the library to stay cool.

At 2:30, the licensing place was still wall-to-wall people, but at least I had something to read while I waited. At 2:50, someone acknowledged my presence, and asked me why I was there. I was sorely tempted to give him some fly answer, but I refrained. I mean why the bloody hell did he think I was there? Anyway, he tells me that as it’s only a simple renewal I can do that at the tag office. I could have punched him. Why didn’t he ask me that at 1 o’clock? Needless to say I was spitting feathers by this time.

At the tag office, the lady there tells me I do have to go to the licensing place as I have to produce my INS documents (green card), which of course I don’t have with me. By now it’s 3:15, and I haven’t got time to drive home and back before they close at 4pm. Had I known, I could have done that instead of going to the library. (Spit!)

As they only do the licensing one day a week in that town, I now have to go through the whole process again at another town on Tuesday. Great! Bureaucracy, doesn’t it drive you nuts?

Sweeney Todd 2

2008-07-29T15:47:00.000-05:00

Pam’s comment on Sweeney Todd made me realize that I didn’t say anything about the actual plot.

Without giving too much away. Sweeney Todd is happily married to a beautiful woman, and they have a little girl. An evil judge, played by Alan Rickman, has designs on Todd’s wife, and trumps up a charge against him, the result being Todd is transported to Australia for 15 years. When he gets back to England, he finds out his wife is dead and he vows to get his revenge on the judge.

Todd returns to his old lodgings in Fleet Street, above Mrs. Lovett’s (Bonham Carter) pie shop. Here he works his revenge, and in the process provides Mrs. Lovett with meat for her pies.

There is also a sub plot in which a young man Todd meets on his return trip from Australia, falls in love with Todd’s daughter, who is now the judge’s ward.

And there is a very neat twist in the tail at the end.

Sweeney Todd

2008-07-29T12:07:00.002-05:00

I like Brit Gal in the USA’s movie reviews so I hope she doesn’t mind that I’ve half inched (pinched) her idea. The thing is, I don’t watch a lot of films, (as you can probably tell, this one has been out a bit), but it was so good I felt I had to comment on it.

I first saw Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street performed on stage in England, back in the mid-80’s, and I loved it. When I heard it had been made into a movie I was curious to see how the stage musical would transfer to film. Obviously, Stephen Sondheim’s music and lyrics are magnificent, but would Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter be up to the job of performing them?

I needn’t have worried. Depp once again proved what a wonderfully versatile actor he is. With the exception of the pirate movies, I love all his films. Helena Bonham Carter was equally magnificent as Mrs. Lovett, the pie shop owner. In fact, the whole cast was so superb I can’t heap enough praise on them.

Mick and I thoroughly enjoyed this film, and highly recommend it. Don’t let the fact that it is a musical put you off. Though I must say, if you don’t like the sight of blood, don’t watch it, as there’s an awful lot of it about.

Rejection

2008-07-27T16:17:00.008-05:00

Two big thumbs down

A few weeks back, I told you I sent my book proposal out to seven publishers, this week I got three rejections on consecutive days, so that’s three down and four to go. Fortunately, rejection no longer fazes me. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like it, I just don’t let it upset me any more. Three years ago, when I first began trying to get my writing published, I used to take rejections really personally, and I’d get totally disheartened when those SASE’s kept turning up in my mail box. It was as though they were saying that my work wasn’t up to scratch, and didn’t meet that publications high standards.

I now know this is not so. Getting a piece of work published is a very hit and miss affair, and frequently more miss than hit. It’s often just a case of being in the right place at the right time. Publishers and editors almost always say in their rejection letters, that your article, story, book, or what ever, doesn’t meet their needs at that time, and there can be any number of reasons for this.

That's why it’s very difficult for beginning writers to break into new markets, or any markets. No matter how well you write, the competition out there is fierce. Once you do manage to break into a market though, that editor is usually more than happy to work with you again. In some cases, they will even ask you to come up with ideas for the following year’s editorial calendar. But getting into that position is very tough.

Over the past few years, I’ve had to develop a very thick skin, and a dogged persistence. Sometimes that persistence pays off, more often than not it doesn’t, then you just have to cut your losses, and move on. But I always keep everything I’ve ever written, because I may be able to use it again one day.

As regards the three rejections, I’ll dust off my proposal, pick another three publishers from my list, and send them out again. Hopefully, one of them will end up in the right place at the right time.

Everything in the garden's looking lovely

2008-07-20T15:38:00.005-05:00

We have actually managed to get through a whole week without rain, a first this spring and summer. The bad news, however, although we have had no rain it is still very humid, and hotter than a camel's armpit. The temperature yesterday was 92°F, but when you factor in the humidity, the heat index made it 105°F. Today, it’s 94°F, but really it’s 107°F. And it’s set to get even hotter next week! I’m just thankful that we had a new heat and air conditioning system installed in the spring, as our old one was forever conking out.

Anyway, the garden has been loving all the heat and rain we’ve had, even though we’re now back to watering regularly. Mick usually takes care of all the veggies around here, and I take care of the flowers, and herbs. Here are a few of the flowers I’m growing this year.

Petunias

I've forgotten what this is called

Lucky Pot of Gold Lantana

More Petunias. This area is overgrown as it's a place the toads like to hang-out.

This is a weed, but it looked so pretty

Dreamland Yellow

Dreamland Coral, which are almost at the deadheading stage.

This Verbena is taking over.

Imperial Blue Plumbago

Skyscraper Sunflower, this will flower any day now, and is living up to its name. That is the roof of our shed in the background!

Black-Eyed Susans. I know these grow wild everywhere around here, but I like them. She's cozying up with basil. The stones on the right are Toad Hall.

White Begonia. Either side of her, out of the picture are two Flowering Dogwood saplings.

Red Begonia, with her friend Basil in the background. In the pot with the mesh around it is an Eastern Redbud sapling.

White Geranium

Pink Geranium

Anyway, I must dash as I need to bathe in bug spray, and get the hosepipe out.

Toodle pip.

Weird Weather

2008-07-12T15:48:00.002-05:00

Alvin can't help but wonder...

Oh, I almost forgot. Since moving to Oklahoma in 2004, I’ve seen a lot of strange weather phenomena, and last Saturday night was no exception.

It was dark, and the sky was clear except for one large cloud that hovered over the town, and within this one cloud was what I can only describe as a lightning show. It wasn’t raining, (for once), there was no thunder, just lightning in that one cloud, and the show lasted for about 2 hours.

Funnily enough, the cloud was located in exactly the same position as the previous night’s firework display had been. I think Nature was giving us her very own firework display, and I have to admit it far surpassed the town’s 4th of July exhibit.

Unfortunately, we didn’t take a photo, but even if we had I don’t think it would have done justice to this amazing spectacle.

Computer Injury, Reading, and The Coleman Theatre

2008-07-12T15:01:00.004-05:00

The Coleman Theatre, Miami, Oklahoma -Photograph by Gary Crow

My neck and shoulders are much better now, but I have to limit the time I spend on the computer as it still gets achy if I overdo things. I certainly don’t want to have a repeat of all that pain; it was so bad that Mick took me to the emergency room. I think if it recurs I will have to see a chiropractor. Anyway, enough of the whining.

But it has been damned inconvenient as regards the book. I was unable to work on it for over a week! And this is one I can’t write with pen and paper, as all my research is on the computer.

On the plus side, I did get some reading done. I read James Michener’s Alaska which I thoroughly enjoyed. This is historical fiction at its best. The book covers the history of this amazing state from the arrival of the Mastodons and Wooly Mammoths in prehistoric times, right up to the mid-80’s. I will definitely be reading more of Michener’s books.

I’ve also started reading Michael Palin’s Diaries 1969 –1979, which covers the Monty Python years, up to now it has been pretty interesting.

My latest article appeared in the July edition of Oklahoma Living Magazine, it’s about the restoration of the Coleman Theatre (yes, they prefer the English spelling) in Miami, (pronounced Miamuh, for some obscure reason) in NE Oklahoma. If you ever find yourself in this neck of the woods, I highly recommend a visit to the Coleman. The volunteers have done an amazing job of restoring the place to its former glory, I was mighty impressed. If you would like to read my article you’ll find it on Oklahoma Living’s web site at:

www.ok-living.coop

It’s under the heading "The new old Coleman."

The Coleman Theatre - Photograph by Gary Crow

More time out

2008-07-03T11:30:00.000-05:00

I am under doctor’s orders to stay off the computer for a few days. Between researching and writing my book, and all the blogging I’ve been doing, I have trapped a nerve in my neck which is very, very painful.

I hope to be back real soon.

A Day Off

2008-06-29T22:21:00.004-05:00

I've been having a lot of pain in my neck and shoulders for the past few days, I think it's the result of all the time I've been spending on the computer. I wrote the draft for this post the good old-fashioned way using pen and paper, just to give myself a break from the infernal machine.

I do like to write with a pen though, particularly when I'm writing fiction, (not that this is). There's something about the physical action of the pen gliding across the page that seems to free up my mind.

Unfortunately, just lately, I've had to concentrate on getting my non-fiction book written, and as all my research stuff is on the computer, I have no choice but to use it. But, this afternoon, I'm giving myself a break.

When I've written this, I'm going to have some lunch, and by the time I've eaten our porch should be in the shade, so I plan to sit out there and have a read. Reading is something I've been neglecting of late. The book I'm going to start is James Michener's Alaska. I've never read anything of his before, but Mick highly recommended it.

It's also a lovely day for sitting outdoors. One of those rare days here in NE Oklahoma, where the temperature is not too hot, 83F, with blessedly low humidity, for once. Unlike Saturday, when we had more severe storms and torrential rain for most of the day.

Anyway, back to books. This morning on Britgal in the USA's blog, Sarah posted a list of 100 books decreed by Entertainment Weekly to be modern day classics. There were a few books on the list that, in my opinion, didn't deserve to be. Even though I had read and enjoyed them, I wouldn't have thought them "classic" material. There were also many I couldn't comment about, not having read them.

One book that I thought ought to have made the list but didn't, is Vikram Seth's, A Suitable Boy. This is a huge tome of a novel, 1474 pages in paperback, and this is taken from the blurb on the back:

"Set in the early 1950's, in an India newly independent and struggling through a time of crisis. A Suitable Boy takes us into the richly imagined world of four large extended families and spins a compulsive tale of of their lives and loves. A sweeping panoramic portrait of a complex, multiethnic society in flux. It is the story of ordinary people caught up in a web of love and ambition, humor and sadness, prejudice and reconciliation, the most delicate social etiquette and the most appalling violence."

It's an excellent book, I've read it twice, and one that thoroughly deserves to be called a modern classic. There are many others more deserving than, Harry Potter, Bridget Jones, Into Thin Air, and the Da Vinci Code, even though I don't dispute that the aforementioned are good reads.

Are there any books you would like to see added to the list?

Anyway, time to stop writing and have a read.

Thought for the week:

"The drudgery of being a professional writer comes in trying to make good days out of bad days, and in squeezing out the words when they won't just flow." ~ Benjamin Cavell

Book Proposal. The deed, it is done

2008-06-22T17:00:00.001-05:00

For the third week running we’ve had severe thunderstorms on Sunday night and Monday. This one was especially scary as the storm radio was naming our town, not just the county, as being under a tornado warning, and telling us to take cover immediately. So it was back to hiding in the closet until the danger passed. Fortunately, the tornado didn’t happen, but we did get a load more torrential rain. And, would you believe it? The forecast is for more of the same tonight and tomorrow, (and that’s not counting the storms we had mid-week, oh hum). Anyway enough of the weather.

I finally plucked up my courage this week and sent my child out into the world with its dinner money wrapped in its snotty hanky. Yes, I actually did it. I sent my book proposal to six publishers this week. (Yikes!) Hopefully, it will send some money back to its dear old mum and then she can carry on writing it. Truth is, I’m writing it anyway, quite frantically really, just in case.

It’s exciting, but also quite scary. Everyone in my writer’s group believes that it’s a done deal, and the judge in the recent writing contest that I won confirmed their view. I am trying to be positive about it, but am realistic enough to know that there are no guarantees in this game. I’d ask you to keep your fingers crossed for me, but it could be months before I hear anything, and you’d all end up crippled for life. Anyway, here’s hoping.

Cats and pills

2008-06-22T15:33:00.003-05:00

Tommy, as a kitten, helping in the office

As talked about on my cooking blog http://range-warfare.blogspot.com/ here is how to give a cat a pill. I’m sure all you cat owners out there will really relate to this. If memory serves, I think I snaffled this from the BBC but I no longer have the link, so my apologies to the originator.

How to give a cat a pill...

1. Pick cat up and cradle it in the crook of your left arm as if holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat's mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. As cat opens mouth pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow.

2. Retrieve pill from floor and cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat in left arm and repeat process.

3. Retrieve cat from bedroom and throw soggy pill away.

4. Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle cat in left arm holding rear paws tightly with left hand. Force jaws open and push pill to back of mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for count of ten.

5. Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe. Call spouse from garden.

6. Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees, hold front and rear paws. Ignore low growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth. Drop pill down ruler and rub cat's throat vigorously.

7. Retrieve cat from curtain rail, get another pill from foil wrap. Make note to buy new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep shattered figurines and vases from the hearth and set to one side to repair later.

8. Wrap cat in large towel and get spouse to lie on cat with head just visible below armpit. Put pill in end of drinking straw, force mouth open with pencil and blow down drinking straw.

9. Check label to make sure pill not harmful to humans, drink 1 beer to take taste away. Apply Band-Aid to spouse's forearm and remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap.

10. Retrieve cat from neighbour's shed. Get another pill. Open another beer. Place cat in cupboard and close door onto neck to leave head showing. Force mouth open with dessert spoon. Flick pill down throat with elastic band.

11. Fetch screwdriver from garage and put cupboard door back on hinges. Drink beer. Fetch bottle of scotch. Pour shot, drink. Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for date of last tetanus jab. Apply whisky compress to cheek to disinfect. Toss back another shot. Throw T-shirt away and fetch new one from bedroom.

12. Ring fire brigade to retrieve the cat from tree across the road. Apologise to neighbour who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid cat. Take last pill from foil wrap.

13. Tie the cat's front paws to rear paws with garden twine and bind tightly to leg of dining table, find heavy duty pruning gloves from shed. Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of fillet steak. Be rough about it. Hold head vertically and pour 2 pints of water down throat to wash pill down.

14. Consume remainder of scotch. Get spouse to drive you to casualty, sit quietly while doctor stitches fingers and forearm and removes pill remnant from right eye. Call furniture shop on way home to order new table.

15. Arrange for RSPCA to collect mutant cat from hell and ring local pet shop to see if they have any hamsters.

Doing It...around the world with Santa's Old Broads

2008-06-15T15:21:00.004-05:00

Sippin' and Signin' with Santa's Old Broads

On Thursday afternoon I went to a Sippin’ and Signin’ hosted by Santa’s Old Broads. Okay, it’s only June, and who wants to think about Christmas at this time of year? But Santa’s Old Broads, have to think about it all year round, as every year they work tirelessly to raise money to help disadvantaged children have a great Christmas.

The Sippin’ and Signin’ was to celebrate the launch of their new cookbook entitled, Doing It...around the world. The book is jam packed with recipes from around the globe, and lots of laughs. All the recipes have saucy titles, as do the chapter headings, such as: Foreplay (Appetizers), Raucous Romping (Soups & Salads), and Climactic Endings (Desserts etc).

There are also food related jokes and poems in the book, I particularly like the section called "Who Says Blondes Can’t Cook," that looks at a week in the life of a blonde cook.

"Monday: It’s fun to cook for Tom. Today I made angel food cake. The recipe said beat 12 eggs separately. The neighbors were nice enough to loan me some extra bowls."

There are also lots of fun food related quotations dotted throughout the book, like this one from Erma Bombeck, "Think of all the women on the Titanic who said, ‘No, thank you,’ to dessert that night. And what for?"

In the Old Broads own words their cookbooks are, "Like us, just a little risqué and funny. These books require a sense of humor. If you find you are getting offended by the works of a bunch of ladies in their 50’s to 80’s, you might be a little square to begin with. It’s all about having fun and helping to make a brighter Christmas for the children."

The Old Broads also have three other cookbooks, Doing It...in the kitchen volumes one and two, and Quickies...in the kitchen.

At the Sippin and Signin’ there were lots of goodies to eat all made from recipes in the cookbooks, as well as wine and sangria for sippin’, and all the Old Broads were on hand to sign copies of their books. Everyone had a fun afternoon. What’s more, every penny of the proceeds from their book sales and other fund raising events goes to help children in need in at Christmas.

To date, the Old Broads have sold cookbooks in every state in America, and they have even shipped some overseas to England, Australia, and France. These sales have enabled them to help nearly 700 children have a better Christmas than they ever could have imagined. I know, I helped to wrap all these gifts last year, and would have loved to have seen those kids’ faces when they opened their presents.

Every child they help is outfitted from top to toe in quality, name brand clothing, and each receives toys or gifts from their own wish list. Moreover, the kids never know where the gifts came from because Santa’s Old Broads work in complete anonymity.

I would like to say a great big thank you to everyone who has supported Santa’s Old Broads by buying their cookbooks. If you haven’t already bought one, do so today – in fact buy all four, they make great gifts ― and know you have helped to bring a smile to a child’s face this Christmas.

For more information and to buy books check out the Old Broad’s web site at:

http://www.santasoldbroads.com/

Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting a few recipes from these cookbooks on my cooking blog at:

http://range-warfare.blogspot.com/ so y’all come by, and check ‘em out.

P.S. You’ll even find a few of my British recipes in the new book.

Tag #2

2008-06-07T12:41:00.004-05:00

Sarah, http://www.britgalusa.com/ also tagged me. Ditto what I said to Pam.

What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was working as an Education Programs Coordinator at a museum in Northern California. Rather a grand title, but basically I was teaching kids about archaeology and local history. God knows how I swung that one, as I knew nothing about archaeology and very little local history, but I’m a quick learner, Mrs. Munro.

Five Snacks I enjoy:

I’m not really a snack eater, probably because most of the snacks I enjoy are English, but in no particular order

1. Lancashire cheese and branston pickle butties, (sandwiches if you want to be posh).

2. Caramel Wafers (chocolate or plain).

3. Jacobs Cream Crackers, with any sort of English cheese.

4. Walkers Crisps (plain, cheese & onion, or smokey bacon).

5. Vanilla Slices.

In fact, all the snacks I enjoy are English.

Five Things On My To-Do List Today:

1. Housework.

2. Make a start on an article for the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation Magazine.

3. Send a short story into a writing contest.

4. E-mail a few friends in England, I am always very lax about correspondence.

5. Answer this bloody tag.

Things I Would Do If I Were A Billionaire:

I would stimulate our flagging economy by doing my damndest to spend it all.

Five Jobs I Have Had:

1. Checkout Supervisor at an Asda supermarket.

2. Executive Officer in the Civil Service.

3. Education Programs Coordinator.

4. Administrative Assistant and Production Coordinator at an engineering company.

5. Freelance Writer.

Five of My Bad Habits:

1. Smoking cigarettes.

2. Drinking wine.

3. Procrastinating.

4. I’m a perfectionist, which makes me critical of myself and others.

5. Impatience.

Five Places I've Lived:

1. Colne, Lancashire.

2. Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley, Southern Cal.

3. Benicia, Northern Cal.4.

4. Oxnard, Southern Cal.

5. Oklahoma.

6 People I Want To Get To Know Better:

As I said I’ll skip the tagging. It’s not that there aren’t people I would like to know better, just not this way.

Five Random Things:

1. I often work in my pajamas, this has caused me some embarrassing moments, particularly if someone arrives at the house unexpectedly.

2. I hate cruelty to animals.

3. Even though my cats are allowed to roam freely, they do like to come for walks with me. Alvin even likes to chase sticks, but I’ve never managed to get him to bring them back.

4. I love playing Scrabble.

5. My love of mystery/who-done-it novels began when I read all of Agatha Christie’s detective books in my teens.

Tag #1

2008-06-07T12:01:00.004-05:00

Okay, Pam at http://pamokc.blogspot.com/ tagged me (just be careful where you stick the pins), so I’ll play along and tell you 6 random things about myself. But the buck stops here. I don’t have 6 readers on this blog that I can tag, and I wouldn’t want to if I had. I don’t like these meme things, as far as I’m concerned they are the blog equivalent of chain letters.

Many people think that because I’m a British broad over here that I must be married
to an American. Not so. Mick is from Yorkshire, and I am from Lancashire, so the War of the Roses continues to rage in our house. Well, occasionally. ;-)
I made a decision at age 13 that I would never have kids, and I never have. I also have no regrets on that score.
Ah, but what about the granddaughter you ask? I have a step-daughter whom I love dearly, and five wonderful grandchildren, one girl and four boys.
At age 13, I also said I would never marry, but I’m glad I didn’t stick with that decision. Although I did manage to make it through to 38 before I succumbed.
When we first moved to the States it was our intention to remain here for one year. Thirteen years later, we’re still here.
Other than family and friends, the thing I miss most about England is the accessibility of the rest of Europe, and all those wonderful cheap package holidays.

It's been one of those weeks!

2008-06-01T13:24:00.007-05:00

Alvin in better days.

It’s just been one of those weeks, this week. Memorial Day was a total wash-out, with storm after storm raging through our area all day, and a couple of tornado warnings thrown in for good measure.

We did finally get hold of the vet on Monday evening, and he agreed to take a look at Alvin’s leg. Luckily, there was nothing broken, except my purse, which ended up $98 lighter. But, judging by the entrails left on my porch yesterday morning, he has now made a complete recovery.

Tuesday evening, I had to go to a meeting of my writer’s group, and the bloody garage door mechanism had been knocked out in all the storms, so I couldn’t get my car out. Mick had forgotten about my meeting, or he would have left it open when he went to work. I finally got there 40 minutes late, and I hate being late. Plus, with all the carry-on over the garage door, I forgot to take the critiquing I had done for the group.

Wednesday, I was in a sweat, because I needed some photographs for my latest article for Oklahoma Living, many of my own had turned out too dark to use. The photographer had been supposed to e-mail them to me on Saturday, but it being a holiday, I thought I would leave off pestering him until Tuesday. Anyway, he did get them to me later that day, so I managed to make my deadline. I hate being late.

Thursday, I was finishing up my book proposal, and inadvertently deleted a chunk of it, and had to redo it. But I did finally get the bloody thing done.

Friday, I had to catch up with some household chores, and getting my hand down the toilet (I did have a brush, I hasten to add), was the perfect end to my week. Oh well, it’s the weekend, things can only get better from here on in, can’t they?

Here’s some more writerly advice for my granddaughter. All writers will tell you that a story or a novel needs a "good hook," at the very beginning. A good hook is what compels the reader to keep reading, and is usually a problem or conflict, that your main protagonist has to sort out, or try to sort out (not all stories end happily), during the course of the story.

In a short story the hook should be in the very first paragraph. In a novel, it should be in the first chapter, preferably in the first couple of pages.

A common mistake for beginning writers is to start the story/novel by giving the back story to the events that are going to follow, or by telling all about the main character. This is one sure fire way to bore your readers to death. It’s not that these things aren’t important, but they should be revealed as the story unfolds. Likewise with characters, meeting a character is like meeting a person for the first time, you don’t know everything there is to know about them after one encounter. We should learn more about a character as the story develops, and we learn as much, if not more, about them through their actions and reactions to events and situations, as by being given a full history of their lives to date.

At the beginning of a story readers don’t care how upset Aunt Mabel’s was when her ginger tom died mysteriously. At this stage they have no investment in Aunt Mabel or her cat. But if the death of Aunt Mabel’s ginger tom was a catalyst (no pun intended), to a neighbor’s vendetta against Aunt Mabel, then we want to know what that vendetta is all about. Sorry that’s a bit of a pathetic example, but I think you get my drift.

This is the opening from one of my stories, hopefully it makes you want to know more about what happened to this character.

I feel as though I have to tell my story in order to make some sense of it, for my own sake if for no one else’s. The events I am going to relate have unsettled me for some time. No, more than unsettled me, they actually caused me to fear for my sanity. But if I can work through the bizarre occurrences of past few months with pen and paper, perhaps I can consider myself cured. This recent madness, only a temporary glitch in an otherwise sane existence.

This type of opening is known as a grabber. Another type of opening is known as a teaser, it draws the reader into the story more gradually. Teasers only work in novels, as short stories need to be off and running from the outset. I do have an example of a teaser, but I’m not going to post it as the novel is still a work in progress.

Thought for the week:

Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the art of composition, I resolved to write a book. – Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Cats, Tornadoes, Gardening & Writer's Block

2008-05-25T16:05:00.005-05:00

It’s Memorial Day weekend, and one of my cats, Alvin, has hurt his back leg and is hobbling around on 3. Doesn’t it always happen on a holiday?

Also we are, once again, under a tornado watch, but to look outside you wouldn’t know it. The sky is blue, a few fluffy white clouds hanging about, and it’s hot, 90°F. But you don’t need to live in Oklahoma very long to know that can all change in a heartbeat.

Before we moved out here I read a book about this state, and, of course, it talked about the vagaries of the weather. By way of an example it told of a guy plowing a field with two horses, the weather is so hot that one of the horses keels over from heat exhaustion. In the time it takes him to unhitch the horse, the wind changes to the a northerly, and the other horse freezes to death. At the time, I laughed, I now realize it was a pretty much on the money.

Last Sunday, Mick and I went to the local garden center and picked up a few flowers for the front garden. Amazingly, most of my perennials survived last winter’s ice storms, they must be a hardy bunch. So we picked up a few more perennials, and some colorful annuals, hopefully things will look pretty nice once they get established.

While we were there, I was admiring their beautiful hanging baskets of petunias, but didn’t buy one as I thought we had spent enough. The following day Mick picked one up for me on his way home from work. Our veggie garden is doing well too, you can check that out on Mick’s blog at:

http://oklahomegrownveg.blogspot.com/

Okay, back to some more writerly advice for my granddaughter, recently she asked me what she could do about writer’s block. All writers have their own way of dealing with this phenomenon, some even claim not to suffer from it, I am not one of them. These are just a few things that work for me.

I try to have several projects on the go at any one time. That way if I get stuck, or fed up of one, I leave it alone for a while and work on something else. Sometimes when you try to force your conscious mind to come up with something it refuses to cooperate. But when I’m not consciously thinking about a story, a resolution to whatever it was that got me stuck will come to me.
If that doesn’t work, sometimes free writing can help. I set myself a time limit of 10-15 minutes and just write about anything that comes into my head. I don't worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar or anything like that, I just write. I also find this works best with pen and paper, rather than the computer. If at the end of the 15 minutes I want to carry on, I do so. Doing this helps to get some of the clutter out of my mind.
Sometimes I use a writing prompt to get my brain kick started. There are any number available on the Internet, and I have books that contain some.
Or I’ll write a blog post.

I find that the only way to get past writer’s block is to write something, anything.

By the way, yesterday was the thirteenth anniversary of my arrival in the US.

Thought for the Week

"Keep writing. Keep doing it and doing it. Even in the moments when it’s so hurtful to think about writing." – H.G. Wells.

Some links to my writing

2008-05-19T16:58:00.004-05:00

American White Pelicans preparing for
take-off on Grand Lake

Pam in OK city was asking if I had links to any of my articles, thanks for the interest, Pam. I can't post details about any of my contest successes as I do hope to get them published one day. The links listed below are to a few of my articles in Oklahoma Living Magazine. Sorry I can't give you a more direct link, but these are all now in the archives.

The article is about the Grand River Dam Authority, and can be found on page 34.

http://www.ok-living.coop/media/June_07.pdf

This is about the annual Pelican Festival, held in Grove, Oklahoma, and can be found on page 32.

http://www.ok-living.coop/media/September_07.pdf

This one is about the Oklahoma wine industry, and can be found on page 16

http://www.ok-living.coop/media/October_07.pdf

A more recent piece will appear on their web site at http://www.ok-living.coop/ in July.

I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Circus Peanuts, Goldfish, and Virgil Ran Off With The Cleaning Lady

2008-05-19T16:34:00.005-05:00

More exciting news this week. My good friend and fellow writer, Dorothy Scearcy, has published a book of short stories entitled, Circus Peanuts, Goldfish, and Virgil Ran Off With the Cleaning Lady. I purchased a copy from her on Wednesday morning, and once I got my nose in it, I didn’t stop reading until I’d finished it.

Dorothy’s stories are all slice-of-life vignettes, some are witty, some charming, others are poignant and give you pause for thought, but most are laugh out loud funny. In this book you will discover how Dorothy almost joined a sex club at age eight, how as a young mom she was kicked out of the PTA, and how a dead body in the barn turned out to be not so dead. And because Dorothy has lived her whole life in Oklahoma and Missouri, these two states provide the backdrop for all her tales.
You can read a sample story on her web site at: http://www.cheesencrackers.net/

Check it out, you’re sure to come back for more.

Contest and Tornado Update

2008-05-11T14:30:00.002-05:00

I got my contest submissions back yesterday, and as well as the win, I got a 3rd place for an inspirational article (non-religious), and an honorable mention for a young adult short story. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you, that I was over the bloody moon, still am, in fact.

The celebrations were somewhat dampened, however, by all the tornadoes that swept through this area last night. It was very scary. We were extremely lucky, others were not. Let’s all spare a thought today for all the people who lost their lives, for the families they left behind, and for all those who lost everything they own.

Amazing News!

2008-05-10T16:06:00.016-05:00

The Brits have claimed this little piece of Oklahoma

This morning, I received an e-mail from the editor of The Report, a magazine that goes out to members of the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation Inc. He wanted to know how I felt about winning a 1st place in the OWFI annual writing contest. Well, I didn’t even know I’d won, did I? Also there are about 30 different categories, and I’d entered 8 of them, so, which one had won? The winners are only announced at the OWFI writer’s conference, and I hadn’t gone this year, and nor had anyone else from my writer’s group.

Naturally, I was absolutely delighted to know I’d won something, but I was dying to know which category it was. So, I e-mailed him. When he hadn’t replied after ten minutes, I e-mailed the Prez of OWFI, begging her to put me out of my misery. She e-mailed me right back, thank god! I won the non-fiction book category. Yippee!!! :-0

Funnily enough, I had just finished putting together a non-fiction book proposal to send out to publishers. Is this win a good omen, or what? I haven’t stopped grinning since I found out. Needless to say, there will be mucho celebrating at our house tonight, (in between dodging tornadoes. Yes, we have yet another warning in effect).

Cheers, make mine a large one.

P.S. Sorry about this format but blogger is refusing to leave any gaps between my paragraphs. Bloody thing!

Balti and Chicken Tikka Masala

2008-05-05T13:49:00.004-05:00

A little piece of The Grand Lake O' The Cherokees

I had hoped to try making a balti this weekend, but I couldn’t find all the necessary ingredients at Wally-Mart, and as they are the only show in town, (well 16 miles away to be exact), I had a change of plan.

As Pam in OK City requested a Chicken Tikka Masala, that’s what I made instead. So, just follow me to the kitchen. Take a right at the office door, along the corridor, through the dining room, and here we are.

http://range-warfare.blogspot.com/

I will post more writerly advice later in the week, as I need to actually get writerly and prepare for an interview tomorrow for my next article for Oklahoma Living Magazine.

Curry

2008-04-30T13:57:00.003-05:00

This land turtle is a little shy

This week I have visited several blogs belonging to British ex-pats, many of whom bemoan the fact that you can’t get a decent curry in the US for love nor money. That’s because most Americans seem to have an aversion to spicy food. Their idea of spicy food is having chipotle sauce on their cardboard burgers.

In California, where I used to live, we had a great Indian restaurant, their food was excellent, but if you wanted a spicy curry you had to ask for it, and they would happily oblige. (Even their vindaloo was tame).

Now I live out in the back of beyond, I have about as much chance of finding an Indian restaurant as I have of winning the lottery, and I don’t do the lottery. So, the only way to get a decent curry is to make one, now this one is pretty good if I do say so myself. For the recipe visit my cooking blog at:

http://range-warfare.blogspot.com/

Also all this talk of curries got me thinking about balti. Baltis were becoming very popular around the time I left England, and I loved them. So this weekend, provided it’s not 90°F outside, I’ll make one, and some naan bread. I’ll let you know how I get on.

First Drafts

2008-04-27T15:05:00.005-05:00

Meet Alvin, who ought to have been named Arnie, because he is one lean, mean, killing machine.

This week:

I’ve actually started putting together a book proposal for my non-fiction book. Done some research for my next article for Oklahoma Living Magazine.
And submitted two short stories to two different short story contests.

The weather here has been all over the place this week, too. We’ve had more storms, and some sun with temperatures in the high 70’s F, which is great growing weather, so everything is looking really green again. Today, though, it’s back in the 50’s and will get close to freezing tonight, (more of the same forecast for tomorrow), which is not good news for our vegetable plots. We had hoped to get our tomatoes planted this weekend, but that has had to be put on hold for a little while longer. For more information on our garden visit Mick’s blog http://oklahomegrownveg.blogspot.com/

Mick and I have also splashed out and bought a new digital camera, after humming and arring about it for weeks, (did I mention Mick’s from Yorkshire, so what else can you expect?) Our old camera was a museum piece, and the picture quality left a lot to be desired. Seeing all the beautiful photographs on this blog http://uphilldowndale.wordpress.com/ finally clinched the matter. Whether I'll ever figure out how to use it is another matter, the instruction manual is bigger than the camera!

And now more writerly advice for my granddaughter, and anyone else who’s interested..

When you set out to write a book or a story, don’t even think about getting it published, just get the story down on paper/computer. And don’t worry too much about spelling, grammar or punctuation, you can go back and fix these when you do your second (3rd, 4th etc.) draft. The important thing is to get the story told. Stephen King, in his excellent book, On Writing calls this process, "writing with the door shut."

The revising, re-writing, and polishing of the prose all come later. All writers will tell you that they never write anything worth publishing the first time around, and it often takes several drafts before they have a novel or story they are reasonably happy with. Though I don’t think any writer is ever completely satisfied with what they do, they always feel there’s room for improvement, but there comes a point when you just have to stop tinkering and tweaking and send it out into the world.

I also have a confession to make. I haven’t been sticking to my own advice. I’ve been critiquing my granddaughter’s work, and she has been going back and revising it. But, that said, her book is still progressing, despite the revisions, she’s up to over 30,000 words now, and I think that’s bloody admirable for a fifteen year old who has all her school work to do as well.

Thought for the Week

"If you start to revise before you've reached the end, you're likely to begin dawdling with the revisions and putting off the difficult task of writing." ― Pearl S. Buck

Writer's Groups

2008-04-20T17:07:00.003-05:00

A few of the Grand Lake Wordsmiths after a
presentation at Grove Public Library

Here’s some more writerly (Is that a word? My spoolchucker doesn’t think so. If not, it is now) advice I gave my granddaughter.

Join a writer’s group. If you’re not sure if there is one in your area, try asking at the library, they will probably know if there is one. I joined a writer’s group when I first moved to Oklahoma and I believe my writing has improved as a result. I know without the support and encouragement of my writer’s group, I would never have tried to get anything published.

At first it’s very difficult having your stories critiqued, after all, we none of us like criticism of our work. But as well as helping to improve your writing, it helps you develop a thick skin, and believe me you’ll need it if you want to be a writer. I could paper my office walls with all my rejections. Writing is also a very isolated business and it’s good to be able to talk about it with like-minded people.

Also the diverse writing styles of the group caused me to look outside my comfort zone and try different types of writing. When I first joined them I wrote short stories and nothing else. Now, I write non-fiction articles and essays about all manner of things. Who knows, one of these days I might really branch out and write some poetry. The last time I tried to write poetry it was as an outlet for my teenage angst, and that was a long time ago.

Writer’s groups are also a great way to make new friends. The group I belong to is called Grand Lake Wordsmiths Unlimited, and we meet on the fourth Tuesday of every month, between 4pm and 6pm, at Grove Community Center. New members are always welcome, so if you live in the Grand Lake area, drop by and see us some time. We also have a critique group meeting in the middle of the month, the dates and times of these are arranged at our monthly meetings.

Thought for the Week

“I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork”. ― Peter De Vries

Take Baby Steps

2008-04-13T16:46:00.003-05:00

Some Spring Color After the Rain

Last year my granddaughter told me she was trying to write a book and asked me for some tips to help her with her writing, I came up with a list of about ten things she could do. Over the next few weeks I’ll share some of my suggestions here.

I’ve read quite a few books on the subject of writing and all of them stress the same thing, if you are serious about being a writer you must write every day whether you want to or not.

This can be very difficult to do as we all have so many other demands on our time, jobs, kids, and in my granddaughter’s case, school work, after-school projects, and homework. And with so little spare time a novel seems a daunting task, so it’s easier not to begin.

But most first-time novelists have the same time constraints as the rest of us, so how did they managed to finish their books? They learn to write in small doses, by getting up an hour earlier, by writing on the train going to work, or in their lunch break. And instead of collapsing in front of the TV after a busy day, they collapsed in front of their computers and wrote some more.

What you need to do is look at your schedule, and decide to commit a certain amount of time to writing. Even if you find that you only have 15 minutes to spare, you can write a couple of paragraphs in that time, and in two days you’ll have a page. Keep it up for a year and you’ll have 183 pages. It doesn’t seem quite so daunting if you look at it like that.

And when you’re standing in line at the cashier’s desk in the supermarket, instead of browsing the magazines, think about what you’re going to write next. (The same applies when doing any menial tasks, housework, driving, or mowing the lawn). That way you’ll know what you want to write before you sit down to write.

This week’s thought for the week:

"A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit." ~ Richard Bach

This Writing Lark, er Life

2008-04-06T15:38:00.003-05:00

Pensacola Dam on the Grand River, Oklahoma

When I started this blog I intended it to be mainly about writing, with a few rambles and rants thrown in for good measure. Now it seems that it’s about anything but writing, so I need to get back on track. I’ve moved the cooking stuff to another blog, if you’re interested you can find it at:

http://range-warfare.blogspot.com/

It’s not that I haven’t been writing, I have. A children’s history magazine, that I have written for before, e-mailed me wanting submissions for an issue they were doing on Nazi Germany. I wrote a piece about the life of women in Nazi Germany and e-mailed it to them back at the end of February. But, it seems it’s just disappeared into the ether. It was a good article, too, it certainly generated quite a bit of discussion at my writer’s group – Grand Lake Wordsmiths Unlimited – when I read it to them.

Then I sent a few e-mail queries out about another story and got a bite straight away. I wrote the article, sent it in and haven’t heard another thing from them. Oh, the writing life, and people think I have an easy job just because I can work in my pyjamas most of the time.

I’m also working on a non-fiction book, it requires a lot of research, but I am almost at the point where I can start putting together a book proposal, almost! And I have a new assignment for Oklahoma Living Magazine that I need to start work on soon. I’ve made a tentative start on a new short story, and I have an idea for a novel burning a hole in my brain, but never actually making it onto paper. One day!

Well, I'll get back to twidling my thumbs and gazing out of the window.

That was the week that was

2008-04-02T13:10:00.004-05:00

Room for a small one in there?

That was the week that was:

Speaking of too many thirteen’s in my life. Last week, our home phone went on the blink, and it took five days before someone came to repair it. Then Mick’s car broke down; he had to get it towed to the repair shop, and only got it back yesterday. So that meant I was car less for several days. Then, we had just got all the flotsam and jetsam from last week’s flood cleared out of our yard, when we had another deluge on Monday. (I had to take refuge in the closet due to a tornado warning). Another six inches of rain fell in a couple of hours and the lake was back. Oh hum.

Earth Hour

2008-04-01T11:15:00.001-05:00

Earth Hour

Earth Hour organizers estimate 100 million people took part this year’s event. Mick and I did our bit on Saturday, we switched off all electrical appliances (except the fridge), and resorted to candle power for pretty much the rest of the evening really. Our neighbors probably thought we hadn’t paid our electric bill as lights continued to blaze in their homes. I wonder, did anyone else in Oklahoma take part?

Skeptics out there will say, what use is turning off the power for one hour? A lot of use, because it shows the extent of people’s concern about global warming. This is a global issue, and it will take a worldwide effort to resolve the problem. Global warming is not going to go away just because we continue to ignore it. Unless something is done soon we are in danger of destroying our planet, and the last time I looked it’s the only one we’ve got. There ain’t nowhere to go from here.

And the problem is not just in the hands of governments, it’s in all our hands. We all need to do our part to reduce our carbon footprint. If we all do a little it adds up to a great deal.

While we sat there in semi darkness Mick and I talked about what we missed the most about the power being off, and we both agreed it was light. If you have light you can read a book, have a game of scrabble, or write. There’s not much you can do without light.

Whenever there’s been a power outage in your neighborhood, what have you missed the most?

Ta ta for now.

2008-03-26T16:13:00.002-05:00

This is Wilson (the Lounge Lizard). Well you
didn't think I was going to post a pic of my
gray hair.

Too Many 13’s

There seem to be too many 13’s cropping up in my life at the moment. It’s not that I’m superstitious, well, maybe just a tad. It’s not really surprising considering my mother was a paranoid superstitionarian (a what?). When my brother and I were kids, she would drag us across busy roads just to avoid walking under a ladder. And placing a box containing new shoes on the table would reduce this sensible woman to a gibbering idiot. She also had a thing about black cats, opening umbrellas indoors, and passing on the staircase. I could go on and on, but I won’t.

Anyway, back to 13’s. It was my 13th wedding anniversary last week. On Monday it was 13 years since Mick moved to California, and on May 24th, it will be 13 years since I came out to join him. (It was our original intention to stay in the States for a year. How time flies). And, after doing our grocery shopping the other day, we ended up at check stand number 13! What’s more, I got my first gray hair last week, it probably has nothing to do with the number 13, but it might.

2008-03-19T18:39:00.000-05:00

Shepherd's (Cottage) Pie

More English Comfort Food – Shepherd’s Pie

Of course all this cold, wet weather called for more comfort food. This is my recipe for Shepherd’s Pie. Strictly speaking, it should be called Cottage Pie as it’s made with ground beef, and Shepherd’s Pie is made with ground lamb, but I think I’ve already mentioned that lamb in Oklahoma is as rare as rocking horse poop.

Cottage Pie

(For Shepherd’s Pie substitute ground lamb for beef)

Ingredients:

1lb ground sirloin
2 lbs mashed potatoes
2 cups beef stock
1 onion, chopped.
3 carrots, sliced
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
1/2 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
A generous dash of fresh ground black pepper
1 bay leaf

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400°F
2. In a large skillet melt butter over medium high heat and brown meat.
3. Add the onion and sauté for two minutes.
4. Add carrots and beef stock. Bring to the boil, add Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, and bay leaf, and simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Drain liquid from mixture and reserve.
6. Transfer the mixture to an 11-inch x 7-inch ovenproof dish. Cover with mashed potato, and form grooves in the surface with a fork.
7. Bake for 50 – 60 minutes, or until potatoes are golden brown.
8. Skim any fat from surface of reserved stock. Mix cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water and add to stock. Cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until gravy thickens, add more seasoning if required.

Serve pie with seasonal vegetables and gravy.

Note: Personally I add Bisto powder (a British gravy mix) to the stock because it makes
lurvly gravy. An American friend of ours (when we lived in the San Francisco Bay Area), always called it Jan’s Groovy Gravy. And the good news, Bisto can be bought in the US from
http://www.britishdelights.com/bisto.htm

2008-03-19T18:23:00.001-05:00

Garden last Summer - No Lake

Garden on March 18, 2008 with lake

No Lake

Lake - No Rain, Huh!

Water, Water Everywhere

A series of storms passed through the Midwest on Monday and Tuesday of this week, bringing torrential rain. It started raining here on Monday evening and stopped sometime last night. Reports vary according to the amounts, but something between 7-10 inches of rain fell in Northeast Oklahoma.

And, as per usual, poor old Oklahoma gets nary a mention in the news reports. Apparently the storms managed to pass us by and dropped the whole lot on Missouri and Arkansas. The weather report on Monday night put Northeast Oklahoma and Northwest Arkansas as the areas set to get the highest amounts of rain. It would seem that the lake that formed in my garden yesterday was a bloody mirage. The cats needed water wings just to go out for a tiddle, and I had to don sou’wester and hubby’s thigh length fishing wellies just to take the pics. Oh hum.

2008-03-10T19:36:00.000-05:00

Ghostly Goings – on in the Attic

Last weekend, my daughter called and told me that she had a ghost in the attic. My granddaughter had been using the attic as her bedroom, and saw this ghost on two occasions. Although my daughter thought she had probably dreamt it, she took it seriously and moved her to a bedroom. She then put two of her boys in the attic. The two boys also saw the ghost, each on separate occasions. This is what my granddaughter told me about the experience:

"It was really dark in my room, and I remember waking up, I didn't know what time it was. For some reason, I just felt really scared and I didn't know why, and I couldn't move anything but my eyes. I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye and so I looked. I thought it was dad, because it was about the same height and it looked like a man. It was a bit blurry, but I presumed that was because it was dark. It was bending down and picking stuff up and looking at them before putting them back down again. It was near my teddy bears so I thought it was picking them up. I can't remember anything else so I must have fallen asleep. I asked dad why he'd been messing with my teddy bears and he said he hadn't. He looked confused so I believed him. It was there the next night, doing the same thing, in the same spot. I carried on looking at it, and I just remember seeing it kind of fade from the bottom upwards, and seeing it with no legs."

This reminded me of a strange encounter of my own. At one time, back in England, I worked at an office where I used to run a job club (to help people improve their job search skills). The job club took place in two of the upstairs rooms in the office. In one room I did the training sessions, and the other room (which we called the resource room), was used by people to apply for jobs. In that room they had newspapers, magazines, telephones, stationery, computer, everything that they needed to apply for jobs. There was also an old typewriter in there that nobody ever used.

One day, I arrived early at the office, before anyone else got there. The canteen was upstairs, so I went up there to make myself a cup of tea. On passing the door to the resource room, I heard typing, which surprised me as I was sure none of the other staff were in yet. As soon as I opened the door the typing stopped, but there was no one in the room. I did hear the typing several times while I worked there, and it always happened when the room wasn’t in use. I probably would have thought I was going nuts, but I later discovered that other staff had heard it, too.

And funnily enough, when I told the office manager about the mysterious typist, she told me yet another ghost story. She had been in charge of another office at the time, and one Sunday she got a call from the police. Neighbors across from the office building had seen lights on upstairs and thought it might be a break-in. When the manager got there, there were no lights on, and no sign of a break-in.

But, what really mystified her was that the upstairs of the office wasn’t used. The office though, had originally been a church until it had undergone a conversion. The contractors who did the renovations had put in a false ceiling to hide the high church roof.

After another Sunday call-out due to lights being on in the upper story the manager thought there might be some sort of electrical fault, so she called in an electrician. He found that not only were there no lights up there, there wasn’t any wiring either.

Spooky!

2008-03-05T19:38:00.000-06:00

Lancashire Hot Pot

After a balmy weekend where we basked in temperatures in the low 70’s F, by Sunday night it was all change again. The warm southerly wind that had blown steadily all weekend changed to a northerly, and within minutes temperatures dropped 20° and continued to fall.

On Monday, temps hovered around freezing all day, only to plunge into the teens at night. Mick lit a log fire, and we and our three cats, Wilson, Alvin, and Tommy, huddled round it. On a night like this, one needs comfort food. And what better comfort food can there be than a traditional dish from my native county in England, a Lancashire Hot Pot was definitely called for. Even Mick, a Yorkshireman, didn’t complain, and in fact he had second helpings.

For those of you still laboring under freezing weather conditions here is my recipe for Lancashire Hot Pot.

Sheep abound on the hill farms of the county of Lancashire, England, and the original Hot Pot was made with mutton. Nowadays neck of lamb is the traditional cut of meat used in this dish, however, beef stew meat works equally well. It has to, as lamb is about as rare as hen’s teeth in Oklahoma.

Lancashire Hot Pot

Ingredients:

1lb beef stew meat.
2lbs russet potatoes. (thinly sliced)
2 carrots, sliced.
1 large onion, sliced.
½ pint beef stock
2 tablespoons butter, melted.
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
¼ cup all purpose flour
Black pepper.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Season flour with pepper and coat the meat.
3. Heat oil in a large skillet over a medium heat, and brown the beef.
4. In a 1½ quart casserole/ovenproof dish place alternate layers of meat, onion, potato, and carrot, ending with a layer of potato.
5. Pour over the stock, cover with a lid or aluminum foil and bake for 2 hours.
6. Remove from oven, brush potatoes with melted butter, and cook uncovered for a further 30 minutes, or until potatoes are browned.

2008-02-25T13:46:00.000-06:00

A Sad Story

It’s been rather a traumatic weekend. On Friday evening, Mick found a small dog at the side of the road, she looked like she had been involved in an accident with a car. She had a badly broken leg, and was in very bad shape. She had obviously been abandoned by her owner, and looked like she had been living rough for several weeks. The weather here has been really cold, and nighttime temperatures have been below freezing most of the time, so she must have had a pretty miserable time of it.

I really do not understand the mentality of people who can treat their animals like this. I know what I’d like to do to them, but it can’t be published on this page.

Mick took her to our local vet, who said the accident had probably occurred a couple of weeks before, as her leg was broken in two places and infected. He said he would need to x-ray it to make sure, but he thought the only option was to amputate her leg. The vet kept her overnight, and said he’d call the following morning and let us know the verdict.

Mick and I talked about it that night. Not only was the cost of the dog’s treatment prohibitive to our keeping her, but we have three cats who would never tolerate a dog in the house. It upset us both terribly, but we knew we had no choice but to tell the vet to put her to sleep. It was a horrible decision to make, and it’s haunted us both. We can only console ourselves with the thought that, had Mick left her where she was she would have died anyway, and it would have been a miserable death for her.

The only good thing to come out of the whole incident was, I found out that our vet was delighted with the story I wrote about him and his experiences on the Iditarod. Unfortunately, I can’t post a link to the story, as I said I would, because it isn’t in the on-line magazine. It will, however, eventually appear in the archive, so I’ll post a link then.

2008-02-05T13:15:00.000-06:00

Oklahoma Writer’s Federation, Annual Writing Contest

I did make a New Year’s resolution to post something on this blog every week. But then, I also made New Year’s resolutions to quit, abstain from, and generally cut down on my bad habits, and I haven’t done any of those things either. Oh hum.

Truth is I’ve been totally swamped with work preparing my entries for the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation annual writing contest. Admitedly, most of the work was already done, though some pieces needed editing and revising. Then I made the mistake of deciding to enter a category that needed a lot of work.

I’ve been tinkering around with an idea for a nonfiction book for some time now, and have even written a few chapters, but the thing takes a lot of research, and other projects kept getting in the way. Well, that’s my excuse, I guess there was also an element of procrastination involved, isn’t there always?

Anyway, I had a sudden rush of blood to the head and decided to submit the thing ― you notice how it’s become “the thing?” ― to the nonfiction book category of the contest. This involved writing a chapter outline and submitting sample chapters, and as I had only written about seven chapters thus far, the scale of the project was monumental. I had to spend every available moment on the computer, and my husband, Mick, got lumbered with making dinner, grocery shopping, and several other chores for a week. I don’t know what I’d do without him.

To cut a long story short, I just got it done in time for the deadline, then I had to walk round to the post office in a blizzard to get the thing in the mail. I know it doesn’t stand a snowball in hell’s chance of winning, as I had no time to revise or edit, but hopefully I’ll get some feedback from the judge about my idea.

Right now, I never want to see the bloody thing again, but give it a few weeks...

2008-01-06T15:10:00.000-06:00

Photo: A dog team crossing the frozen Yukon River

The Iditarod

Well, that’s Christmas and New Year out of the way. I did manage to have a pretty good time, despite coming down with a severe cold on Christmas Eve, which lasted all through New Year, and still has not yet released its hold on me. That’s one of the reasons I haven’t been around here for a while, that and all the usual craziness at this time of year. Anyway, it’s 2008 and time to get back to work, but not before I wish everyone a Happy and Peaceful New Year.

Earlier in December Mick and I helped Santa’s Old Broads at their wrapping party. We, and several other volunteers, wrapped Christmas presents for 120 disadvantaged kids. Judging by all the gifts, those kids must have had a great Christmas. And all that practice made wrapping our own presents a cinch this year.

We are still clearing up the devastation in our garden from the ice storms, and will be for a long time yet. Temperatures right now are all over the place. On January 2, we had a high of 32º F and a low of 12º F. Yesterday, we had a high of 71º F and a low of 52º F. But that’s Oklahoma for you, if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.

I’ve just completed another assignment for Oklahoma Living Magazine. This one was about our local veterinarian, who has volunteered his services on four occasions, to care for the sled dogs on the Iditarod. For anyone who hasn’t heard of the Iditarod, it’s the Wimbledon of dog sled racing, and takes place in Alaska every year, starting on the first Saturday in March. The Iditarod Trail covers 1150 miles between Anchorage and Nome. For more information on the race visit:

http://www.iditarod.com/

For anyone interested in finding out more about the role of veterinarians on the Iditarod, I’ll post a link to my article on this page, after it’s published in February.

Ta ta for now.

2007-12-11T15:48:00.000-06:00

Some of the destruction that greeted us on Monday morning. The first is my dogwood tree. The second a persimmon tree threatening to fall. The third is the willow, and the fourth the remains of my neighbour's cottonwood tree, together with leaning electric pole.

2007-12-11T15:40:00.000-06:00

More ice storm photos from Sunday. Believe it or not the flowers on the left were crysanthemums.

2007-12-11T15:36:00.000-06:00

Ice Storm photos taken on Sunday, December 9, 2007. Above is the dogwood before it split in two.

2007-12-11T15:26:00.000-06:00

Oklahoma Ice Storms

On Monday, December 10, a state of emergency was declared for the whole of Oklahoma following the weekend ice storms. Once again, as in January of this year, the air was rent with snapping tree limbs, the sounds echoing round like sniper fire.

My garden looks like a wasteland, it's truly a heart-breaking sight. A tiny flowering dogwood, the prettiest tree in my yard, with its beautiful white blooms in spring, and its blaze of red leaves in the fall, was split in half. A red bud tree has fallen down. And many other trees have lost limbs, oaks, maples, and two peach trees. Only the willow managed to bend his back and survive the chaos and destruction around him.

I’ve lost trees, others have lost much more. Fifteen Oklahomans have lost their lives, and our hearts go out to their families and loved ones.

We all live at the mercy of the elements, and sometimes Mother Nature is a cruel mistress. And Oklahoma seems to have suffered much at her hands this year: ice and snow storms in the winter, flooding and tornadoes in the spring, sweltering heat and humidity in the summer, and now back to ice and snow.

Along with over half a million other homes in Oklahoma, we lost power. Throughout two bitterly cold nights and one whole day we had no electricity. Although the power did return briefly last night, by the time Mick and I had finished cheering, it was off again. This morning, around 9am, the lights came on, and are still on as I type this. Others are not so lucky, and can expect to be without power for a week or more, and with snow and below freezing temperatures forecast for this weekend, the outlook is pretty grim, and does not bode well for the festive season.

2007-11-05T18:01:00.000-06:00

Tommy Ticklemouse, though his wound is barely visible in this picture.

An Honorable Mention, an Injured Cat, & GE Finally Pay Up.

Well, it’s been a week of highs and lows. First of all, one of my articles appeared on the front page of our local newspaper, The Grove Sun Daily, and I was delighted.

That very same day, I received a letter from the editor of Writer’s Digest informing me that my short story entitled, Stranger, had been awarded an Honorable Mention in their annual writing contest. And went on to say that I could feel justifiably proud of myself as they had received 19,000 entries. Proud, I was euphoric, it’s the first time I’ve received any sort of recognition for my fiction. I didn’t come down to earth until one of my cats hurt his leg.

To say he hurt his leg is putting it mildly, Tommy had two gashes front and back, so deep I could see the bone. He was rushed to the vet who had to suture his wounds, resulting in a bed and breakfast stay at the surgery for Tommy. The vet said the wounds weren’t the result of a bite, so we assume he must have got his leg caught somewhere. Tommy is sporting his war wounds for all to see as the vet had to shave all the hair off around the top of his leg, but he’s making a good recovery. He’s a tough old boot.

Then things took a turn for the better. After four weeks of phone calls, e-mails and letters, GE finally agreed to cough up the money to repair my range, and then back to worse when they sent me the wrong replacement part. So I still can’t use my oven, and Thanksgiving looms. Mick and I will be on turkey sandwiches at this rate.

2007-10-22T19:00:00.000-05:00

Sippin’ and Signin’ with Santa’s Old Broads

On Saturday, October 20th my husband, Mick and I went to a Sippin’ and Signin’ hosted by Santa’s Old Broads.

Santa’s Old Broads are a great bunch of women who work tirelessly all year round raising money to help disadvantaged children have a great Christmas.

In order to raise money, they have written and self published three cookbooks:
Doing It... in the kitchen, volumes one and two, and Quickies...in the kitchen. They also have a new book scheduled to appear in the fall of 2008 entitled, Doing It...around the world.

The Old Broads are certainly doing that, to date they have helped over 500 children.
What’s more their books have sold in every state in America, and they have even shipped some overseas to England, Australia, and France. And, every penny of the proceeds from these sales and other fund raising events goes to help children in need in at Christmas.

Every child they help is outfitted from top to toe in quality, name brand clothing, and each receives a toy or gift from their own wish list. Moreover, the kids never know where the gifts came from because Santa’s Old Broads work in total anonymity.

I would like to say a great big thank you to everyone who has supported Santa’s Old Broads by buying their cookbooks. If you haven’t already bought one, do so today – in fact buy all three – and bring a smile to a child’s face this Christmas.

For more information and to buy books check out the Old Broad’s web site at:

http://www.santasoldbroads.com/

2007-10-17T09:59:00.000-05:00

On a lighter note

I went to the Grand Wine Country Fall Festival on Saturday, October 13, the wine flowed, there were lots of tasty munchables, as well as a grape stomping contest, and arts and craft stalls. Music at the event was provided by Olivia Duhon and the University of Tulsa Jazz Trio. A good time was had by all.

The event was very timely as I had just written an article about Oklahoma wine for Oklahoma Living Magazine. The article featured one of the wineries present at the festival, Summerside Vineyards and Winery, www.summersidevineyards.com
To read the full article visit:

www.ok-living.coop

Also represented at the festival were:
Oak Hills Winery & Vineyard, Chelsea, Oklahoma. www.oakhillswinery.com
Cabin Creek Vineyard & Winery, Big Cabin, Oklahoma. www.cabincreekwine.com
Coyote Run, Winery & Vineyard, Adair, Oklahoma. www.coyoterunwinery.com

2007-10-16T18:01:00.000-05:00

Just one of those weeks

My oven door shattered, and my computer was ill.

I had just got this blog up and running when my computer decided to have a nervous breakdown ― the upshot was she had to spend 5 days in hospital. To make matters worse, that was the very week I had to come up with story ideas for Oklahoma Living Magazine’s 2008 editorial calendar. Anyway, I just scraped in by the skin of my teeth, thanks to my friendly, neighborhood computer psychoanalyst.

But that’s only the half of it. I am presently in dispute with GE, the electric appliance people. Three weeks ago, for no apparent reason, the internal glass in my oven shattered, and neither the oven nor the hob was in use at the time. In fact, it hadn’t been in use all summer as my husband and I prefer outdoor grilling when the weather’s hot. This range is only 14 months old, and of course, the warranty had run out 2 months previously.

I spoke to a customer service rep. who offered a replacement part, but was quick to point out that the expense of installation was my responsibility. Not good enough! As far as I’m concerned this is a major defect on a relatively new appliance.

I wrote to the company’s Customer Relations Manager, who obviously wants to have no relations with his customers, as two weeks later I still haven’t received a response. I am now trying another avenue of complaint; I will let you know how I get on.

2007-10-03T18:23:00.000-05:00

Janet Brett

2007-10-03T18:09:00.000-05:00

Who Needs U

When I first moved to America from England, it never crossed my mind that there would be a language barrier, after all, we all speak English, right? Wrong! Although Californians always remarked, "I just love your accent," few of them actually understood a word I said. Anyone brave enough to venture an opinion as to where I was from generally thought, Australian, (as in, you speak English, but not as we know it). Or, the alternative, "Scotch," (I was always sorely tempted to be pedantic and explain that scotch was a drink, not a nationality). But I should also point out that in those early days, I would have been hard pressed to recognize many of the different American accents

Actually, I hale from the north of England, and have an accent that any self respecting Londoner would describe as pure "hicksville," but which, for some reason, Americans seem to think is "posh." Of course, they don’t actually use that expression, more something along the lines of, I "speak correctly." It is my belief that they are of this opinion because I pronounce T’s as T’s and not D’s as is the American way.

I encountered similar problems when I began writing for an American audience, particularly with the differences in spellings between English English and American English.

I should add a proviso here; it is not my intention to deride the American version of English, because believe me, the English, myself included, do an excellent job of murdering our language without any help from anyone else.

Over here there is a definite aversion to the letter U, hence neighbour becomes neighbor, labour becomes labor, (even now my spellchecker is having a thrombosis), and the word queue becomes line. Now, why Americans chose to dispense with the letter U, I have no idea, perhaps they just considered it superfluous. But it can be a bit of a nuisance when playing scrabble, it’s difficult enough getting rid of those pesky U’s as it is.

Language, however, is always in a state of flux. Take the zed, (an American friend once asked me to spell zed, I replied Zed, E, D, of course), or zee, for example. At home, I have an old copy of the Concise Oxford Dictionary, in it words such as realize, analyze, and theorize are all spelt with a Z, as they are today in the U.S. In a modern English dictionary the Z has been replaced by an S. I have no idea when or why this occurred, but it is natural for me to use S.

So, you see what I’m up against? And this is just the tip of the iceberg, there are also subtle differences in grammar and punctuation, as well as expressions and turns of phrase that have no comparison here. I could go on, and on, but I won’t, I think I’ve bored you enough for one day. Have a great week.
Jan.