Blog

April

Saturday 2nd April 2022

I've not written a blog for 2 months. To be honest, I haven't written much in the past 3 months. Life, or to be more accurate our move, had caught up with me. I have moved a lot in my life—back and…

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January 2022

Monday 3rd January 2022

As I write this, snow is continuing to fall at quite a rate at my home on the Eastern Shore. Having spent most of my life living in states (5) bordering Canada, snow is nothing new to me. In fact, I really love it, especially when I don't have to go anywhere in a hurry. I can write a lot about snow—how light it feels when it settles on your face, how hard it can feel when hit by a well-packed snowball, how quiet it is when it muffles the…

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November

Thursday 4th November 2021

It's been a little over a week since our container was delivered to our door and our furniture and roughly 200 boxes were unloaded. We're all unpacked now and gradually getting our house in order. Writing has temporarily taken a back seat but I will be back at it very soon. But this doesn't mean the writing has stopped. I can unpack a box and work through details of the plot or develop my characters in Judging from a Distance at the same time. But I'm anxious to…

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October 2021

Sunday 3rd October 2021

We're waiting for our ship to come in...literally! We packed up our house and moved to the USA from the UK in late June. Having done this ocean-crossing move 4 times now we expected to see our household goods no later than the end of July. We hadn't counted on a container, ship, and berthing shortage. Fortunately, we were able to buy a bed, couch, and a TV, and a very kind neighbor has lent us an outdoor table and chairs, so we have managed. The house is a breeze to clean and I have lots of excuses for my lack of enthusiasm when it comes to cooking although I do miss baking. Fingers are…

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September 2021

Wednesday 1st September 2021

Ahh September. A month for beginnings. We're beginning to settle into life in Maryland, still living with a couch, a TV, a bed, and an outdoor table and…

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August

Sunday 1st August 2021

Well, we made it. After all the pre-move pitfalls (read June's BLOG if you're interested in the details) we made the trip from the UK to the USA. Halfway through our BA flight, the air hostess handed us a slip of paper from the New York Center for Disease Control telling us regardless of having had to take a Zoom Covid test conducted with a doctor and having the signed paperwork to prove it and having proof of having been fully vaccinated we still needed to quarantine for 10 days. Yikes! We were meeting family in Maine the very next day after landing at JFK. Family we…

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July - on the road again!

Friday 2nd July 2021

Note to self: don't make an international move during a pandemic. Unfortunately I didn't get the memo until after my husband and I had packed up and sold our UK house, bought a house in Maryland (over the internet) and just a week ago were halfway over the Atlantic with our dog. This was the first chance we'd had to take a breath and it almost came as a huge surprise, as if I was awakening from a dream. We had actually done this—made the move! Neither of us had ever spent any time in Maryland, except on the highway, and yet we'd bought a…

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June

Thursday 3rd June 2021

I missed April and May—wanted to finish Taking the Sun and then we got busy! As I write this I am sitting between two tables laden with stuff to be packed into…

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March 2021

Monday 1st March 2021

It might have escaped your notice, but I didn't do a February Blog. I was 'on a roll' finishing up my latest book, Taking the Sun, and doing a blog seemed like an interruption. This lockdown in the UK (#3) has felt like the longest and the toughest. Maybe because we're in winter, with long, cold nights and dreary skies. Winter was also a time…

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January 2021

Friday 1st January 2021

A new year. I'm hopeful we can keep all the good things about 2020 and never revisit the bad. My list of the good—clear, blue, pollution-free skies; hearing bird song and not traffic noise, helping to support folks in our village; learning to plan meals ahead and become a better cook; making time to sit outside and enjoy the sun, read, and listen to music; reacquainting myself with poetry and appreciating the work of poets new to me; learning about…

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December

Wednesday 2nd December 2020

I flipped the calendar over to December and other than eating a chocolate from my Advent Calendar the day was lost on me. I was busy and forgot all the jobs I should have done on the first of a month--writing my blog, giving my dog her monthly flea and tick pill, weighing myself—the day came and went like any other. It wasn't until the middle of last night I realized it was 24 days till Christmas! And then I began remembering Christmases past... First there were the childhood memories of growing…

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November

Sunday 1st November 2020

I didn't do a blog for October. I was feeling quite agitated by the end of September and couldn't seem to focus my attention. September is usually a 'traveling month' and this year it was not going to…

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