reaches Big Closet!

Yep, after several delays with RL getting in the way, today marks the debut of Gaby Book 27 ~ Smell of the Crowd ~ Chapter *1*- Change, Not Rest, the first free weekly instalment of the next in the Gaby series of books.

I'm back in Brizzle now, my duties as 'head of the family' done for now. The last month has been something of a rollercoaster as you might imagine, Thursday afternoon was actually my first 'me' time, time when officialdom and looking out for others weren't looming over everything. I decided on a walk, that's quite vague but having a worry free mind (sort of) was taking some getting used to.

In the end i did a walk following the River Sheaf from close to Sheffields south western extreme all the way into the city, some 10 kilometres, about 6 of which was through woodland, the remainder, very urban but still mostly quite pleasant. I'd hinted to my daughter that i'd take a look at the 'Lego Safari' event in the city centre (think lifesize models of lions, tigers, crocodiles etc) so despite tired feet i continued on for another three kilometres to get pictures of all the models, 16 in all at 12 locations. I got back, ate and crashed!

Friday was to be travel day but not before doing a final bit of sorting of 'stuff', i cooked a spag bol for lunch - well my brother won't cook anything that doesn't go ding so it was a last 'treat' for him. I am worried about him, he's never been truly on his own before, he's always lived at home, there has always been someone nearby, now there's no one. Guess we'll see how that goes over the coming months.

Anyhoo, i caught the coach at 16.00 and started the south bound journey. The traffic was heavy, we were already thirty minutes behind schedule when we came to a halt north of Birmingham. Turns out It was the fallout from a lunchtime fender bender that had closed 3 of 4 lanes on one of the UK's busiest stretches of motorway. The traffic crept a bit, we moved less than a mile in close to an hour before it stopped altogether. When it did start moving we were a full two hours behind so instead of getting to Bristol at @ 19.30 it was after 21.30, not a journey i want to repeat.

Saturday, well i was a bit out of things after the journey down, after sorting myself out a bit i spent a couple of hours tidying up in the garden before cropping most of the root veg. A good crop of taters and beetroot but for some reason both the parsnips and carrots have come out quite misshapen and the onions are quite small. I thought we'd have courgettes but despite starting well we've not got any fruit, we have had tomatoes but i had hoped for more and as for the cucumbers, well there's something awry as the plants seem to producing string beans!

I'll do lunch soon then go for a walk, i haven't got into bike mode yet.

That's it for today, more from me on Wednesday,
Tschussie,
Madeline Anafrid