Returning to my blog after a longish absence, I've been reflecting on what's been happening.
I find to my amazement that it’s now almost four months since I posted on here. So, for those of you hanging on my every word, apologies for the long silence. For those who were just breathing a sigh of relief that I'd shut up at last, bad luck!
Looking back, the months have seen the completion and publication of three books, one fiction and two non-fiction, several pieces of new consultancy work and around 23,000 words in my next novel. So I think it’s fair to say that I’ve not been idle.
On the medical front, we both had our second Covid-19 vaccinations and I was also offered and took up a vaccination for shingles. Having seen husband Michael go through (and still, to some extent, suffer) from a bout of this a few years ago, I was extremely grateful for the chance to prevent it from happening to me!
We’ve also seen the country begin to emerge from the depths of that third lockdown – but just in case anybody thought that Covid had finished with us, the Delta variant has arrived to remind us otherwise. As I write, it looks very much as if the upsurge in cases it has caused will postpone the further lifting of restrictions that had been pencilled in for 21 June.
The new novel, Setting a New Course, was duly published on 1 March, and received some great reviews. I loved writing this second instalment of Alan and David’s story and it was really gratifying that so many people enjoyed reading it. I’m looking forward to getting on with the third volume – hopefully later this year.
The two non-fiction works were Bus Industry Performance 2020 and a second edition of my introductory volume on the industry, Understanding Buses. They were fun to do and seem to have generated a lot of interest.
On the domestic front, we finally managed to empty our storage unit up at Stone Cross. Some of the last things to come out were large pictures destined for the long wall above the staircase. Thanks to help from our friend Jamie we were able to hang these – which necessitated the hire of one of those scaffolding units used for decorating staircases. Towards the end of May, we also had the front of the house painted. Our contractor Jacob did a great job on this, and it now looks sharp and attractive.
Michael has been busy in the garden, expanding on and consolidating all the hard work he put in last year. We’re enjoyed a lovely display of bulbs in the spring, and are now benefitting with lovely displays of roses, with more joys to come as the summer develops. As I write now sitting on the terrace, it’s full of bees and butterflies on a near perfect summer’s day.
What could be better?