A nice day for visiting. Whose home are we going to?
THE LORD PRESERVE THY GOING OUT AND THY COMING IN
A nice bright house and cosy
Wonder if we’ll be invited for dinner?
Let’s explore
We meet the family
The previous Lord Montagu, founder of the Beaulieu Motor Museum, had a very colourful life. The current Lord Montague leaves interesting notes around Beaulieu Palace.
Looks like a nice day for a run out.
Where will you go and who will you meet?
Who will get there first?
Nice day for a picnic
Drawings by Alex, 9.
I have been a little distanced from blogging recently. It’s half term and I’m briefly in between visitors. This bleak time of year is perfect for catching up on creative pursuits, so I have built the Lego orchid I got for my birthday this time last year and crocheted an African Violet from a Christmas book.
For this year’s birthday my younger son sent me a Fitbit and my older son set it up. I haven’t figured out most of the functions, my main in-put was choosing the colour of the strap, burnt orange. I know my heart is beating and messages pop up on my phone and emails to reveal that since Sunday I have earned three pairs of shoes and a Marathon badge. Even as I write this it has the cheek to buzz me and say it’s time to move.
Most importantly, I have actually published my first book on Amazon Kindle since November 2019, all by myself.
My late husband never read any of my books, but he did learn from scratch how to publish them and created the covers with his photographic and digital skills. He had the advantage of never panicking with computers and not being emotionally involved with the books.
Not completely by myself as I followed word by word a handy book I downloaded to my Kindle called very originally…
HOW TO PUBLISH A BOOK ON AMAZON
and humbly…
REAL ADVICE FROM SOMEONE WHO’S DOING IT WELL
and no doubt selling more books than me!
By Sam Kerns
https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Publish-Book-Amazon-2018-ebook/dp/B01M0J5KZA
I went to places on Microsoft Word I have never been before and conquered two of the fears experienced by beginners formulating a manuscript for an eBook, page breaks and even scarier, chapter headings and table of contents.
I got the message every book parent waits for, your book is live on Kindle, before I had even gone to bed. I downloaded it, but it did not appear on my Kindle, which seemed to have gone on WIFI strike. I had no idea if my book was okay.
After trying various things, I eventually hit upon an idea when I got home the next afternoon. I turned my Kindle off and on again and my book appeared instantly. There might just be a couple of deliberate mistakes on the Kindle version, see if you can spot them.
Yesterday I ordered my second proof copy of the paperback version, all part of the learning experience… Tidalscribe Tales is another collection of short fiction, a handy volume to practice with while my next novel evolves. The challenge is to create a cover with a back, front and spine, with illustrations of some sort. You can use Amazon cover creator or have a go yourself. I wanted to use my own photos; I take many with no idea what size, shape or mysterious formats they might be in. Amazon rejected them. I tried the Amazon cover and it let me put my picture on the front, sort of… anyway, at least my first proof copy enabled me to spot a few things that needed changing. Hopefully a future blog will reveal how I got on.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tidalscribe-Tales-Janet-Gogerty-ebook/dp/B0DWV9J83V
REAL OR NOT? ANSWERS AT THE END
Street Art
CHEAP RIDES IF YOU TAKE STANDING ROOM ONLY
African Violet
WHEN YOU OPEN YOUR BIRTHDAY PRESENT AND THERE ARE TEN MORE BAGS OF BITS… – what will it be, if you can work out the instructions?
Before Ikea
Could you make this?
ANSWERS
How many did you get right?
It is a great English tradition to plan an outing and have grey dreary weather. When you view your photos they are even duller than expected, but you say to yourself ‘I bet those views are great on a sunny day.’ This is a place well worth visiting near one of my favourite cities. How quickly will you work out where you are?
A great cathedral in the distance.
Be careful not to utter the words ‘Oh what a lovely day’ – the clouds are listening.
You never know when The Green Man is watching you.
When you are expecting visitors and you have forgotten to tidy up.
Brighten your shopping trip
When you ask for Lego for your birthday
A government spokesman denied scientists’ claims that global warming is causing insects and arachnids to become slightly larger.
Here’s a clue as to where we might go today.
It’s very windy so you may not want to sit on the top deck.
Freshwater Bay
A stroll up the road leads us to a lovely home…
Clues to the talent of the home’s owner
Who visited her?
You have probably guessed we are in the nineteenth century during the reign of Queen Victoria and Freshwater Bay was definitely the place to be.
At home with Julia Margaret Cameron
Few words, just a wander and maybe a sit down.
BE CAREFUL WHICH ROUTE YOU CHOOSE
…OR WHAT MOOD THE IMP IS IN.
No it’s not my photo…
https://www.visitlincolnshire.com/things-to-do/usher-art-gallery/
If you live in a city or suburb you will probably hope to get away for a change of scenery. As you stand on top of a moor, hearing only sheep bleating, you will say to yourself ‘This is Real Life.’ The same thoughts will surface if you stand on a rocky outcrop feeling the spray from the waves pounding below, or perhaps you have visited a peaceful holy island, Iona or Lindisfarne.
Supposing you move somewhere remote and idyllic, or to the coast and can saunter down to the beach on a wild winter day, dodging waves. Sheer bliss. Then one day you go up to London to visit friends or relatives or for a cultural outing. As you arrive at a London terminus, descend into the underground, hear the rumble of an approaching tube train, then squeeze on board with the multitudes, you find yourself saying ‘Back to Real Life!’
Could it be that real life must involve cities, mainline railway stations and underground trains?
Those millions of us brought up in suburbs anywhere in the world are bound to feel we are never in real life; neither in the bustling heart of the city, nor in the countryside growing food and raising livestock to feed the nation.
When you turn on the television news real life takes on a different dimension. Why are your working on the cheese counter at Waitrose when that girl you were at school with is now a war correspondent standing on a heap of rubble?
Is real life the peace all great prophets have urged us to follow; cherishing the soil, creating harmony, music, arts, science and babies. Or is reality living on a knife edge beneath a volcano or on an earthquake fault line? Are you likely to see your home swept away by fire or flood or do you face death every day in war?
Have you experienced real life or are you still waiting to find it?
What is your reality?
No words just pictures.
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2025
HOW DID YOU WRAP UP 2024
Times and Tides of a Beachwriter 