Making A Living As A Writer

That's it. I got the two sample chapters yesterday, spent the evening polishing them, and whizzed them off to the agent before turning in. He came back mid-morning to say he was very pleased with them, and this afternoon sent us a copy of the document he'll be pitching to the publishers. In between tidying the house and the office - and deciding out of the bue to move our full compost bin from the back garden to the allotment - I managed to read the pitch. It has already been forwarded to the first publisher on Humfrey's list.

They're saying that we've had all the good weather we're getting for a while. Tomorrow is meant to be cool and grey. Ha! And I couldn't resist peeking at a forecast for Orkney & Shetland. 50 degrees (10 C) with a northerly breeze. Good job I took my camera with me when I walked to town yesterday, and snapped a few pictures of England In The Spring. At its best it's unspeakably lovely.

This is one of my favourite sights of the year, the moment when the barley heads start to form. When I'm out on the kind of clear, sunny days we have enjoyed this last week or so, I'm always looking up - for a good image of, in his case, oak leaves against the sky 

I took quite a number of pictures yesterday, but I just haven't time to go through them all. I'm about to dash off and put some netting over the strawberries. But here's a halfway decent snap of a ragged robin....

Okay... the next `live` posting will most likely be at the end of June. Between now and then there will be the extracts from Toad. I hope you enjoy them.