Pulling my socks up

2017 has been a bit of a rubbish year for me so far what with one thing and another. And no here we are just after the summer solstice and I'm still waiting for my brain to fully wake up. And I think it's just about there. Our lovely chapel is now on the market and getting lots of interest but no firm offers yet. We don't want to go but needs must.

The Old Chapel

We are moving to...don't gasp...Middlesbrough. Don't listen to what people say. Like all cities, it has bad areas but there are a heck of the lot more good ones than you think. The min reason is we both need to be within a few miles of the brilliant James Cook University Hospital there. And despite the fact that we don't want to love from Yorkshire, where we're moving to is on;y one step across the country boundary. More of this at a later date.

Now we've bitten the bullet, I am more motivated to actually do something with my writing. So this week, I have submitted a novel to a publisher new to me. It will probably be rejected but as I well know that is par for the course if you've been writing fiction for as long as I have! At least I'm back in the saddle again. And it feels good.

Meanwhile, I'm still editing my medieval novel which has been sitting on the back burner for a long time. I hope to get that out in the world later this year. But of course, it all depends on all the other things going on in my life.

And taking of Middlesbrough, there's an awful not of history there that I want to explore. Did you know that in the Industrial Revolution it holds the dubious accolade of having the greatest increase in its population.In 1801 it was a farm community with a population of 25. By 1851 Middlesbrough's population had grown to 7,600! There are many novels there and I will definitely write them. Whether they're ever finished, let alone published, who knows. But I'm damn well going to write them.

St Hilda's Church. JS Lowry

At a time like this, we can only reflect.

The World Is Too Much With Us

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William Worsworth

The world is too much with us; late and soon, 

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;— 

Little we see in Nature that is ours; 

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! 

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; 

The winds that will be howling at all hours, 

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; 

For this, for everything, we are out of tune; 

It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be 

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; 

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, 

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; 

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; 

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

   There is much to say at the moment and too many of us are too busy shouting and speaking at cross purposes to make clear sense of the agony of it all. But, please, please be mindful of where we, as observers, who were not involved in any way in the recent appalling atrocities. Please let them grieve and mourn the way they choose and offer help to them as individuals if we are able. Most of us can only look on in fear and sorrow. Yes, of course, we have opinions and we have every right to voice them but instead of spitting vitriol on social media, remember that most of us in this country, whether we were born here or not, are alive in a country that, despite its many - of course there are many -  faults,  allows us to protest without violence. And please do so if you have something useful to say. But please do it with love, dignity and thankfulness.  Think of Jo Cox's simple message  - there is more that unites us than divides us.