A bit of local colour, and water on my mind

I am so used to being a) a housewife, b) M’s secretary - he always introduces me as such, as if it were conferring some particular honour on me, that I always find it surprising if anyone actually remembers that I write. So it was refreshing that at the birthday lunch last Saturday, a couple of people said to me - ‘Ah, you’re the writer …’ and actually wanted to hear about Tainted Tree. My cousin is also planning for me to give a talk in her area early next year.

Our birthday friend’s lovely garden - 2 ½ acres, caused me to think about our garden and what might provide us with summer colour. We have put in some New Guinea impatiens (busy lizzies) photos to be added when I've a bit of time, but I liked her mass of yellow blossoms which were mainly from potentillas and hypericum. I’m thinking of introducing more of these into the garden, and possibly a hardy fuscia - maybe in the autumn, when they don’t have to fight to hard for water. Talking of which, M has installed a water butt to collect rainwater from our garage roof and taken it across our path to a tap just by our rhododendrons. We have been watering the plants regularly from this very successful innovation.

We also have water in our utility room - as a result of a leak from some pipework, the floor is saturated and we’ve had to move the washing machine to the spare room. The floor is up in the utility room and has been drying out for a week. Fortunately, I’m able to dry the washing on the line, as the tumble dryer’s been taken out too.

But to less mundane items, I got summoned from the shower yesterday, to talk to a journalist from a West Country paper and I almost got a piece included about me. She telephoned me as a result of a press release I sent her, and interviewed me over a 20 minute period. It was only at the end of the conversation that she realised I live in Surrey and the paper features only authors living in the area. She still might put a small piece in, but not the original feature. I had included all the aspects of Tainted Tree that relate to the West Country, which mainly relate to my heroine’s mother, who grew up in an area near Bath and then went on to Bristol University. In addition to that, my heroine’s benefactor spent his early married life in Plymouth and named his Surrey house (pictured on the cover) Tamar, to bring back memories of happy times there.

It has been a quiet week, compared with the previous, but I am turning my attention now to the Goldenford accounts. It’s a far cry from being a media star, but I do get some strange fulfilment from it. There was a trail to follow to find three undated cheques with no figures on them, and a certain sort of satisfaction in finding the entries on the statement and then the invoices that inspired the payments. It should take me a couple of days to sort it all out.

I’ve been getting advice from the chatline on the Writers’ News website about my current book, Innocent Bystanders and I’ve hit a snag, since my boy hero, having run away from home, would apparently be subjected to various inquisitions and check-ups by social workers, medical people, etc. on his return. All this sort of thing becomes tedious when written down, and I want to skate over it if I can. On the good side, since our holiday, I’ve been copying out the stuff I wrote, which so far amounts to 4,000 words and takes me to 43,000 words. I’m not very prolific. Chances are it will stay in that region till my next holiday, particularly if I get bogged down with official procedures.

Tomorrow, I hope to spend a good part of the day in the sun - I shall take all the Goldenford books to the Flower Show, together with my hat and sun-cream, and if the weather stays fine, I shall enjoy it thoroughly, even if I can’t find any fans to buy the wares.