A grand start

Camp Nano started on 01/04/23

I got on well with this. I took advantage of waking early and used the Top of Dairy office, with my ‘wake-up’ brew, to get in a couple of hours each day.  I am well into sorting out the plotting notebooks and character casting. I am thinking through the options for the timeline. The story’s main plot was already down. I can’t quite see the shape of it or the number of days, weeks or months it plays over, yet…

I went on a couple of excursions this week – to the Abbotsbury sub-tropical gardens and to my birthplace of the Isle of Purbeck. In Purbeck, I visited Mum’s once favourite dog-walking daily destination, The Blue Pool. Having seen Mum on the way over – and she actually recognised me ( dementia ) –  it was a pleasant jaunt of happy memories. I made her a printout of the trip’s photos.

Plans for 06/04/2023 – 17/04/2023

It is Good Friday tomorrow, and my husband is back later today for about 11 days. In that time, he plans to do some jobs around the place, and the lorry is also out at the workshop having its wheel hubs re-painted. This is as close to a holiday as the poor guy will get. We are both creeky – his knee and my back and hands – so our To-Do list may go well or result in other injuries to deal with!

But, as far as Camp Nano is concerned, I had factored this in ( Though hopefully, no injuries will occur :() I have enough planned out, and enough to think about with the story, that I will be able to keep doing my two to three hours before breakfast most days, and when that gets to the point of writing-on, I will also be able to use that time.

I haven’t had an ‘art day’ this week. However, I did do photo shoots and print out the shots – the idea of putting those ordinary printer-paper images in my physical journals and diaries is really helping me to maintain flow and adds interest and colour to the record that is more instantly approachable than miles of bad-hand scrawl about bad-mind mumblings. ‘Every picture tells a story…’, and, ‘a picture is worth a 1000 words…’ etc. For a Writer like me, I don’t feel that’s cheating. My journals – and these Blogs – are not ‘stream of conscious’ or ‘FREE Writing’ practice; they are the representations of my day, or the days of the farm, or my writing story – and act as ‘memory keepers’ for me and anyone who comes after me. I don’t want to leave a minefield of ambiguous thoughts devoid of context in black and white to blow up some future day or poison the future reader. Any legacy needs to reflect that I have had the life I landed in and how my choices from then on took shape, not a mindless wallowing in self 🙂

The sun is out today, and I am pleased to see it. The Farrier is coming later to trim Rufe’s feet, and I shall trim the goats’ feet over the next week and hopefully not end up with a bad back again 🙂

I used the steps this time but well-remembered leaping down these hills as a child with my cousin leading the way.

The Blue Pool is an old clay pit that welcomes all to gather, walk, sit, and have a brew.

Blue Pool

Blue Pool’s west shore