While I am doing battle with some new web software my dream house is taking shape.  The roof tiles are waiting to be picked up tomorrow and the window and door frames will be here in the next couple of days.  By next week I should be able to post a picture of the Pigeonhole and move in.

The frame of the first wall of The Pigeonhole is ready and waiting for the cladding.  If we have another dry day tomorrow the first wall should be up with the other three in place before the weekend.  I'm taking photos at every stage but the new blog won't be launched until I have something to show you. 

I have to confess that I am past my sell-by date and I was beginning to feel that there would be no point in starting anything new.  Climbing up from my hut on the beach was beginning to be a slow and exhausting business so I have put it on the market.  At my age, I thought,  perhaps I should just accept a bit of stiffness, put my feet up and pick up my knitting.  Then along came my daughter, 'What you need,' she said,' is a hut in the garden.'

Only twelve days since my last entry but already a hidden corner of the garden has been cleared, the footings are in and the floor is laid.  At the moment all that is covered over with a blue tarpaulin but on Tuesday work will begin to build the walls.  In less than two weeks my garden studio should be ready for me to move in.  It is little more than a Wendy house, just 10ftx8ft but my ancient desk will fit in and I’ve found a very small green velvet sofa in a charity shop.  In the middle of the back wall there will be a black electric let’s-pretend wood burner stove so I can work out there on cold winter afternoons and I’ve bought a bucket full of spring bulbs as part one of rejuvenating the hidden garden. 

The next question was what to call this retreat?  All but one of the dolls’ houses I’ve built have names and each has a plot ready and waiting for its story to be written.  ‘Phoenix House’ was published last summer and will soon be launched as an ebook.

I woke this morning worrying that I was spending too much on myself but a voice in my head answered firmly 'This hut is a fraction of the cost of a new car and it be like a mgic carpet, taking  you to places you would never visit without it.'

My first task will be to publish a collection of short stories as an ebook which I shall dedicate to Jude who came to my rescue.  ‘At last you seem to be getting your life into some kind of order, what you need now is a pigeon hole.’  So there it is – The Pigeonhole.  I am now working on a new blog for The Pigeonhole and in my next posting I’ll tell you how to find it.

Sharing life with a new partner requires adjustments as you grow used to each others habits, needs and dreams.  So far we have shared a study - we call it The Garden Room - there is plenty of room for two desks, a filing cabinet, a tall bookcase and an old primary school table designed for two small children, it's just right for dumping things on as you walk past.  But that is not all.  My lovely new man has discovered the joy of painting in oils.  At first he was content to paint  in a bedroom but we soon discovered that even with a dust sheet in place oil painting on a pink carpeted floor is not a good idea.  To me the obvious answer was to move the easel downstairs to The Garden Room and find somewhere else for my desk.  No room in the house but perhaps a corner could be found in the garden?  If it works I will be very happy with the solution - - -  

New Year Resolutions

New Year resolutions are easy to make but keeping to them is another thing altogether. So far I am doing alright though getting up in the dark leaving a warm bed and sleeping husband takes a lot of will power. I have gone back to one of the two novels I was writing in 2006 and edited all twelve chapters in pencil. Now I have to transfer all this to my computer and then, in theory I should be able to go back to the world I was creating. I shall have to relearn the art of persuading my friends that although I am at home, I am actually working and gossiping over coffee is not on the agenda until the day's word count is complete!

Past and Future

2011 - a year stuffed full of events and surprises as a slice of Christmas pudding filled with fruit and treasurers, still topped with the flickering flames of brandy as it arrived on my plate. Among the raisins and cherries was the glint of a wedding ring, a silver ship, a car, a greyhound and a treasure I had always dreamed of but never expected to find, and tiny silver book. Five treasures in one year, such riches all handed to me on a plate.

The greyhound? I have heard it said that in a life time of living with dogs one will be more special than the rest and Muffin has found the key to my heart, he has been my constant companion through some very difficult years. I have never spent so much time in a car, computers and mobile phones are great aids to courting but the time comes when you want to meet face to face and courting over two hundred and seventy miles would be difficult without a car. The ship took us to far away places as we took time out to get to know each other. The wedding ring became mine in October and the book? My first novel, Phoenix House, was published in July. It is for sale on Amazon as well as in some of the shops in Dorset.
Being a new comer to all this I have a lot to learn about advertising and PR. I had read that I should have a presence on Youtube but had no idea how to go about it and spent much of the night before a pre-Christmas Book Signing in Weymouth lying awake and worrying. It was a vile day, bitterly cold with sheeting rain so few people had ventured out. Only half a dozen people came to the event but among them was a knight in shining amour. At least that is the way I saw his rain soaked coat for instead of a sword he was carrying a video camera. You can see the video on Youtube if you go to www.youtube.co/Zzippster and look for Carenza Hayhoe.
The story of Phoenix House begins for my heroine Ginny on the day of her grandmother's funeral. After a year filled with adventures she discovers that her grandmother isn't so very far away after all and that she has inherited her talent for writing. Now I have the problem of making sure I make time every day so that I can fulfill all Ginny's ambitions!

To find out more about Portland and Phoenix House go to www.carenza.net

The return of hope

The turn of the year, traditionally a time for review and resolve, so much has changed since I wrote The Fledgling. I didn’t know then it would be the last thing I would write for nearly three years for I would have neither the time nor the energy. All I could do was put one foot in front of the other and pray that I would be able to keep going as I experienced the depths of sorrow, grief and loneliness. I lived with the hope that the old saying ‘the darkest hour of the night is just before the dawn’ would prove to be true, but as days became months and months turned into years the darkness became darker and I came close to despair.
During the past year I have discovered you are never too old to laugh, love and start all over again. Creative energy has been regained and with it has come the restoration of the belief that there is nothing so bad that it cannot be turned over for good.