Jacey Bedford's Journal

This last week has been completely insane.

Still recovering from pulled tooth and pulled back muscle. managed to use the back muscle as an excuse for skipping the gym all week. Bad me.

Got a postal franking machne on trial I hadn't realised that youir postage is actually cheaper, but you do pay a monthly fee. I'll have to see how it balances out. It's certainly easy to use.

Thursday: Spent serious time applying for Certificates of Sponsorship (think 'electronic work permits') for various incoming artists - some with unpronounceable names. Managed to persuade Number One Son to take Granny to the market in Penistone to give me a couple of extra hours at my desk.

Friday: H came and we did a mailshot for the upcoming festival.

Sunday: Had ten Zulus recording a Christmas CD in our living room all day. Not many people can say that.

Monday: Back much improved, so no excuse. Managed to get to the gym in the morning after a week of missing sessions only to find they've moved some of the machines round and it feels weird. Village festival is on Saturday. Lots to do. Tanglefoot's last week of UK touring began with a day off so they all scattered in various directions except for Al who was in the studio putting down a bass part for various tracks on the new Zoe Mulford CD. Made a big curry only to find no one around at meal time. Kept the meat and veg separate until the last moment in case the only veggie of the bunch came home hungry. It got to 8.30 and I decised if veggie hadn't eaten by that time it wasn't my probem. I added chicken to the curry just five minutes before same said veggie came home starving. Took an hour to watch Torchwood.

Tuesday: Gym - then the rest of the day in the office doing day-job stuff. One of my four dance teams from the festival has cancelled. Bummer. No way in Hell I can replace them.) Torchwood again.

Today: Skipped gym again. Mustn't skip tomorrow, Applied seat of the trousers to the office chair all day. Keyboard seems to be a bit faulty. Failing to types some letters. Phone never stopped ringing for tickets for the festival concert. It's Tanglefoot, of course.. Their last-but-one UK gig and the last in the north. I expected it to be busy and I have not been disappointed. Last festival meeting before the big day. (Big 2 days actually.) More Torchwood. Good!

This week has been somewhat unusual because Number One Son, J, is home from Rome for the week. It seems almost strange to have him in his room again as he's been away for huge chunks of the last eight or nine years and usually when he does come home he's dashing up and down seeing people. This week, however he's in residence and it's been lovely to have him just hanging around. He's busy doing all sorts of administrative bits and pieces prior to starting a five year PhD at Princeton in September, so there's been all the choosing of accommodation options and the sorting out of childhood vaccination records for the medical forms. It's like sending him off to university all over again - for the fourth time, as there have already been departures for Cambridge, Cooper Union (Manhattan) and the British School (Rome).

BB and I took him and my mum to Castle Howard for the day, yesterday. We made sandwiches and ate them in the car sheltering from the not-as-warm-as-it-might-have-been breeze, but considering it's still April the weather wan't too bad. White cloudy skies, light breeze and if the promised sunny spells didn't present themselves at least it didn't rain until we were almost home. How very English.


Number One Son wanted to ogle the house because it was designed by Vanbrugh three hundred or so years ago and Vanbrugh was James Sterling's favourite architect and N1S is making a film about Sterling's architecture. We just wanted to ogle the rooms and the pretties and have a mooch around the grounds, taking photographs. Not incompatible objectives.

So we ogled house, pretties and grounds, walking back through Roy Wood with numerous varieties of flowering cherries and delightful clumps of primroses, then had conversations with a noisy peacock, ate a clotted cream tea and came home through only a modest traffic jam. Very pleasant.

Huge thanks to brownnicky  for being the first to read Spider on the Web and giving me some great feedback, It's keeping me busy hence I've not been posting much over the last couple of days. I'm one of those writers who actually likes the process of revision and - given the opportunity - I will polish and polish and never call a piece finished. I'm going through it now to check each one of brownnicky 's comments, doing a quick revision pass and then it's going to three volunteer beta-readers for comments. I was worried about a few squick factors but I may have been over-sensitive. So far, so good.

I sent my deposit cheque off this week for the Milford SF writers' week which this year is the end of October. It's still a long way off, but I'm really looking forward to it. mevennen  is the current Milford secretary and bluehairsue  the chair.

Other than that it's been a weird week on TV starting with Saturday and the return of Robin the Hoodie on BBC TV shown against Primeval on ITV. Bad planning, guys, but at least Primeval is repeated on Sunday. I'm only watching Robin the Hoodie to see if it improves. Yeah, right. I've been saying that for two seasons already. It hasn't yet, but Richard Armitage is still great eye-candy. Heroes (Mondays) is improving since its dire Season Two, though. Sadly I keep forgetting to switch on for Smallville on Tuesdays. It has its good moments but they are fewer and further between these days. And I've gone past caring about what happens to Sam and Dean in Supernatural. Sorry, guys. When's the first of the Doctor Who specials? Easter, I hope.

The car went in dock for a service and its MOT check. It passed, but on the way home the new joint on one of the steering thingies started clunking. Turned out it was faulty so we were without it for another day.

BB tried to take the end of his finger off with a hammer on Tuesday resulting in a nasty spell of him almost passing out and me doing the instant first aid thing with him laid out on the kitchen floor in recovery position. Oh joy. I still think it needed a once-over by someone with more knowledge than me, but - unusually - there was no doctor, nurse or first aider available at our local surgery that day, and a ten mile trip in a car (presuming I'd been able to borrow one - see above paragraph) when he already has a tendency to car sickness at the best of times (as a passenger) and is feeling woozy, faint and sick from the accident was something that didn't seem to be in his best interests. But I spent the rest of Tuesday watching him like a hawk. He seems fine now, but he's changed the dressing himself so I haven't seen the finger. Any sign of infection and he gets no choice about that trip to the doctor's.

He's working out in the garden again, so he can't be feeling that bad. The first raised bed is almost ready to plant.

I went to see 'Knowing' on Wednesday with H. It's one of those movies you don't want to know too much about before you go and see it. Also it reminded me how good Nicholas Cage is. As for the movie itself - well - it's not a laugh a minute and I had issues with the ending, but parts of it were spectacular and the tension really cranks up. On balance I'm glad I went. The first 3/4 of the movie gets five stars.

I finished reading Kari Sperring's Living With Ghosts but I haven't digested it enough to write a Book Log on it yet. It deserves more than a quick recap of the story - if indeed you could recap it quickly! Must do that tomorrow or Saturday. I picked up China Mieville's Un Lon Don for my next read, but then got sidetracked by a historical that someone (one of my visiting musos) had left in the house. I ordered brownnicky 's 'Shadow Web' from the local bookseller in Denby Dale and must remember to collect it tomorrow or Saturday.

It's such a long time since I've read a Regency romance that I decided I should read some Georgette Heyer... just to remind myself of the specific genre and because I'd like to compare and contrast with some of the SF novels heavily influenced by her - such as Bujold's 'A Civil Campaign'. The local bookshop has none, Waterstones in Wakefield only had three and they were expensive (eight pounds for a skinny paperback). I figured a charity shop or used department of the local bookshop might be my best bet - but not a Heyer in sight. Is she going / has she gone out of fashion?

I spent part of yesterday pricking out seedlings and potting on cuttings. The tomatoes (2 varieties) have all sprouted. Some are nearly six inches tall while others have only just thrown up their first pair of leaves, but they're all viable. The lettuce is rampant. The purple sprouting broccoli has grown, but doesn't look very well. The fuchsia cuttings are brilliant

Other than that I have a touch of toothache (which considering I only had a dental check last week (all clear) seems a bit unfair) and an entirely self-inflicted stiff neck from falling asleep in a chair compounded by bad typing posture. Will I never learn?

Oh, and I did some day job work, too.

This morning - after months of grey days and dark nights, I decided to do it... to use the little time travel machine strapped to my wrist. Such a sunny morning should not be wasted. If I'd let myself think about the possible consequences I might have crawled back into bed and closed my eyes against the idea so... don't think, just do. (Was that Master Yoda in my subconscious? Thank you, George Lucas!) I took a deep breath and twirled the tiny silver knob on my personal TTM. Not too far. I didn't want to be too ambitious. I expected dizzyness or disorientation (or the sound of a tardis at the very least) but it didn't come. There may be after effects, of course, but for now I've completed a successful one hour jump.

The future is not so different...

It's mild and sunny up here. BB and I spent a couple of hours in the garden today (sans coats) with dadgaderie  waging war on a dreadful ivy-like creeper that's been threatening to choke the big ash tree at the top corner of the garden. BB's pet robin has come back again this year and he came to join us as we exposed potential bug-hideouts under the mass of old growth.

My tomato (2 varieties), lettuce and broccoli seeds are sprouting beautifully on the bedroom windowsill, the first early potatoes are almost well enough sprouted to commit to the growing-bags (bastardised Tesco shopping bags at 39p each rather than garden centre ones for six quid!) and the four plug-plant strawberries are healthy and growing nicely in their new pots. My fuschia cuttings have all potted on well and there's another set rooting in water. At the beginning of the winter I brought in the huge triple-plant fuschia basket that hung by the front door door last year and it has already flowered once and is getting its second wind for another burst of bloom. Sadly the second hanging fuschia got left outside and I think that may be done for, but time will tell.

ferlonda  and dadgaderie  have just come up from the south of England and report spring is already in the air down there with snowdrops and crocuses blooming and cherry blossom starting.

Here we're much later, but catkins are on the willows, daffodils are now about six inches high and further down towards Huddersfield (much lower than out 1,000 feet ASL) I saw cocuses in bloom on the grass verge.

We may, of course get another flurry or two of snow, yet, but if we do it won't stay for long.

On Thursday I cleaned out the back porch - which is the closest I get to having a greenhouse - and put ten first early potatoes to chit on the landing window (north-ish facing). They are for growing in bags - in the porch for starters. The garden centre had some planting bags at six quid apiece - and then at the checkout their own hessian carrier bags - at £2.00 - looked about the same size so I bought one to try it, though I reckon Tesco's 'big green bags' at 39 pence each will do the job nicely if I punch some drain holes.

This morning, in a fit of enthusiasm I:
* moved the hanging-basket fuschia (overwintering inside) back into the porch from the living room, washing it in soapy water first because there were some suspicious white specks on the leaves. It's going out by the front door as soon as the frosts have safely passed.
* potted 6 fuschia cuttings (well rooted) and put another six fuschia cuttings into the water-pot to root
* potted 4 strawberries bought as plug-plants
* started 2 types of tomato from seed - one is '100s and 1000s', a micro-tom for hanging baskets, and the other an F1 hybrid - 'Shirley'
* planted about 15 purple sprouting broccoli seeds
* planted a small tray of cos lettuce seeds

The seeds, strawberries and fuschias are up on the bedroom windowsill (trays in plastic bags as quasi-propagators) and the porch is currently waiting for a new shelf to extend the existing windowsill into an 18 inch deep growing area for (mostly) tomatoes

BB is talking about using some of the old joists saved from the barn renovation (and too wormy to re-use for building) to make three raised beds on a section of the garden. My back is not good for grubbing around at floor-level, but hopefully I'll be able to manage the raised beds.

In another part of the garden we have to wage war against a horible broad-leaved ivy-type weed which has been encroaching for all of the 29 years we've loved here. We thought it was coming over from the farm-field next door but they thought it was coming over from our garden. It probably started in the farm but it's well-rooted in our garden now (probably beep beneath the dry-stone wall) and has crept along the ground from its corner - all the way behind a row of conifers and dense saplings (that we can't really get behind for undergrowth). Two years ago we had to pull it away from the trunk of a sixty year old ash tree and last summer I spotted it poking out of the top of a 25 foot Leylandii.

There's also a row of old English dog-roses which I take complete blame for as I bought them about eight years ago, intending them to make a dense hedge at the top of the garden. Unfortunately they are encroaching rather more than expected on a path. Ah well.

But in the same border we also seem to have sprouted a bramble which has bridged the path and tried to dig its way into a regularly mown lawn. The bastard!

War has been declared.

 

It's 3.20 a.m. and a blackbird has just started warbling in the holly tree outside my office window. The first of the season.

Time for bed, i think

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

I've either had my nose stuck in my computer keyboard or in a good book since Saturday. The computer keyboard actyivity wasn't anything exciting like finishing the last two chapters of Spider on the Web - oh no, not at all - it was music related database tidying and cross-checking, Boring but necessary as I'm going to have to spend the next week on music-work-related stuff.

But I have been reading, too. Terry Pratchett's Nation and Patricia Briggs' Dragon Bones (and I'm halfway through her Dragon's Blood). Booklog entries coming soon.

ferlonda  and dadgaderie  are on tour in the UK right now and have been staying with us since 1st Feb. They've just departed for ten days in various venues in the south. When they've not been gigging we've been watching back to back episodes of Doctor Who - season 4, Lost - season 4 and Battlestar Galactica - season 4.1. Guilty pleasures. We'd just started Torchwood - season 2 when it was time for them to leave, so I'm not DVD watching until they get back. They're gigging in Baldock tonight, Folkestone tomorrow and Southampton on Friday. Here's their website.

Got most of my cards in the post today (still have to do the ones I need to include letters in).

Dropped a load of TV programmes from the hard disk recorder to DVDs. This was pretty time consuming but I'm hoping to empty the hard drive and reformat it in time for the recording of programmes at Christmas.

Packed up what I expect will be the final few CD and DVD orders from the Artisan website - though there's always someone on a last minute push calling for stuff to be sent first class on 23rd December.

Took Number One Son to the Megabus stop at Woolley Edge services in Wakefield as he's off down to London for the weekend to schmooze with architects and catch up with friends. Managed to shop at the Marks & Spencer food-shop on the M1 and get a few emergency items like a box of chocs and another of Turkish Delight so I can have something handy available if anyone brings unexpected presents. Discovered that they have to ask your age for Turkish Delight because apparently it contains alcohol. No, I'm not under 18, but thanks for asking.
:-)

Called at the local fabric shop in Denby Dale to see if they had anything that would do for the bathroom window once Best Beloved has finished the decorating. They kinda did but it wasn't exactly what I wanted. White muslin would work but all they have is poly cotton or silk. Checked out their fleece. They have the worst set of colours imaginable. Orange, shocking pink, mauve, beige or deep red. The deep red is the best of a bad bunch but it's still not good. Isn't anyone doing subtle colours and/or patterns in fleece these days? They would if they lived in Birdsedge because they'd realise that fleece is not just for kids. Also I've promised to make my friend S. a pair of fleece trousers for Christmas as she has some diabetic leg damage and her legs are always cold. Somehow I don't think she had orange, pink, red or mauve in mind. I'll have to see if she can cope with beige. (The big fabric shop in Wakefield was no better last week.)

Called at the health food shop in the mill complex in Denby Dale and managed to get some of the Orange, Mango and Cinnamon tea that neither Sainsbury not Morrisons had last week. They only had Gayles set honey though. Apparently there was some local bee disease this year and 'set' honey is in short supply. Last week's delivery was the last local set honey until next summer's honey season. (And, of course, I missed it.) They had runny honey (borage).

Managed to annoy a set of muscles in my lower back that are subsequently twingeing. I knew I shouldn't have lifted that bed, but I was being whatever the female equivalent of macho is. Errr... Stupid? I have this old 'war wound'. Having been thrown violently from a young horse I was helping to break when I was 20 I now have this tendency for my lower back to remind me that it has been smacked into the ground once too often.

Have snagged a small piece of Kingspan insulation from Best Beloved's barn renovations and currently have it under my desk where it is insulating my feet from the floor (which is carpet on top of stone flaggs on top of a (very) cold cellar). The temperature of my toes is considerably more towards the comfortable range.

Bathroom is almost finished. Only the last layer of wallpaper to go on now and having bought it last year I'm surprised to find that a) I still like it and b) it's the right colour and marries the grey tiles and the white tiles together nicely. Hopefully BB will slap it on the wall tomorrow.

Put some Aberdeen Angus beef sausages, potatoes and parsnips in the oven to roast and by the smell, they're ready...  See you later...

I have had friends over from Canada who've never seen Doctor Who before, so we're watching New Who from the beginning again. Whoo-hoo. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances is just as good eleventh time round... (lost track of how many times I've watched it with other people). We're into the second season now. 'School Reunion'  was great fun.

Been doing some more family history and I've broken the 1600s barrier for the first time on one of Best Beloved's family lines, but one of mine (George Crow/Crowe and Eliza Lindley) stubbornly refuses to reveral itself beyond my g-g-granparents who were born 1837 and 1840. I've sent for their marriage cert (1860) so in another few days or so I might find out what each of their fathers was called and where they lived at the time of the marriage.

Still here, working hard...

Now that my office is more or less in good order it's time to tackle the two trays of real life stuff that got sidelined in favour of all the writing I did during April and May.

Today I managed to get eleven contracts posted off (music buisiness stuff); complete my cash flow forecast (yeah there are times when it's trickling rather than flowing but we look like we'll survive until Christmas); check the gig lists against the diary enties for anomalies (=cock-ups) found a few and corrected them.

I've managed to put all the remaining stuff into one tray.

And I made roast chicken dinner for three and set a soup going for tomorrow,

Tomorrow I have to chase up a few more contracts and work my way a little further down the tray. Plus I've promised Number One Son a trip to the supermarket for supplies. He's obviously been living in NY for too long, he was expecting to be able to buy seaweed from the supermarket in Huddersfield.  Yeah, right!

BTW do any of the North Americans out there know what he might be referring to as 'greens' which his local vegan reastaurant in NY served up lightly stir-fried? He says they look a bit like cabbage but are much more sweet and tender. That pretty well eliminates collard greens, I think, as the only time I've had them in the USA they've been dark, bitter and stringy. (I looked up collard greens and they seem to equate to 'spring greens' in the UK or what I would know as 'spring cabbage'.)