sundays – T E Shepherd https://shepline.com author | illustrator | digital designer Sun, 29 Jan 2017 22:24:37 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4 https://shepline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cropped-shepline-white-on-green-square_512-32x32.jpg sundays – T E Shepherd https://shepline.com 32 32 The Last Christmas Present https://shepline.com/2017/01/29/the-last-christmas-present/ https://shepline.com/2017/01/29/the-last-christmas-present/#respond Sun, 29 Jan 2017 21:15:54 +0000 http://shepline.com/?p=14089 Sunday. What a miserable day it has been today – I don’t think it ever got completely light, although if it had done then we woudn’t have noticed through the endless overlaiden grey sky and rain. We had a quiet start to the day, having porridge for breakfast and then I read whilst Emma had a second go at the Big Garden Birdwatch although I think she got more from yesterday’s hour. We decided it was too wet to clean out the animals and so we took advantage of the bird flu measures of covered (and dry) enclosures to do some remedial care to the bunnies run before heading out.

First off, we went to the carwash and hotwashed and waxed my car in the stage one preparations for selling it. Then we headed on (keeping ourselves always the Abingdon-side of our home as Emma was on call) to Go Outdoors in Oxford to look at tents, as we’d both been given money from various people at Christmas for our tent fund.

We’d been looking alot online but its hard to know exactly what they’re like, or what facility they have for under-cover wet weather cooking from the websites so wanted to see some in reality. In the end we purchased (albeit still to be collected) a Vango Icarus Classic 500 for our next camping holiday. We had £200 and although we were expecting to contribute some towards it ourselves, with end of season sales, we go it for £200 with a footprint and carpet thrown in!

It does seem pretty huge! In fact even I can stand up in the middle of the main living area without stooping, but it still feels like a tent of old rather than a canvas-caravan or mobile-cottage! Small things, but I think the thing that sold me on it were the eyeholes in the bottom of the external doors which would allow us to hook it up as a canopy (or angled canopy) for under-cover cooking during wet weather.

Next stop camping in North Norfolk and catching up with Rachel I think! 🙂

]]> https://shepline.com/2017/01/29/the-last-christmas-present/feed/ 0 The need to write; the need to read https://shepline.com/2017/01/08/the-need-to-write-the-need-to-read/ https://shepline.com/2017/01/08/the-need-to-write-the-need-to-read/#respond Sun, 08 Jan 2017 21:13:16 +0000 http://shepline.com/?p=12717 Sunday. With no work to get up for (myself), or as yesterday (for Emma), I actually got to sleep through to whenever nature decided was my time to wake. Thinking about it, despite the three weeks off I had, this might have been one of the first days in ages that I have been able to wake up in this way what with family commitments at Christmas and workmen to get up for. It was bliss; waking up to the morning light drifting in through the curtains. I came to, propped myself up and read some fore we finally got up and breakfasted.

Emma’s head/ear is still not right, but she set to cleaning out the fish and seeing to Alice who is currently living freerange in the garage (and I think making some improvement) whilst I cleaned out the bunnies and the other chickens. Around lunchtime, just as we we were thinking about lunch Emma got a callout so I made myself some bread and cheese and settled down to lunch with Gardener’s Question Time on the radio.

This morning, after early rain cleared up to be actually quite nice whilst I worked in the garden, but during the afternoon it came over all grey and murky again, and I retreated to the armchair to read 2017 Book 2 – a book that I have been looking forward to relish reading ever since I found out about it. Winter Magic is a collection of short stories by a number of great authors, and curated by Abi Elphinstone.

I’ve read the first two stories so far. Emma Carroll’s A Night at the Frost Fair was delicious, and Amy Alward’s The Magic of Midwinter was inventive in an Eoin Colfer kind of way. Next up is Michelle Harrison’s The Voice in the Snow…

Next up, all I need to do is find a time to get back to my own writing. I love reading, and I love to make time for reading but I also want and need to make time for writing. Those thirty days of NaNoWriMo seem so long ago. I need to get back to that, and finish my story of The Imaginary Wife.

]]> https://shepline.com/2017/01/08/the-need-to-write-the-need-to-read/feed/ 0 Working the garden https://shepline.com/2012/01/08/working-the-garden/ https://shepline.com/2012/01/08/working-the-garden/#comments Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:28:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=1966 I feel pleasantly tired after a hard day’s work out in the garden. After a leisurely Sunday morning breakfast, we set ourselves to digging up the front garden, digging out the self-seeded budlea bushes and removing the old water feature and its pebbles. Then we dug our rubbish garden soil over with beautiful, fragrant, crumble in your fingers compost from the compost bins and planted up Chinese Rowan tree cornered by dogwood.

Following this, and even though strictly speaking it was lunch time by now, we continued on to muck out the rabbits and the chickens, taking advantage of half-empty compost bins to compost the animal and chicken poo.

When it came to making lunch, it being gone 4 o’clock by then we decided to have our dinner early instead and Emma cooked us the tuna and pasta bake from the Slimming World magazine, which we consumed, along with Christmas Pudding for afters (to make up for Emma missing hers on Christmas Day) whilst watching my friend and web clients, new National Geographic archaeology programme:

Now, we are settling down for a lazy evening and the enjoyment of tonight’s episode of Sherlock.

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