Of water, peaches, apples – and books

A certain smallish garden bed with some old roses in it has been sadly neglected by myself during this busy summer season. My long-suffering Ray decided his wife needed some help and got out the digging fork. Result? We discovered the water pipe to the house did NOT follow as close to the neighbour’s fence as we thought and was far too close to the surface. Despite Ray’s efforts to repair the relatively small nick in the pipe, it had to be a plumber’s task. The rose bush over it had to be removed. The hole slowly filled with water and so of course the water had to be turned off at the main.

In a relatively small way, the rest of the time until the plumber arrived the next day reminded us what it would be like not to have water on-tap! No bathroom water, no water to drink or wash with unless we wasted more soaking into the ground. Fortunately that morning the last load in the washing machine only had the rinsing cycle to finish. That was easy – just turned the main supply on again until it had finished. I also filled a clean bucket with water, then busied myself scooping out as much water as I could as it oozed into that hole again. Well, that transplanted rose bush did need watering!
Now it is all fixed, I certainly appreciate more than ever the luxury of simply turning on a tap.

It is the last few days here of our official summer. The last of peaches from our tree and our neighbour’s apples have meant several hours making peach chutney and stewing fruit for the freezer. No jam this year as we liked the chutney the most.

I have to confess not liking housework at all – and “not liking” is a mild word for how I feel about it. Cooking is also something I only do because we need to eat! However, now my last saucepan (I hope!) of apples has finished cooking these is a real sense of achievement as I look at all those filled jars and the containers in the freezer.

Each time I go to try and work on my next book, I sure need the “main” supply of ideas open so they can flow unhindered into my imagination and out through these fingers to this keyboard. But sometimes the “ideas” seep into a hole and it is time to switch off, take a break – and write a blog post?

It takes time, many hours of perseverance and simply hard work to write a book. When the flow is hindered of even cut off, I begin feel dry, frustrated. It means I have to work even harder, spend longer hours doing what should take much less time to finish the manuscript.


My last novel for
Heartsong Presents


And all the preparation and cooking of the fruit? Well, that sense of satisfaction at a task completed I am feeling right now is nothing at all as wonderful for me as having that sweated over manuscript be held in my hands in book form at long last. Then of course, as a cook waits to hear her cooking is “okay”, so also does the writer hope to hear from readers that the book is perhaps far better than just an “okay” read!