I once read a quote which went something along the lines of “write the chapter you want to read because you are going to have to read it 100 times”. No wonder I seem to spend as much time deleting paragraphs as I do writing them. The trouble is I feel most ‘author-ish’ at night which paradoxically is when I really want to go to sleep, hence the following morning spent with a digit on the delete button. But The Book is starting to flow in the right direction albeit more like a trickle most days but I’m still tap tapping away. A friend of mine whose book has just been published asked me when she’d get a copy of mine – I suggested she might want to look at getting a zimmer frame first, it’s going to take me a while. I am enjoying the challenge though and it does get easier to write as the years go down ‘on paper’ so to speak.
Of course, finding time to think of great paragraph structure isn’t easy when Spring is beckoning and the garden needs to get in shape. Denis and I make a great team, I have the ideas and he designs something vaguely along the same lines. We never argue because, let’s be honest, he knows better than me when it comes to planting and what suits the soil. The little waterfall fountain in my soon-to-be Zen garden is coming along nicely although my “let’s put lotus flowers in there” was met with a definite “non” as apparently their roots would clog up the filtration system. Faux flowers it is then. Not all my creative inspirations have been met with derision though, white gravel pathways resembling tree branches is definitely a “oui ” from our Denis. And having spent the whole of Friday morning picking out fence posts with Lionel (who knew there was so much more to just a wooden pole?), I can’t wait to see the back of all the wire netting next week. I would say I’m looking forward to the pool terrace being finished as well but experience has taught me to keep schtum on that subject. I have however veto’ed Denis’ plan to build a nuclear bunker under the stairs, I don’t think Rouffiac is really on Putin’s radar even if the covered piscine looks like a giant helipad at the moment.
With the evenings getting longer and the promise of clearer skies as we head, hopefully, into warmer months, I decided that it was high time Pop’s telescope got repaired. There is some argument avec la famille as to what is actually wrong with it but in short, you can’t see the stars when you peer down the tube. My first thought was to email the company who made it and get a manual, only to find out they went bankrupt last year so I Googled possible repair shops instead. I found one in Toulouse which, thinking about it, I should have known would have such experts as it has the largest space centre in Europe so they should be able to fix Pop’s star-gazer.
I spent most of last week chez veto. Between Arry’s laser treatments (only he could pull tendons in both shoulders) and Gunner’s Imoove therapy – a computerised sort of wobble platform that stimulates his back muscles, I think I should have a VIP card and parking bay. Both boys are very popular though with all the staff and thoroughly enjoy the attention and the knowledge that I’ll drive them back home via L’Horte which is the equivalent of a funfair for the two. If I had written a book about the inner workings of Arry’s mind, I would have finished it the same day…..
“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it” ( Elmore Leonard)
Widow plus woofs 