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Showing posts with label commission. Show all posts
Showing posts with label commission. Show all posts

Monday, 18 April 2011

Sugar, Digger, Gigger, Blogger...

   
SUGAR:
It's good to be a mum at this time of year.  I love all the fuss ...and the Mother's Day card...and the flowers...and the chocolates!!  Ah, SUGAR!  Love it.
   This year, I was invited to spend the night at my son's flat for Mother's Day too.  He doesn't know how lucky he is to have a flat overlooking the Tyne; watch the boats come in and out; watch the lights from North Shields to South Shields twinkling bright from dusk till dawn.  I never got a wink of sleep - it was all too magical to go to bed.  Thanks, Phil, for the best Mother's Day ever.




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DIGGER:

 


           
As the garden starts to take on all that lovely Spring colour, it's time for the cats and I to get out there, get the gloves on......and do some mucking out.
Oh, what a chore.  But it makes it all so much easier when I have the reds of the Pieris, the whites of the Ornamental Cherry and the pretty cerise of the Camelia to gaze upon as I go.
   
And I did enjoy (praise be to the heavens) a whole weekend of  unexpected glorious sunny weather, me digging out the weeds, me planting summer bulbs - and the cats, Mr Jim (the fluffy black/white one) and Rosie (the tubby ++ one), digging them back up again!
Within a couple of days, my lilac blossoms have made an entrance, my tulips have come into full orange, pink and red blooms - and the clematis is growing and budding at a mile a minute. So, now that my green fingers are working again: onward, Sheila, onward...
      
It's good to get me gardening head back on!       

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GIGGER:
The Gatecrashers were red hot when I caught them at the Rising Sun, Crawcrook, last weekend.  Not only were they fantastic, us girl partners did the 'biz' too!  We grooved together with the 'bum' dance, Nina and I, shaking our booties to increase the wild atmosphere of the gig - and we did - OH YES!

Nick (vocalist and guitarist), Ant (lead guitar and backing vocals), Dave (Bass Guiatar) and Maurice (drums) were on fire.  Nick sure knows how to get a crowd warmed up, sparks flew from that amazing guitar of Ant's, Dave's bass was like an electrical storm of deep thunderous tones - and Maurice was a live wire on those beautiful blonde drums. 
The crowd loved the Gatecrashers:
"Fantastic night - I hope they're back here soon," said one.
"Wouldn't have missed this gig - not for anything," said another.
At the end of the night, they wanted more, more, more - and the guys hit white hot heights with 'Sex on Fire', Nick right there gyrating on the bar to drive the audience crazy.
What a brilliant night - a great night to be a GIGGER, I thought....


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BLOGGER:

Invited to blog for the wonderful North East Magazine, 'North East Life', I have penned a couple of blogs containing super photographic footage for 'The Otters of Otterburn' and 'A Gaggle of Geese'. 


Photos by kind permission of Dave Hildreth and Dawn Boulton - thanks, guys.
The blog, entitled, 'TWIGS, GIGS, HAUNTS AND JAUNTS' is a diary of walks, gigs, favourite haunts and my travels around the locality of the North of England.  Give it a whirl - I hope you enjoy.
Here's the link:
Twigs, Gigs, Haunts and Jaunts

Yet another feather in my cap, don't you think?  Another string to my bow!
WRITE ON!! and read on - there's more... 

^^^
I was commissioned by the fabulous Gatecrashers band, to ghostwrite their official website.  What an honour.  It was a real privilege to work with these great North-East musicians.
You can visit their website at:

The Gatecrashers Band


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Talk to you soon, Constant Reader. 
Hope you enjoyed this installment. 
There'll be another one soon.
In the meantime...

HAPPY EASTER

Go to the link below to colour in your own Easter Bunny (!!)

Monday, 14 March 2011

Red Letter Days

I haven't posted for a couple of weeks, but oh, those couple of weeks have been eventful.  I've had so many red letter days it's quite astonishing:

A SQUIRRELLY SORT OF A GOOSE-BUMPY DAY

First, I had a trip to Sheffield to stay with friends and managed to get photographs and a video of a squirrel, out from his lair to eat the bird food my friend had set out on a tree stump.
I have to call it a red letter day because I adore squirrels.  There were robins out there in the woodland of Graves Park too - and a larger version of a tree-creeper I can't remember the name of.  And then there were my favourites - the geese - all bad-tempered and hissy-fitting because Spring is here!













WRITE ON

SEX-DRIVE AND SWEATY SOCKS

http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/mywanderlust/forum/the-weirdest-thing-youve-eaten-on-your-travels_2930

The link, above, takes you to my comment about the fruit, Durian.  I tasted it on a trip to Kuala Lumpur.  It is famous, they say, for improving libido - increase your sex-drive!  I've entered this into my 'red letter day' posting, because it was the first time I had used the 'My Wanderlust' site on the Wanderlust website.  It costs nothing to join and it's amazing: a great place to post information, photos etc. about holidays and trips. 
There's also a members forum, which is where I posted my comment.  Have you ever tasted Durian?  It's an experience, I can tell you! Some people say it tastes like rancid cheese or putrid fish.  I rather liked it!

THIS RIGHT HONOURABLE WRITER

"Well, I never," I said, when I looked at the Writers' Weekly 24-hour Fall Contest winners page, "I got an honourable mention."  There was a first, second and third prize, followed by 20 honourable mentions - and I was one of them.  My 850-word story, 'Meet Me off the Train' had won me a year's subscription to 'The Write Market' magazine and an e-book of my choice. 
Any writer out there interested in entering the Spring 24-hour contest, here's the website link:
http://www.writersweekly.com/misc/contest.php 
Now that was a red letter day indeed!


COMMISSIONED FOR CASTELNAU - Moi? Bien sûr!

La Greze, Castelnau de Montmiral, is the location of the wonderful gite where we stayed with our friends in 2009 as part of a tour of Annecy, Provence and the Midi-Pyrenees in France.
The owners, John and Judi have invited me to pen an article about our stay at La Greze, including the romantic hilltop villages amongst the vineyards, the meadowland and forest areas surrounding it.
I'll be writing about their beautiful gites, swimming pool and gardens - and their wonderful hospitality.  I'll be publishing text and photographs of the villages around and about.  I'll give the reader tips and hints on the best places to visit for day-trips away. To view 'La Greze', go to: http://www.lagreze.iowners.net/

Barbeque at La Greze (the Grange) '09

 POETIC LICENSE

Below, there are links to my attempts at poetry.  I've written about HAIKU, SONNETS, the SENYRU and the SESTINA.  If you like poetry (or even if you don't and you just want to try it out for the heck of it!) 
Go to the links below for my published poetry pieces to date, with the publishers, Authspot and Bookstove - and the writing community, Fan Story.

                                                                              
 
Haiku
Of course, Shakespeare really knew what he meant when he said to me, 
'Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day'!


(Ah! Did I hear g-r-o-a-n-s?)

AU REVOIR - FOR NOW.
THANKS FOR READING ABOUT MY RED LETTER DAYS
TALK TO YOU VERY SOON, CONSTANT READERS