writing, lenormand cards and walking the dogs

It’s been quite some time since I added to this blog and this is a very short entry because my creative muscles are stiff with disuse.

Interesting dog walk this morning. It was misty down by the river and a heron flew over just as we turned onto the meadow. Then we saw one of the roe deer on the Eyot. Isha chased her half heartedly, but neither deer not hound seemed very fussed about the event. I haven’t seen the buck since spring, but the females are still around. It’s a lot colder today, but the sky is clearing, so hopefully it will warm up later. Then, on the side of a bus shelter on the way home, the following: You are more likely to be killed by a falling coconut than a shark. Well, that’s reassuring to know as I negotiate the banks of the Thames in Oxford…

Now to sit with a cup of coffee, brewed in my new stovetop coffee maker, and try to psyche myself into writing. I haven’t done anything new since early this year. I began a third Aunt Sally plus a kind of sequel to The Sacred Marriage (though more chick lit in style), but I stopped because I designed a set of Lenormand cards in April. They have since been published and are available here, if anyone wants to see them: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/dream-inspires-lenormand   The Lenormand is an oracle that was popular in Napoleonic times and is now enjoying a huge revival. It comprises 36 cards with simple illustrations, such as fishes, house, bear, and is read in a very left-brain, factual manner – unlike tarot, which relies on layers of symbolism. After I’d completed the cards, school holidays arrived and I had to relinquish my computer to a nine-year-old four days a week. But I have my space back now and have a book to write on the Druid year: this one isn’t indie, it’s for a publisher, the first traditionally published book I’ve written for a decade.

So…I’m excited about getting down to work again, but a huge part of me is steeped in lethargy and would rather read or surf the Internet. I’ll probably be interrupted anyway: the police want to come round and take a statement from me, as I witnessed the tail end of a violent incident in the street a few weeks ago. Time for another cup of coffee I think!