Hi there! How are you? Hope you’re all well. Today I am not going to bombard you with stuff about Greed. Nope, today, I’m having a rest from all the madness of a book launch and doing a proper blog post. Today’s blog theme is wild flowers near me. The pictures are those I took last week during a dog walk and they are of lovely wild flowers I found and thought were pretty enough to be shown.

 

So, as you can imagine, I’ve been deep in getting my book out, so not much else has happened. My son stopped school for the school holidays. They get just over six weeks’ holidays here in Scotland and he’s bored already. Sigh. We’re not going on holiday this year as we don’t have the cash, but hopefully next year. Fingers crossed.  It doesn’t matter because where we live is so beautiful that it feels like a holiday most days anyway.

When I haven’t been making social media posts and other stuff to promote my writing business and others, I’ve been reading and watching tv. I am so pleased to see Miss Scarlet and the Duke is back on.  I love that series. It’s my little pleasure in a world that’s gone crazy recently. I try not to be affected by all the price rises in the UK and the fact our government are so incompetent (and crashing and burning as we speak – surely Boris will do the honourable thing and finally leave!), and I do this by watching nice safe programmes that take my mind off it.  I’ve also caved and paid for Starz so I can watch the sixth series of Outlander. I am not happy about this. I pay a lot already for Prime, so why can’t I see my programme on it instead of having to pay extra. Anyway, loving the new series.

Books I have been reading. Well, I have been reading and absolutely LOVING Vanity, which is the first book in our romantic suspense series and is by my pal Terry Wells Brown. It is brilliant. Her writing reminds me of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books: it’s got that strong female lead, lots of leg quivering sex and some great humour. And her hero, Juan Carlos…phew! fans face  I’m not just saying this to encourage you guys to buy the book, I’m saying it because I genuinely love this book, but Buy Vanity. It’s fab.  I’m nearly finished it. Haven’t had the time or energy to read it over the last few days, but tonight I will (with a saddened heart because I’ll have completed it) finish it.

I will then have the absolute pleasure of choosing which book to read next. It often can take a while – I have so many in my tbr pile!

Other things I have been doing. I recently got back into baking. I don’t know what tripped the baking mania off, but I made three loaves of bread. The brown loaves did not turn out at all…I think the packs must have been out of date or something. The white loaf was amazing. I made the equivalent of four small loaves into one mega loaf and after kneading it with my mixer, I hand kneaded it and then let it rise twice before bunging it in the oven. The house smelled heavenly. I wish I could have taken a picture of this loaf, it was huge. Once baked and cooled, I cut it up and put three-quarters of the slices in the freezer (because, as you know, fresh baked bread does not last) and myself and the boy chomped into the rest. Delicious.

I’m dying to get back out into the garden. I have plans for it, but it has been so miserable here in the west coast over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been unable to do much in it. I have painted my bench a lovely blue – I’ll take pics on the first dry day we have – and I want to spray paint some plant pots to match in with my blue theme. I cleared a patch of the garden of brambles (wild blackberries) and got scratched to pieces. I bloody hate brambles, they are the bane of my life in this garden. They are so invasive. The side of the house is packed with them and that is on my to-do list. I also need to build my raised beds and clear the side patio area. There’s a lot to do and I will get back into it soon I hope.

Right, I’m going to finish up here. It’s nearly 1pm as I write this and my tummy is telling me it’s lunchtime! Till next time!

Dawn xxx