All posts in category new book

When one door closes another may open

This last fortnight there has been a sense of one door closing behind me.  A lot of this has to do with writing as well as events in the UK leaving me with a feeling of – not helplessness but certainly being limited in what I can do.  Several people we care about have suffered […]

The season for anniversaries.

We are well into December now and winter has crept in with all its delightful little quirks.  Here in Tipperary we are not immune to the cold – it has been very frosty with ice and freezing fog for most of the last week.  We are, however, having a run of small celebrations.  December means […]

A strange, mixed fortnight

I’m sitting at my desk and enjoying a rare sight through the window – the sun is shining.  We’ve had rather a lot of rain over the past few weeks, as I think a lot of you have.  Here it has veered from long, sullen downpours to bursts of hail mixed with sudden bright spots.  […]

A post mainly about writing

I began this blog expecting to use it mainly about writing.  After all, that was my new venture back in 2010 when the first of the four crime novels came out.  Then, of course, the unexpected happened and we upped sticks and headed over the sea to land in Ireland.  After the dust settled I […]

A Happy Halloween to you all

Well, we’ve had quite an exciting – and rather busy – time these last few weeks.  Halloween is fast approaching and autumn is definitely here. It’s stamping its mark on all around us, sometimes with a bit more force than we expected.  On the plus side, the wood is looking good and unusually for this […]

Living in interesting times

Hello and welcome to a most crowded few weeks.  There is supposedly a Chinese curse – may you live in interesting times.  Well, this is certainly one of those interesting times for us.  Let me begin with the book news, on several fronts.  I “attended” the virtual meeting last week and along with half a […]

Moving in fits and starts

Every Saturday evening we have a special meal, eaten at the table with the “nice” china.  That dates us, doesn’t it?  And every week we raise a glass and say “What a week!”  Well, yes, once more this has been very busy and challenging.  We are still moving on – moving in fits and starts […]

Well, it’s August so…

Well, it’s August again so some things are the same as last year and some are rather different.  The schools are closed, of course, and the shops are now filled with families dragging around behind tired parents.  Small children run up and down the supermarket aisles demanding toys or their choice of dinner.  Here there […]

Two steps forwards, one step back

This has been another mixed few weeks for us. We do feel we are making progress finally in some directions. It is very much two steps forwards, one step back. Spring is its usual manic self and everything is bursting into life. The wood looks so much healthier now despite the many damaged ash trees. […]

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible…

Another week has flown by – another week without transport here in the depths of rural Ireland.  The insurance saga grinds on though I feel we are making some progress.  The garage collected the car at stupid o’clock on Tuesday and checked it over.  Not surprisingly it passed the NCT (the Irish MOT) and we […]