Twitter and Downton

Sometimes I feel things are getting out of hand. I have 134 followers on Twitter, yet I see streams of posts from people I  don't know, and have no interest in. Consequently I whizz down the lists looking for the icon of those I do know and am interested in. If it goes on like this, using Twitter will soon be a complete waste of time.

Yahoo gets no better. I'm on two Facebook groups now, and think I'd do well to come off the yahoo groups altogether. I'm almost at the end of the most recent edit on To Capture a Queen and I've been thinking it is time to re-vamp the blog pages that display my books. Surely I could make them more interesting than they are? I suppose this is where being an ex-copywriter or a journalist pays dividends and ex-library managers fall by the wayside. I have been exploring new ways of promoting my books but have not found anything startling except hordes of people like myself! Everyone, but everyone is writing a book these days!

At home, I'm starting the Big Clean, as we expect guests from the other side of the world in a few days time. One of them dislikes dogs, ("I prefer my animals rare and on a plate") and the other is allergic to them, so there are going to be happy times ahead. No doubt Tim and I will be relegated to the proverbial doghouse, but hey! he lives here! So, the Hoover (or should I now say the Dyson?) is creeping out of the cupboard, the Dettol impregnated wipes are standing by waiting to be opened, and the lavender scented spray is on the bookcase in my study. This is where a house the size of Highclere Castle comes in handy, for it must contain rooms where no dog has ever got his nose over the threshold.

I mention Highclere because I understand the new series of Downton is about ready to roll across our TV screens. I wonder if it will be as gripping as the previous episodes? Actually, some of them were not gripping. I could have dispensed with the long-drawn out scenes of Bates in prison looking like no woman's romantic dream. Instead it would have been entertaining to watch Sybil getting to grips with life as the chauffeur's wife in Dublin. Lady Mary, of course, will be seeking another spouse, but now her blue-eyed husband is dead (darn - I've forgotten his name!) who will inherit Downton? The chauffeur's child, I suppose. so who he marries next is going to be of great interest to the Crawley family. The simplest thing would be if he marries Lady Mary! They're not related by blood, so.....is it possible?

Yahoo troubles and Tim's first look at the sea

Failed to communicate yesterday - apologies all round. Several things cropped up -- I spent most of the day either walking the dog or  preparing a three course dinner for guests that evening. DH spent the day hoovering and dusting to ensure all was shipshape. Writing didn't get a look in, but we did have a splendid evening with a first course of salmon mousse in crisp pastry cups, duck breast with a redcurrant sauce followed by apple and blackberry crumble with a dollop of clotted cream on top. The blackberries have been amazingly good this year - in fact all the fruit has - the apples came courtesy of our neighbour whose trees bore so many they gave some away, and the blackberries I've foraged when I've been out with Tim. I rarely see anyone else gathering them, and I think it's almost an insult to nature to allow such beautiful fruit to rot away unused.

It seems Yahoo Groups are causing major frustration worldwide. Without any warning I saw they changed the way their groups function and in doing so have made them virtually useless. It isn't a simple front page change, but the whole system. Things don't work. I wonder why they have done it? Critique group members in particular are tearing their hair out in handfuls, and unless Yahoo gets its act together quickly, people will stop using them.

if you look at the last entry, you'll see Tim running happily towards the waves coming in. (The sea was like a mill pond that day, so we had no fears for him.) When he realised the sea was coming to him, he wasn't so keen, and when it almost reached his toes, he turned tail and ran.

He had to be coaxed back towards the water, and still wasn't sure. You want me to go near THAT?
So we walked along the beach towards  the port of Blyth, just visible as a dirty smudge on the picture., and he loved running on the sand. He loved meeting all the other dogs out for walk on the beach, too and there was ample space for them all to tear around like lunatics.
A couple of miles along the beach beside the sea  and his confidence improved. He dared to go near the water again. This time he got his front paws wet, but I'm not sure his back paws ever felt the chill of the North Sea. We'll save that for another day!

On some of the pics, if you click and expand them, you'll see a ghost foot, or a ghost tail - Tim was never still, and the camera in my phone has picked up the movement!

Bad Yahoo

Yahoo has just complicated my life by changing the entire format of at least one critique group - I haven't checked the other as yet but no doubt it will be screwed up  in the same way. Now I have to take aeons to find the things I want, and I am filled with horror that everything else may be about to change as well. I don't need this! Plus which the new layout isn't anything like as clear as the old one. Bad move, Yahoo.

Got a good start today, apart from Yahoo, of course. Up and out for 1,200 steps with pooch  before eight and there's a lovely clear blue sky with warm sunshine sparkling on the dew-kissed meadow. (Yesterday we managed 8,939 steps, so we're getting better.) Have already checked e-mails (not many) , Twitter, Facebook (slight changes there, too) and hung out the washing to dry. Clothes dry in no time this summer and the fresh air costs nothing. Some people never hang any washing out, so I presume they dry it all indoors, which can be a costly process. I'm told dryers eat money.

While I wait for the last few critiques on To Capture a Queen, I'm going back to Blood Feud, which means a completely different time period and thought processes. For a long while I couldn't think how to move the story on after chapter 6, but last night the ideas starting flowing in and I will have to sort through them this morning and see which is the most feasible, which will seem the most logical and lead on to bigger and better happenings. It is an enticing prospect, and I'm really quite keen to get started before pooch wakes up and decides it is time for the Big Walk of the Day.