A Bit of Fresh Air Whilst We Can!... More Covid Walk Updates

 

It has been a while since I last wrote for this blog, for that I apologise. 

 Covid-19 continues to be with us, unseen in the shadows of daily life. I remain well after my bout of the virus. However, there are times when I feel fatigued, and I still suffer from anosmia and ageusia. But, this is not all about me.

We are living the 'new normal'. Sadly, although some parts of society are starting to come back online, some are still unable to emerge from this coronavirus darkness.

Musicians, both professional and amateur, are finding it hard to be able to perform in public. Sports are back, albeit on television and behind closed doors in empty stadiums. It is also frustrating as local amateur Rugby is a long way off from being able to come back. There were early signs of optimism allowing touch rugby with 6 to 10 players.  That is some way from where they wish to be.  But with the government's 'Rule of Six' from 21^st September, that may well have put paid to that. We can only hope that the virus and the science with allow the game to be back soon.

My commercial writer's block continues, if it is writer's block at all. My mojo for the commercial world has taken a bit of time emerging from the Covid – 19 haze. But as we are now seemingly entering a second wave, it is strangely starting to make an appearance.

 My journal, however, has come on in leaps and bounds. I have finished my second book. I'm well into the third volume. I think that both completed books surmount to nearly 100k words since I started partway through March.

I started to read back the first book, and it struck me that it might well work up into a publishable book.  Amongst the many pages, there are several good writing ideas, well I would think that. Still, now with my notebook and these journals, I have plenty of good themes to work on.

I don't always carry my notebook with as I should, but I do make notes into it whenever I can. I have even got up in the middle of the night to write! That's another project to add to the list!

I am hoping that by writing this blog, it will spark me into action and get me flowing again. I still need to finish off my assignment. It is nearly finished, and I need to front up and get it edited and sent off to my tutor. This week, I promise!

Back in the August edition of the Ottery Gazette, I had an article published. Sadly I didn't get a copy of it, but it can be seen on the Ottery Writers Blog page (link in the sidebar). I had another article published in The Blue Band, The Journal of the Royal Marines Band Service. The article went down so well that I received a tweet asking me to do another one.   I have an idea for a letter to The Rugby Paper. I enjoy dreaming up ideas for them, and there is a personal motive for writing them too.

I am considering starting another blog. My first thoughts are one about our dog walks around beautiful East Devon?

We have quite a few walks where we have taken Murphy and plenty of photographs too.

Today we went for a walk up to Round Ball Hill. It was a first for me as Kathy and Murphy have been up there before. Well-armed with a backpack of water, a couple of bananas and the essential energy-giving chocolate, we strode out across a field of bullocks together with their relatively large fatherly Bull. Once across the field, we climbed into the wood at the foot of the hill. Murphy was able to be off his lead and mooch around for a good sniff.

It was very silent in the woods. Except for the sounds of the birds up in the trees and the scuttling of squirrels in the undergrowth.

We came out of the other side of the wood. We were then faced with the steep climb up to the summit of the hill. All the time, I was trying to get good photos as the views were truly stunning.  The panoramic view of East Devon from the top of the hill was amazing. To the west, you can see Dartmoor in the distance, and to the East, the Blackdown Hills were equally awe-inspiring.

You can see several Bronze Age era earthworks and forts. These have given me ideas to fit into my current story.  With a bit of research, a storyline for a novel too.

I certainly enjoyed our Sunday morning walk.  Murphy is curled up asleep in his bed. Kathy and I are off for a well-earned breakfast. Later Exeter Chiefs are on the TV in their European Champions Cup quarter-final against Northampton Saints. It's not going to be easy but have faith everyone.

Keep an eye out over the coming weeks for new blog posts on here and, all being well, the new blog too.

In the meantime, I'll see you all again very soon!

How has the COVID-19 been for you? Very busy for me as it turns out - Thankfully

You may or not be aware that since the beginning of the lockdown here in the UK, I have been writing a daily (ish) journal.

I have been journaling about what I have been doing, my bout of COVID-19, and my successes with writing. Also included alongside are my rants about the government. I like to keep my political feelings private. Hence, they are in the journal and not  scrawled across social media platforms.

Star Letter - Writing Magazine

I was successful in winning the Star Letter in last months Writing Magazine. I wrote how I considered that the lockdown period had not been very conducive to me as a writer. I had felt that my motivation for writing wasn't there.

I wouldn't say that I had 'writers' block' as I was fulfilling a daily post in my journal, which, was to amount to a substantial word count as it turns out.

Today my journal started with the words 'It's very nice to wake up and find that a piece you've written has been published'. I have another letter in The Rugby Paper this week. What is also really lovely to see, from a writer's perspective, it is published as written, no edits. My signature block on my emails now informs the recipient that I am a Freelance Writer and lists my blog and writing business Facebook page addresses. I am now confident to share that information with editors.

I then got to thinking about my writing output over the last few months.

I have a notebook and a half of daily journals, two letters in The Rugby Paper, Star Letter in Writing Magazine, and two pieces in the Ottery Gazette. I've two articles published in The Blue Band at either end of the three months. In the background, I have submitted one assignment and have another almost ready to go for my creative writing course. I have completed the first edit of my story. I worked that out to be about 30 thousand words! That works out to be roughly 360 words a day, rounded up. To put that into context, 350 words per day over six months is nearly 59,000 words, an excellent novella length and into the range for a novel too. Maybe the COVID-19 lockdown was more conducive to writing than I at first thought.

Three hundred fifty words are the length of this piece so far. I have also written about the same in my

The Rugby Paper - 28th June 2020

journal, with some more to come. I think that shows how easily I can keep the word count up. After all, you are not a writer unless you are writing.

My focus in the coming weeks is to finish off my next assignment for my course and then to spend a couple of weeks editing my story and planning further chapters and characters to take the story forward to novella length.

As I sit here penning this latest blog, I look back on the COVID-19 lockdown, so far, with a bit of a smile. We have packed up one home and moved to another. We have changed most of our furniture, and that has meant hours of building it too. I have moved my job back to Whipton Hospital and have my permanent role confirmed after six months of probation. And I have written 30 thousand words. Life is pretty good at the moment. The news today is that we have the opportunity to have a visit with my Father at his care home later next month. I am writing this also sitting here watching The Cure from last year's Glastonbury. Fantastic! There is a story to be written about my younger years that were taken away from me. I think that is for another book or short story. I'd like to make some money out of that tale; I think I deserve that.

A Covid Walk

We are nearly into two months of lockdown. Boris has made his statement about how he intends to get the country out of it.

 As for the rest of us, the most exciting thing that we’ve got to look forward is the daily Covid-19 walk. There are worse things to do during this time of pandemic madness.

 In East Devon, we have many beautiful walks and our particular favourite is right on our doorstep.

Black Aller Woods is a hidden delight at this time of the year. Strolling up the middle of this ancient wood you are surrounded by a sea of bluebells. Bluebells are really bright and strident in colour although the bluebells in this wood are a little subdued. The sun shining through the canopy of trees bringing these Bluebells to life. The dappling of the sun bursting through the bows of ash and beech trees brings the Bluebells to life and opens up the blue floor below.

The fragrance emanating from this ocean of blue could be captured as a perfume. The ground is much firmer to the boot now than in the weeks leading up to the start of the lockdown.

Apart from the seasonal change of colour from green to blue, the other major change in the wood is the silence. Not as silent as in really quiet of course. The natural sounds of the woodland are blackbirds, sparrows and songbirds of all kinds, the odd nuthatch and the scrabbling of the squirrels and rabbits in the undergrowth. What is silent is the unnatural noises from the nearby A30 trunk road. The sound emitted from the road and the travelling vehicles has been much quieter since the beginning of the lockdown. This is the sound that the good people of East Devon want to hear from the road every day.  A slight rumble in the distance is hardly noticeable. Sadly on a normal day or what was previously a normal day, it is extremely noisy. But these are days of change, what does the future hold and what is new normal is, no one can tell.

But back to our walk, there not many other people about at the moment. It is all very peaceful.

 Continuing onwards for another 100 metres or so, our walk opens out into another vista and a view across the Escot estate.

The little copse below obscures a view of the main house. Usually buzzing this time of year the house is an excellent venue for spring weddings, when will they be back?

Sheep can be seen up in the fields of the opposite side of the valley, grazing on the remarkably green

grass. Below the River Tale meanders through the valley, a path winds alongside it. The waters of the Tale are crystal clear and to paraphrase the American painter, Bob Ross, “It’s a happy little river”! It would be a cliché to say it’s a babbling brook, the water level is just about right for the water to make wondrously cheerful noise as it whooshes over the banks of East Devon pebbles. Last year we could see little fish in the clear waters, but not today. The reason could be that earlier in the year, we suffered a period of sustained rainfall. The waters run off the distant Blackdown Hills and by the time the waters reach the Tale at Escot, it can be very murky. This year it even broke the banks and spilt into the adjacent fields.

Continuing along the riverside path as it winds its way to the end, it meets a truly Heath Robinson bridge. The wooden bridge consists of a rustic plank of wood with a handrail on one side. The walking surface is covered with chicken wire to help with traction when wet and yes, it bounces as you walk over it! Murphy, our dog, loves to run across it and then waits at the metal gate at the far side for us to let him through. In truth, if he looked a bit closer there is a dog-sized hole in the fence which he could walk through and recommence his romp in the next field. The sign on the gate coming back the other way says that this is a permissive pathway; there is a sign at the other end too. We consider ourselves very fortunate to able to use this path on our lovely COVID walk.

This public pathway way takes us across the next field towards a wooden kissing gate. I always feel a bit self-conscious about walking across the middle of a field; however, this is where the signs instruct us to go.

Adjacent to the wooden kissing gate is the copse that we looked down on when we came out of the wood. Hidden in the copse, are pens for rearing pheasants for the hunting season. Empty now, they will shortly be full of chirping baby pheasants. This year there has been an albino pheasant running around and I didn’t fancy its chances at all up against the guns. Thankfully we have seen it about in the spring and even Murphy declined to chase after it one morning.

Going through the gate we have a choice to make. We can proceed across the field towards Escot Church and Fairmile beyond, our choice though is to turn left and climb the path that is not a path. This is a joke that we make about this path as when we first starting walking in Escott a few years ago there was a sign at the top of this path that stated that “This path is not a path”. It made us giggle.

At the top of the path that is not a path, there is another wooden kissing gate. As you go through this one you can either make the choice to walk back towards the big house or the walk back through Black Aller woods again. We choose the woods

The path back through the woods always looks somehow different on the way back. Warning of our approach, the blackbirds are still singing in the trees. The squirrels have taken advantage of a moment’s peace and scrabble about on the woodland floor for their hidden treasures. The rabbits stand statuesque in the field, with a wary eye on the approaching humans and their dog, anticipating a dash to the nearest burrow should the alarm be raised.

The only anticipation that we have is to look forward to a visit to the local shop for a pain au chocolate and a well-earned coffee after returning home, and of course, washing our hands before breakfast.

COVID walk completed and all social distancing and hand washing requirements are done, happy days. Enjoy your walks and stay safe and well.  

A walk in the East Devon countryside during lockdown

Bridge over the River Otter just
before Otter Nurseries

We are coming to the end of our third week of lockdown here in the UK. There is no sign of any change.

The daily figures make for very grim reading. The one light at the end of the tunnel is that the infection rates seem to be slowing. We need to see them dropping before we can even think about starting to get back to normal. 

The green shoots of spring may well be sprouting outside in our countryside; however, they are not showing for this Coronavirus crisis just yet.

Thankfully, on the whole, the message of staying at home seems to have been observed. That saying, there was a report that D&C Police had turned around 500 caravans at junction 27 of the M5, however, I am not sure of the validity of that report.

This morning, my wife and I took our dog Murphy for a long walk. We walked part of the old train track towards the River Otter. Usually, there is a constant drone of vehicles on the A30. It was quite remarkable as we crossed over a bridge, how silent it was today. 

An empty A30 on Easter Sunday 2020

When the road was first constructed, despite the environmental activists such a Swampy, the authorities also had to contend with complaints about the noise the surface made. Despite the ins and outs of court appeals and inquiries, nothing changed. There was a promise that at the end of life the surface would be replaced with a quieter one. Given that the surface will probably last for some considerable numbers years yet, I don’t think things will change very anytime soon.

Getting back to our walk, it was indeed very quiet. Blackbirds, woodpeckers, chaffinch, goldfinch, woodpigeons and ducks could all be heard calling out on this beautiful Easter Sunday morning. The sun was shining and the sky was a glorious blue. I would like to be able to tell you how it smelt. Unfortunately, I have no sense of smell or taste after a presumed case of COVID-19 three weeks ago.

Our countryside is certainly a different place after these three weeks of lockdown. I am convinced, along with others, that the general atmosphere is much healthier. It makes sense to think that it is without so many cars on the roads at the moment.

Walking through a column of trees atop an embankment, it was easy to imagine the time when this was a fully functioning railway. Sadly the Beeching report of 1963 saw the demise of the line from Sidmouth Junction to Sidmouth via Otter St Mary and other stations. Sidmouth Junction is now the site of Feniton station on the main west coastline to London Waterloo.

As we carry on into more days of the enforced and very much justified lockdown, we will come out of the other side, of that I am certain. Will everything be the same? Will we have the same values; will we have gone back in time?

I’m not about to make any predictions, I do think that for better or worse the world is going to be a different place after all this.

These last few weeks have not been very conducive to writing. I did manage to fire off a letter to a magazine and a pitch to an editor which has gone down very well. I will be writing that article this week. I then have to write my next assignment and there are still the short stories to finish.

COVID-19 has done nothing for my goals and aims this year. I’m certain there are many other writers have has the same problems and feelings. Having time off doesn’t always mean time for writing. For me, my time off was a period of illness. I felt so rough I didn’t feel like doing anything. But the fact that I've sat down and written this blog, I think, means I’m back on track for writing.

Please stay safe and at home everybody. These are very strange times for us all. We will come out of the other side. See you soon.

Zombie Apocalypse or Dystopian Future Anyone?

Last week I promoted my page and a certain post over on Facebook. The advert and post boost was targeted around a large area of the country and outside of my usual friends list on Facebook.

The results are in and they reveal that the page advert reached out to 1013 people and that 15 were added to the page members list. The rest were invited to like the page. The boosted post reached out to a further to 2319 people with 67 link clicks.

This cost me £19.95 in total and I feel that it was money well spent to give me a little insight as to how using this option on social media can bring in new views to my writing activities. I will be using it again in the not too distant future.

Now, I trust that you are all keeping well at this difficult time, not only in this country but around most of the world too.

This is truly a disturbing time and as someone who works for the NHS can I encourage a bit of calm amongst the noise and claptrap going around at the moment, please?

The best advice would be to follow the advice given on the advice on the NSH 111 site (https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/urgent-and-emergency-care/nhs-111/) and try not to pay any attention to little snippets that you find on social media.

If you are advised to self-isolate, do so.

Keep washing your hands with regularity, properly. Unlike as shown by our esteemed Prime Minister on the television recently!

If you sneeze, use a paper hanky and ‘catch it, bin it and kill it’ (https://www.england.nhs.uk/south/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2017/09/catch-bin-kill.pdf), and wash your hands as soon as you can. Cough or sneeze into a hankie or in to your elbow.

This advice is freely available on the NHS website and really at this time of the year when normally there is the usual round of coughs and colds, we should be doing these things as a matter of course.

We are not entering into a dystopian zombie apocalypse, hence this weeks picture and there is no requirement for us to panic buy and hoard piles of food. Our supply chains are robust and will not run out.

We don’t need to be hoarding anti-bacterial soaps and gels, in fact, any soap will do. Hint, anti-bacterial versus a virus, I’ll let you work that one out?

My colleagues in Urgent Community Response along with all those within the health and social care community are working extremely hard at the moment. They are trying to keep people safe and to put in place contingencies for future problems.

Our Support Worker network will be severely hit if the schools are closed and as you might imagine there is a lot of work around that scenario. There is a lot of work to do all around.

The price of oil has fallen and fuel has come down in price. That’s a bonus, not that we can go anywhere!  All sport has been cancelled and there’s not much on the television anyway!

Please remember to check on family and friends and those in your street as well. If you are not self-isolating, you may be able to help others that are, in some way. #bekind

The care home where my Father is has suspended visiting for the time being unless for urgent occasions. I imagine that most such homes around the country will be taking the same line.

Sadly my writing group has taken the sensible decision to curtail meetings for the foreseeable future as we have several members of a certain age where their health makes them vulnerable. However, we will be remaining in contact and on the positive side, it will give us plenty of time to catch up with our writing.

We are continuing with our aim to publish an anthology of short stories and poems later in the year and continuing with planning of a writing/literary festival weekend for 2021.

I’m fully expecting my band and my masonic lodges to take the same decision to not meet as well, so, there will be plenty of time for writing in the evenings which I should take advantage of.

To finish off this piece can I urge you to keep well everybody. Act sensibly, #bekind to others and we will all get through this just fine.

Are there big cats on Dartmoor?

This weeks blog post is a further taster of my short story that I shared the start of back in October.

It's nearly coming to the end, approximately 5000 words. I'm hoping to get into the anthology that the writing group that I belong to, Ottery Writers, are planning this year. It might be a bit long, so, I might have to edit it back a little bit. I have a shorter ghost story ready to go and another humorous (hopefully) in the pipeline. Next week I have a few days of annual leave and my aim is to get quite a bit of writing done.

It was like something out of a Harry Potter film. A dark alley, full of little shops and hundreds of people milling about. At one end was a small coffee shop. It was so small, in fact, that it didn’t fall under the law where it had to have a toilet for the customers. They had to use the ones on the 4^th floor of the department shop on the opposite side of the street.

At the tables outside of the coffee shop sat two figures. Their look was somewhat different from the students that were mostly seen in this area. Dressed in expensive-looking suits, sharp haircuts and well-heeled shoes. They were both looking down at their smartphones only looking up when the waiter bought their coffee. Smiling, one waved his phone at the payment machine that the waiter had almost forced under his nose. The other person placed a five-pound note on to the tray that the waiter was holding in his other hand. Realising his good fortune, the waiter quickly turned tail and disappeared, secreting the five pounds into his back pocket as he went.

“ So, where have you hidden it?” putting his phone down on the table

“Bloody hell! Why are we having this conversation out here!”

“Relax fella! Look around, do you see any CCTV? Just keep your voice down. This is a perfect place, and good coffee too!”

“ I can’t believe that we’re gonna talk about £2m worth of gear; right here in the open!”

 The first one took a slug of his coffee. His face contorted in pain

“ Christ! no matter how good this shit is, you still gotta put some sugar in it.”

Pouring copious amounts of brown sugar into his coffee, he stirred it, looking up at his companion.

“So where’s it hidden?”

“It’s up on the moors, nobody will find it and keep your voice down!”

Alright, alright, don’t get shirty with me fella!

“ You don’t need to know, it’s safe enough. I’m going to get it tonight and it’ll be in Bristol in the morning.”

“You got security?”

“Plenty, and there’s an AK with a full mag buried with it, so if anybody wants to try anything they’re in for a big surprise.”

“ A surprise? Interesting. Now drink up your coffee and let’s go. We’ve been here too long”

With that, both downed their coffees and rose from the table.

“ Where too?”

“Back to my place.”

“ Oh, your such a romantic, Carter.”

“Fuck off, Bains.”

They walked off down the road, evaporating into the crowds. Just another couple of business types on a lunchtime jolly out of the office.

Walking down the road they didn’t look back. What they failed to see the figure that rose from the table next to them. She looked down the road, pressing the recall button on her phone as she noted their every step.

“Nev? It’s on for tonight. For info, he’ll be armed and there’s and AK locked and loaded in the cache and I’d be a bit careful as it may be booby-trapped as well.”

“Roger that. I’ve got two observation posts with my operators and cameras all over the place. We’ll make the place safe before he arrives. Besides, I’ve got my guest from Canada to look after and he already thinks he’s seen something on the cameras”

Before the line went dead, she heard Trump bark an order to one of his men.

“Two-three alpha, out”

The marine slowly returned his gaze to the scene below him on the moor. They’d been in this hole for nearly 24 hours and he was looking forward to being able to stretch his legs for the task just given to him over the radio by the Sargent Major.

He turned to the other two in the observation post.

“Right then, there’s an AK down there somewhere and possibly an IED. We’ve got to go and get it before the bad guy turns up. I suggest just after dark which is anytime now. Dusty, you come with me and Dinger you keep an eye on things from here. Any questions? …right, let's get on with it.”

Within five minutes, two marines were crawling out of the observation post in their ghillies suits, each carrying with a Colt Commando assault rifle. Slowly they edged their way crawling out from their exit point. They stopped after a few metres and looked down at where they were going to start their search.

The lead Marine turned to the other and signalled the start of their patrol. Using the failing light they deliberately moved towards their target, staying below the skyline so as not to expose their presence. Exploiting all the cover they could find, they made their way down towards a track.

As they careful moved, the radio crackled into life in their earpieces. Both marines stop moving and listened.

“Wacker, this is Nobby”

It was the other observation post at the head of the little valley that they were now entering.

“What now? We’re busy!”

“There’s something moving down there.”

“That’ll be us! we’re nearly on top of it. It’s blacker than a cow's guts down here”

Dusty, to the rear, gave a rye smile, hoping they hadn’t been seen as that would be a red card and they would be kicked off selection.

“Not you, can’t see you. I’ve got a good idea where you might be. There’s something else.”

“Wacker, Dinger”

This was their observation post.

“Go ahead, Dinger”

“ The Boss has just come on the command net. His guy Reid has seen something on the cameras. Thinks it’s his cat”

“Bloody hell that’s’ all we need!” 

An excellent evening with Ottery Writers

Thursday evening saw Ottery Writers present a program which brought together the members reading their pieces to the gathered audience at Ottery St Mary library. With the proceeds given to Devon Libraries, it was a fantastic night for local writers.

It was hosted by our marvellous master of ceremonies, Simon, suitably attired. Simon is a mine of information for us writers and has a wonderful sense of style.

We heard readings of very personal poems, full of emotions about families and forgotten times and loves lost. Humorous works of Christmas past and satirical works completed the evening.

I was particularly pleased that the reading of my article recently published in The Blue Band went down very well and I had a couple of conversations with people who had relatives who had had similar experiences.

I submitted my latest assignment this week and received back very positive feedback from my tutor. I’m now starting on the next assignment and looking at another article for The Blue Band. I’ve also got some ideas to pitch to editors both here and abroad, I’m looking at a busy time, I think.

Published this week and topped off by a performance!

Just a quick post this week, very excited that this one is

hitting the streets this week …well not quite as it’s an in house publication!

I will be giving a reading of this at Ottery st Mary library on Thursday 13^th February at 1830, cost £2 in aid of Devon Libraries.

This weekend I have been finalising my latest assignment and I have scheduled that to be emailed to my tutor in the morning. I’ve also been back to my short story that I have and have done a bit of editing. Not quite a rewrite as I need to finish the first draft. I have the ending; I just need to get there

Ottery Writers’ Group

We Love Writing!

We hope you like listening

13^th February 18.30

Come and Meet

local writers for an evening of stories and poems

Venue: - Your local Library, Silver St.

Tickets £2, in aid of Devon Libraries. Available from the Library, ‘The Curious Otter’ or 01404  815494

Refreshments   available

Sad goodbyes but much to look forward too and much more!

Firstly, my apologies for not posting on here for over a week, I have been somewhat otherwise engaged!

As some of you will have been aware, since August last year, I have been working for the NHS as a Health and Social Care team coordinator. This was first as an agency worker and latterly for the RD&E Admin Staff Bank here in Exeter.

From the start I have loved this job and role; I have worked with some very committed and diligent workers who give their all for their client caseloads. In return, they sadly get little recognition publically.

Working on the Staff Bank is rather like being on a zero-hours contract. Although I was getting a decent remuneration for the hours that I had worked, I didn’t have the safety net of holidays and sick pay. This meant that I had to work all over Christmas and New Year, only taking off the bank holidays. I realise that I’m not the only one in the country doing this. There isn’t a complaint from me.

 I was appreciative of my Line Manager and colleagues as they didn’t really want to let me go, although they were not able to take me on full time, they were attempting to increase the budget to do so. Fortunately, I spotted an advert for a similar role, full time at Exmouth Hospital which I applied for and was successful in getting. I started last Monday.

I loved working with Health and Social Teams at Whipton Hospital. I have not felt so happy in a job for many years and it was with great sadness I had to leave. I was honoured with a lunch with the teams, where they presented with a wonderful card and amazing gifts. I was humbled and emotional in spades.

The piece or rather pieces that I would like to share with you this week are the very first exercises and assignments that I completed for my creative writing course.

We had to describe somewhere we had visited using all the five senses, but first there was an exercise to describe the scene using our sense of sight only:

My favourite place is the wood where I take our dog for a walk. It is a dark little wood where the sunlight on a day like today shines through the evergreening canopy. The dappled light shines down revealing a wondrously blue woodland floor and the pathway where our little brown bundle of fun runs after his much loved yellow tennis ball which contrasts well with the hundreds of bluebells that this wood is well known renowned for at this time of year. The path stretches up the middle of the wood, in the distance, you can see that it veers to the right and then the left before coming to the end of the wood where it opens out onto verdant green farmland.

Next, thinking about the same place, describing it using the other four senses: smell, taste, sound and touch:

Walking into my favourite wood you can smell the fresh perfume of the bluebells scattered in their hundreds over the woodland floor. Lit by the dappled light from the spring green canopy of beech and oak trees, it gives off an air of serenity and that strange taste of spring. Except all is not quiet, all-round songbirds can be heard and the occasional thump, thump of a woodpecker or nuthatch. Squirrels scratch around in the undergrowth before they sense the presence of little Murphy and scoot off up the nearest tree. The utopia is somewhat spoilt, however, by the distant sound of the A30 with the busy East Devon evening commuter traffic.

Except that now reviewing it, I didn’t use touch in this one!

The last exercise was to merge the two descriptions together in a piece of around 150 words, (this one is 170) thereby using all five senses together:

Walking into my favourite wood to walk our little Murphy, I am struck by the beautiful smell of the trees bursting into spring growth and the perfumed bluebells that cover the woodland floor in their hundreds. Everything is warm to the touch in the early evening spring sun. The dappled light makes for a peaceful atmosphere. The squirrels scratch around in the undergrowth only disturbed by Murphy chasing after his yellow tennis ball. In the trees, you can hear songbirds sing as they settle down to roost for the evening. The central path takes you eastwards away from the sun and to where it had risen this morning to commence its daily journey. The path leads towards the open green farmland beyond where sheep and cattle graze. It’s about now that you become aware of the noisy roar of the distant A30. Calm is soon restored to this little piece of East Devon as you are led back up to the woods and the advancing sunset. 

Finally, the assignment asked for a piece of between 300 to 500 words describing a special place that we had visited. After a couple of goes, I returned to the same place that we take Murphy for a walk, Black Aller Woods on the Escott Estate:

Taking an early morning walk with Murphy, the three-year-old WestiePoo, in our favourite wood  I climb over the stile. I am immediately struck by a wall of fragrant aroma from the perfumed bluebells that are covering the woodland floor. Above, the sun is bursting through the beautiful spring green canopy of oak, ash and cherry trees. This is Black Aller Wood on the Escott Estate in East Devon.

The dappled sunlight creates a peaceful atmosphere. Squirrels can be seen scratching around in the undergrowth undisturbed even by our little dog scampering after his yellow tennis ball.

 The pathway cuts through the middle of the wood. Blackbirds can be heard warning others of intruders disturbing their peace. Above the fields, adjacent to the wood, a buzzard screeches as it circles on the thermals searching for food.  Fox and badger trails criss-cross among the bluebells. The white tails of Rabbits disappear down into their burrows; they are out and about in numbers this morning. Segways and quad bikes are the only occasional disturbance during the daytime to this peaceful haven.

 Turning the corner at the bottom of this L-shaped wood the tree line narrows into a path. A little shrew shuffles from one side to the other or is it escaping from the circling buzzard?

The bluebell undergrowth now gives way to intermittent primroses from earlier in the spring also holly bushes and straggling ivy. The pervading fragrance of the spring wildflowers now starts to give way to the more pungent aroma of the fields where the farmer has spread contents of several tanks of liquid manure.

 The walk continues along the rubble-filled pathway until it meets with a gateway which opens out on a wide expansive vista looking out across the East Devon countryside and down to Escot House, a large house rebuilt in 1837 after a fire.  It has an eerie Georgian appearance rising out of the early morning mist and you can imagine visitors arriving in horse-drawn carriages. Further behind the house, Scandinavian timber wolves, lynx, wildcats and red squirrels live as part of a study towards future reintroduction back into the countryside. An otter is rumoured to reside in the stretch of the River Tale below. Much to Murphy’s surprise a pheasant squawks and flies into the air from the long grass alongside the pathway, its blue, green and red plumage shining in the morning sun. The brightly coloured feathers of the male bird are in contrast to grey plumage of the trio of guinea fowl wandering across the field in their never-ending search for food.  We continue along a concrete road which runs through the flat green fields at the top of the rise until we come to a gate with an old stone water trough with smelly, stagnant green water inside. Contemplating a day of work, you can only be thankful to be able to live in this wonderful part of the country. (494)

So there we have it, my first assignment. This weekend for my latest assignment I have finally fleshed out an article from the outline I worked on earlier. I will need to have a look through it again as part of the editing and proofreading process, but, I hope to be able to have that ready to go off to my tutor in the next week or so.

Looking forward I also now have another piece for the Blue Band magazine to write and of course, I have the next assignment to work on as well.

A fruitful weeks writing with an interesting week ahead

This photograph is a much-copied one from my first trip to Washington DC with Flag Officer Plymouth’s  Band under the direction of then Lt David Cole RM. We stayed out at Andrew’s AFB, where Airforce One is based. We were hosted by The Presidents Own Band of the US Marine Corps. They looked after us very well, in fact, this was the first time that I had had the pleasure of a team of roadies who set up all our equipment and it was an amazing experience. Our host, one of the Presidents Own officers, took us around several sites including this visit to the White House. The President at the time was Ronald Regan and he was on an Easter visit to Hawaii. We were afforded a complete tour around the White House and the RN Photographer with us came up with this shot. I seem to remember that I somewhere up on the right side.

It has been a bit of a fruitful week for my writing this week and on the whole, I have been keeping up with most of my goals. To coin a well-worn phrase from my days in the Royal Marines, I’m well chuffed.

Today, Saturday, I have written the outline for an article for the latest assignment of my Creative Writing course. I have to outline and writing articles for two very different magazines. I have one almost complete but I have been struggling to find an idea and magazine to place it. Initially, I had come up with two ideas which required a bit of research. I sent out emails and unfortunately, I have heard nothing back from anyone. This is just one of those things that you have to come to expect as a writer sadly, so I have put those ideas back on the shelf for another time. It is sad really as one was going to be aimed at a local, to Exeter, magazine. I had an event in mine and I wanted to take the reader around some of the City’s excellent venues. This would have been an excellent publishing opportunity for me with some advertising for those that I was trying to contact.

It is amazing though where and when an idea for an article will strike though. This morning Kathy and I took our little Murphy to the groomer. It was a new location and whilst Murphy was having his monthly spruce up, I sat in the car with my laptop to do a bit of writing. When I finished what I was doing I went back into the groomer and started chatting and low and behold another idea for an article popped up. Thankfully I had my notebook with me so I have the notes for future work.

On Monday evening at Ottery Writers, I read my article that is going to be published in the forthcoming edition of the Royal Marines Band Service Journal ‘The Blue Band’.

I’m honoured to say that the excellent and talented writers gathered for our first meeting of 2020 greeted it with great acclamation. It then brought about much conversation around the subject matter which was most pleasing.

It also confirmed to me that this was a subject that I can market elsewhere without too much further research.

I have also come up with an idea for a follow-up article, which, I have briefly discussed this with the editor and will be planning a pitch very soon.

So those of you who receive ‘The Blue Band’, I hope you will enjoy the piece and for those of you who don’t, I will endeavour to get permission to post it over on my blog in due course.

And in other news, a visit to ‘The Nog Inn’ here in Feniton last Saturday has led to a cracking idea for a short story. I have blasted out an initial few hundred words and I will work on further in the coming days ahead.  Raiders of the Lost Ark meets Eddie the Spray is proving quite humorous!

As I said at the beginning of this blog, it has been a fruitful week for writing. I have a number of articles to work on, a couple of short stories to round off and if you live in East Devon I will be featured in next month’s Ottery Writers piece in the Ottery Gazette.

Let’s see what the week ahead brings!

It's 2020 - We're Still Here - The World hasn't Ended!!

Well, we made it! The world hasn’t come to a fiery end although it must feel like it in Australia at the moment sadly. We are able to keep smiling here, but only just!

Happy New Year to you all! 2019 was the year that I finally revealed myself as a writer and 2020 is the year in which I am determined to make my name as a professional writer!

Over on my Facebook page (yes, there is a link to it on here) a couple of weeks ago I published a piece about the vision and goals for my writing over the next few years.  I thought I might share them on here as the first post for 2020.

I subscribe to two monthly writing publications, Writers Magazine and Writers Forum. In the January edition (out in December 2019) of Writers Magazine, there were two excellent pieces about setting out a vision covering the next five years and another on setting goals for the next year or so. After reading these a couple of times, I sat down before Christmas and scribbled down a few pages of where I want my writing to take me and here is the outcome.

To write non-fiction and fiction every day, to market myself as a professional writer and to add to my income to enable my wife and me to have a better and more relaxed way of life.

That seems a fairly simple and clear vision. I think if I can achieve that then I will have generated a body of work that I will be able to pitch to Editors and Publishers on a regular basis earning an income at the same time.

From that vision, I was then able to think about my writing goals for the next year or so and here they are:

Short term - in the next 12 to 18 months for my writing to pay fully for a holiday by:

·          Enjoying writing.

·         Completing my writing course.

·         Continually examining worldwide markets for nonfiction opportunities of any kind and grow my submissions to at least one a week.

·         Write at least three letters/fillers to magazines each week.

·         Update Social Media and Blog every week.

·         Compile a collection of short story ideas for competitions.

·         To get myself recognised as a reliable writer via Social Media boosts and Blog updates and any other channels that become available.

·         To keep going with book ideas in the background.

Long Term – 5 years

·         To have my writing to fully support our income.

I think that my vision and goals are very achievable and now that 2020 is here I am excited to get stuck into them. I know it is a bit of a cliché but I want 2020 to give everybody a clear vision of where they will see me as a writer. For writing to become more and more part of my everyday life and when we get to this time next year, I want to be known as a professional writer.

No doubt over on the Social Media pages we will be seeing a lot of clichéd New Year’s resolutions over the next few days, which is why I sat down a couple of weeks ago and thought about these.  I have exciting new challenges coming up in the next few months which I will talk about in future posts. I hope that you will have thought about where you want to be in the future and that the goals that you have set yourselves are as equally achievable as mine are.

To finish this Blog post, may I wish you a very Happy New Year and I hope that 2020 will bring you all that you wish for with happiness and success. Best wishes everybody.