.
COOL
WARMING UP
HOT
STINKING HOT
(No, I am not stretching. I’m asleep)
(No, I am not stretching. I’m asleep)
HOT, BUT BREEZE EXPECTED.
(Soon please, I’m waiting…)
(Soon please, I’m waiting…)
4
New take on Millet’s The Gleaners…lol
See here for more details.
P.S. although I have changed the time zone on my computer, Blogger refuses to acknowledge that. So that’s why the dates on my postings from US are all wonky.
P.S. although I have changed the time zone on my computer, Blogger refuses to acknowledge that. So that’s why the dates on my postings from US are all wonky.
My editor required some minor alterations to the MS before it goes to copy edit (this is
book 2, Stormlord Rising, that I am talking about). Trouble is, they necessitate re-reading and tweaking the whole MS. And believe me, after so many countless reads, your own book begins to pall. A lot.
Pix is of my grandson picking raspberries in New Jersey. The astute among you may realise that is not a raspberry bush. I am not the only one who gets bored when there is work to be done…
I’d rather climb a peach tree too.
Skunky, the cat who hates strangers and yet welcomes me back after 11 months with an aggrieved look of, ‘What took you so long? Don’t you know no one EVER scratches me under the chin here?’Ok, so I admit I had no idea that Princeton was in New Jersey.
Hey, I’m an Australian, ok? If you’d asked me, I would have had a guess at Connecticut. So it was with some surprise that I heard daughter ask if I wanted to go to Princeton for a couple of hours yesterday, as it was only 10 minutes drive away from where we were staying.
Of course I said yes, and off we went. A lovely town, and a lovely campus. My daughter was a disparaging. Being an Oxford grad, she was muttering under her breath about Oxbridge wannabes… It was indeed hard not to make comparisons, right down to the rowing on the river.
But who cares. It’s pretty.
There was even a guy in a kilt, with bagpipes…
And the clouds cleared briefly…Greenland belowAs airlines go, Malaysian Airlines is one of the world’s best – good legroom, good individualised entertainment, good food, good service. Although I do want to know why, when they give you a chunk of steak to eat, they also supply you with a knife and fork so fragile they would bend if you poked at melted icecream. The meat was tender, yes, but then so was the cutlery…
There was a chocolate dessert to die for out of Sweden though. And you don’t often say that about airplane food, do you?
Greenland: summer lakes
If you discount the plastic tableware, I wasn’t Noramlyed, not once. We arrived on time in Newark, New York, after 22 hours (via Sweden) in a full plane. Yay, MAS.
My first views of Iceland. Note the sheets of ice slipping out from between the two peaks.
My first views of Iceland. Note the sheets of ice slipping out from between the two peaks.For me, the most interesting bits were looking down on Iceland, which I had never seen before. Unfortunately, there was a lot of cloud, and more still when we flew over southern Greenland later. 
Iceland: the range across the middle in the photo is topped with both snow and cloud. If you look carefully, you can see glaciers spilling down the slopes into a settled valley.
Iceland: the range across the middle in the photo is topped with both snow and cloud. If you look carefully, you can see glaciers spilling down the slopes into a settled valley.
I still remember an earlier flight (alas, I didn’t have a camera) when we had brilliant weather and I saw the brutal black cliffs of Greenland plunging down into the startling blue of the north Altantic. Dazzling white patches of huge ice floes and icebergs drifted on that deep untramarine…
This time the scenery was much more muted by cloud and haze.
A town in Iceland, surrounded by farming landAnd did I get much work done?
No, not really. About one quarter of book two readied for copy edit is all.
I am travelling soon. And it will be several days before I end up in Charlottesville, Virginia. Please keep your fingers crossed that I don’t get Noramlyed en route. (If you don’t know what that is, try the search blog function above.)
My battery in my laptop is pathetic, so I have to look at other ways to spend those 22 hours between K.L. and New Jersey – I have printed out part of Stormlord Rising to do the final run through before the copy edit. At least I am travelling with MAS, which believe me is better than United. I don’t have to spend the night at Singapore airport…
Squid boat. These go out at night with banks of powerful lights that attract the squid…and it was squid season on the island.
We sat on chairs on the beach here and read. Every now and then I would look up and watch the birds coming to the fruiting fig tree – Green Imperial and Pied Imperial and Pink-necked Pigeons, Red-eyed Bulbuls, Black-naped Orioles, Asian Glossy Starlings. Overhead, Brahminy Kites and White-bellied Sea-eagles chased by Dollarbirds… Paradise indeed.
Lunch by the sea – noodles with, you guessed it, squid.
And then Happy Hour, watching the sun go down outside out chalet.