30 Day blog challenge: Fail

nope - i'm grumpy and hormonal, and i'm not gonna do it, dammit!  anyway - what kind of poor, tortured soul wants to know about my day, week or month in great detail?  what are you, some kind of masochist??? 0.o  the only reason i'm planning on doing tomorrow's post is that it will give me a chance to nick an idea from @abivandenberg and do the year in blog quotes....

for now, here's another picture - this time of my favourite type of cloud:

Quote from Captain Daniel, "Flying to the north of Dresden last August (on the way to Prague), we had to deviate around this Cumulonimbus, as we were just passing, it became bathed in the setting sun." 

© Daniel Hunn.

 

(lifted from the website of The Cloud Appreciation Society)

NaNoWriMo again

so there you have it.  thirty days of slog, and here i am.  the proud author of my THIRD NOVEL!!!
i can hardly believe it, but i've done it again, and i'm a winner again! :D

and this year, i think i might actually have written something vaguely worth reading, after last year's debacle.  although to be fair, i haven't read it back yet, so time will, inevitably, tell.  but i have hopes.  not high ones, to be sure, as i'm quite aware it needs a damn good editorial kick in the arse to make it readable.  i'm also aware that since i didn't actually know who the murderer was until about the 23rd day (and this is one of the reasons that i love NaNoWriMo), there's a lot that needs tweaking to take into account foreshadowing, and certain characters' attitudes to certain things, but that's where the rolling-in-chocolate-sauce glory of editing comes in. *happy sigh*

speaking of, since it's my first snowday since i was about twelve years old (YIPPEEE!!!!) and we have about a foot of snow outside our front door, i think i might plunge into that right about now (the editing, that is, not the snow....brrrrr!!!).  but i'll leave you with the synopsis of my third novel (god, that phrase *never* gets old!!! :o):

Cirque Du Seul

It's almost time for the winter season at the Roundhouse Circus, and the performers are rehearsing hard.  When Seb, one of the trapeze artists has an accident and ends up in a coma, people are shocked, but they get on with their lives.  The show must go on, after all.  But it soon emerges that this was no accident - someone has tampered with the trapeze.  It's not common knowledge, however.  The incident could shut the circus down for weeks, and be a disaster for the livelihoods of many, many people.  So Shona, a costumier, and Bill, a morose and misanthropic clown, set out to work out who could have wished Seb ill.  And when opening night finally comes around, it becomes evident that it's not just Seb that the would-be murderer wants dead.

freezing to death in Norfolk, with added fungus.

....well...not all the time...

from monday to friday this week, we've been on our annual it's-october-and-we've-got-a-week-off-let's-go-park-up-somewhere-beautiful-for-a-few-days jaunt.  this year, it was Thetford Forest in Norfolk.  it's been a favourite campervan haunt of ours since a friend mentioned it a few years ago.  we've been two or three times, now, though not for about three years, for various reasons.  and it was as quiet and peaceful as we remembered it.   it's managed by the forestry commission, and is basically a vast triangular tree farm, consisting of mainly pine, but with a few pockets of deciduous planting here and there.  as i said, we love it.  it's so vast that despite the public access to the many many rides and dirt tracks and pathways that crisscross it, you often get the impression that you've got the whole place to yourself (well - you and the wildlife, that is...)

as usual, i took lots of pics and, amateurish though they are, i think they might give a better impression of why we love the place than i could with twenty-six letters and a handful of punctuation.  therefore, a photostory of our holiday folows:

we arrived about four-ish, and parked up in our favourite spot under the trees, almost in the centre of the forest.  in case you're wondering, Talulah isn't an all-terrain vehicle, there's a dirt road that leads right through the heart of the forest.  the potholes in said road, however, had me gritting my teeth and screwing my eyes shut waiting for the crunch of a grounding.  thankfully, hubby managed to avoid the deepest ones.

off we went for a walk down the beech avenue in the fading light...

curses!

as often happens here, we ended up stumbling back in the dark, not entirely sure of the precise path to follow, but we made it back eventually.  a little later, when we were snuggled up in bed listening to the radio, the moon came up, and shone through the skylights...

the next day, we set off again into the forest, but this time, with a purpose.  a friend had loaned us a fantastic book on foraging for and identifying edible mushrooms, and both being mushroom lovers, we just couldn't resist.

however, something had got there before us...

but!  we proudly identified and gathered a hatful of common yellow rusula mushrooms

it being October, of course the forest was full of fungus, some of it very beautiful.

i have absolutely no idea what this one is, but it was soooo pretty!

so, on return to Talulah, we had, ta-DAAAAAH!!!!

mushrooms on toast, what we had picked our veryownselves! (*whisper* if i'm honest, they were a little bland, but salt and pepper helped, and the pride of foraging, identifying and cooking wild food adds a piquancy all of its own) accompanied, for me, at least, by yarrow tea (see top of pic), as i was developing a stinking cold, and yarrow can be very effecacious in knocking it on the head.

accompanied, of course, by a good might's sleep.

camper tip:  hats in bed = essential at this time of year - the wind was blowing straight across the North sea from Norway, and it was fecking FREEZING cold!

have to say though, the cold is kinda worth it when you get to wake up to this...

----

the next day, we headed off to a place charmingly named Wells-Next-The-Sea, on the north coast, because even we can get bored walking around a pine forest for five days, and i had very fond memories of the beach, and the deli on the seafront (which, i was sad to learn, no longer sell the delicious blueberry brownies we had the last time we were there :(

the beach, however, was as lovely as i remembered.  unfortunately, the Norwegian wind was still blowing hard.  the patterns you can see on the sand are, in fact, caused by a mist of fine grains being blown across the surface.  the effect of the brilliand sunlight on these streamers of sand was shimmeringly magical, and utterly mesmerising.  sadly, not quite enough to distract from the bone-chillingly cold wind, so we escaped into the trees to shelter from it.

a little piece of heaven.

----

it was so cold that night that we almost threw in the towel and buggered off home.  however, we decided not to, and were soooo glad that we did.

heading back to Thetford Forest, this is what greeted us:

the wind had died somewhat and, in amongst the trees, it was almost warm.  so off we went for another wander.

along the way, we encountered deer,, which we managed to sneak up on admirably (i thought) and photograph.....

 .....and this singular construction....

 it's not a sunken cabin, but one of several little constructions roofed with black-painted corrugated iron, created as a haven for the local adder population. 

and just across the way was this stunning specemin of fungushood:

we instantly recognised it.  here's one we found earlier:

these pics were taken the very first time we went there and, as you can see, these things are bloody ginormous! 

excitedly, i whipped out the mushroom ID book, and we were thrilled to discover that this was not only a parasol mushroom (of course!), but....it was edible!

we grabbed the prize, and hot-footed it back to Talulah to fry it up in breadcrumbs.

it. was. utterly. UTTERLY. delicious.

and so, with a sense of triumph and euphoria, we headed home the next day for something even more exciting than delicious wild food.

but that's the subject of the next post.........

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what i did on my holidays

...um...well...not a great deal, if i'm honest...

bearing in mind, though, that we haven't been away for a year, not doing much doesn't really matter, as we were too busy just chilling out.  of course, the rain didn't help all that much, either...  but it was nice and, forthwith, some pictorial representations:

first stop, the Headland Camping and Caravan Park, Tintagel, where the peace and quiet know no bounds.  you can just breathe in the tranquility.

that's Talulah at the back of the row - she has her roof up.  we hadn't been there ten minutes before the guy on the pitch next to us was taking pictures of his kids giving the VeeDub wave and saying "Duuuuude!" in their really tiny little voices.  sooooo cute!

then we headed off down the coast path and around the headland to Tintagel Haven.  it's one of my favourite places in the whole world - i would sit and watch the sea there for hours if i could get away with it...

as you can see, the tide was in.  the large cave in the centre of the picture is called Merlin's Cave (natch!).  when the tide is out, you can scramble over the slippery rocks in there and come right out on the other side of the headland.  this is the place hubby taught me to skim stones when we first came here about 12 years ago.  i'm pretty good at it, if i say so myself, and still ridiculously proud of being able to... *grin*

when hubby finally managed to drag me away from the border between earth and sea, we toddled off up to the cafe on the headland to have those cornwall essentials:  a pastie (for him) and a cream tea (for me).   oooh - heaven on a plate! :D

Talulah's bed, by the way, is totally awesome!

behind me you can see Mango The Rat's cage.  yup - she comes too!

later that evening, we discovered that we had a stowaway...

this handsome fellow is Spot The Spider.  a well-travelled fellow indeed, we found him in all sorts of unlikely places around Talulah, and he stayed with us for a day or two.  however, one night, he mysteriously disappeared, and hubby woke up feeling suspiciously fuller than he had when he went to sleep...

it also rained fairly hard that night.  as you can see - Squeaky is a genius when it comes to sorting out a leaky skylight...

the following day was beautiful, if extremely windy.  the pixie hat became my constant companion on this holiday - i rarely took it off, hence spent most of the holiday looking somewhat silly.  but then - there's really nothing new about that.

next stop:  St Ives. 

and the sun shone for our arrival.

(that sign we're making with our hands, BTW, is the VeeDub wave i mentioned earlier)

however, the following day...

it pissed it down. ALL DAY!!!  D:

at times like these, you make your own entertainment.  what we made was pouches for the magnets to hold Talulah's curtains up (which i'm still sewing on, BTW. a minimum of six on each curtain.  four curtains done, eight to go...*groan*).  it was a really lovely way to spend a rainy afternoon, and the time flew.

the following day, it had, thankfully, ceased to rain like the end of the world was nigh.  Talulah is lovely to spend time in but really, even i was getting cabin fever by the end of the day!

so we took advantage of the break in the weather and hotfooted it along the coast path to St Ives. 

 

...just...

...gorgeous!

there were many lovely things to be had in this ancient fishing village / haven for artists, the deli we found was quite heavenly (homemade brownies and gingerbread, delicious goats cheese, and charcoal biscuits - all organic and totally nommy!), but the little details of the town (which i believe is getting on for 700 years old) are utterly delightful.

seriously - how many places could this door lead to?  on this plane or any other?

this one delighted me beyond measure, being such a tea-obsessed slurper.  really, they ought to rename it Squeaky Street.  or possibly Teabelly Alley (a personal favourite)

*snigger*  no comment.  none whatsoever.  no cheap jokes, either.  ;)

following our days in St Ives it was, sadly, time to start making our way homewards.  but Talulah is an old girl, and needs to take her time when she's ambling around the country.  so we had to pick a place to stop for the night on our way home.  hubby, genius at picking new places to go that he is, picked a tiny little end-of-the-road place called Brean, on the Somerset coast - right at the edge of the levels.  the geography and scenery around there is awesome, but i don't think you can really appreciate its stunning beauty until you get yourself up high, and can see the whole world spread out beneath you.  we only discovered this when we climbed up Brean Down - a great chunk of turf-covered rock that thrusts up and into the sea between Brean and Weston-Super-Mare. 

look!  there's Talulah on the beach! :D

the vast expanse of sand was utterly breathtaking, and the land is just as flat for miles around, glowing with a million shades of green.

and the sun shone all day.

:)

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insomnia, storms, little brother and powerless.

as usual for a weekend, i went to bed quite late last night.  well, it was about 1:30 this morning, actually.  but i couldn't sleep. 

for three reasons.

the first was that it was hot and muggy.  about this, i won't complain.  it's inconvenient, sure, but this country can be so effing cold and miserable at times, that i refuse to complain when it's hot, as a matter of principle.  i love the hot weather, even if it makes me dopey and listless, it's still better than being cold!  also, it's the sort of weather that produces one of my favourite things in the whole world.  we spent a good half hour last night, dangling our legs out of our bedoom window watching a storm at about seven miles distance.  *sigh*  it was the first of the year, and utter bliss.  it was perfectly still, and the clouds were lighting up in the distance with that unearthly beauty you only get on summer nights.

the second was that i had a new story idea knocking on my brain.  this, of course, pleased me.  i haven't been writing a lot, lately, as i have other things on my mind, and it's kind of hard to settle to it,  but i'm thrilled that i'm still thinking as a writer, even wen i'm not writing.  to me, it's another tiny step towards that place i want to be - someone who needs to write.  (heh - in writing that, i realised that what i'm doing is attempting to cultivate an addiction.  naughty Squeaky! *grin*)  i spent a lot of time thinking about this story, and how it might go - disconnected elements i might throw in, and i hope it will be the backbone of this year's NaNoWriMo effort, but we'll have to see.  i know little about it, just how it starts and, as i said, one or two random bits that may or may not be in the middle.  it sort of stems from the description duel i was involved in at the beginning of the year.  i had an idea there might be more to it at the time, but for some reason, it started to put some roots into the story silt last night.  but i'm not going to chase it.  with me, that doesn't seem to be the way forward.  nor planning a story arc or indeed (as i think i've mentioned before) outlining a plot.  somehow, it loses the excitement of the writing.  it makes me wonder if that's because i started writing with NaNoWriMo - that heady, exciting, headlong rush down the pathways of the story seems to have set itself as the pattern for me.  i'm not a thoughtful, introspective type of person.  and, if i'm honest, those sort of books don't generally float my boat.  what can i say?  i'm instinctive, impulsive and exciteable, and very much enjoy that kind of book, too.

which sort of brings me to the third reason that i couldn't sleep.  i'd been reading a book that filled my brain with fireworks, both good and bad.  i read half of it yesterday, and half of it today.  and i urge you, as an internet user, to do the same.  the book is called "Little Brother" by a man named Cory Doctorow.  it's about  how the surveillance culture that we live in can go horribly, horribly wrong.  it's about security, and privacy, and (most attractively for me, as i always, *always* wanted to be like this) about a bunch of geeky teenagers who take on the might of The Man.  And Kick. His. Ass.  it's *really* exciting, and explains some of the arcana of the internet in a way i could just about grasp.  and it was fascinating.

truly - geeks are the future.

sadly, i think i'm possibly too old to become any kind of computer/communications geek now, and my mathematical understanding is most assuredly not up to the job.  but i have such a huge admiration for geeks of *every* stripe - not just the electronic ones.  if there's any sort of justice around, never mind the meek inheriting the earth - i think the geeks should.

speaking of books wot i haz read, i would like to bring your attention to another one whilst (or, rather, *if*) i still have your ear.  this one is the first in a YA fantasy series.  Powerless Book 1: The Synthesis is written by Jason Letts, also known as @foreverjuly .  you may have seen him wandering around on Twitter at odd hours of the day or night (he teaches English in Japan), being alternately philosophical and subversve.  he's a lovely guy, and i urge you to get online and buy the book.  i spent a short while dropping one or two reviews on amazon.com, smashwords, LibraryThing and GoodReads this afternoon.  i did it gladly and with pleasure, since i enjoyed the book, and we all like to help each other out, don't we?  best thing about the internet, i think, actually - there truly is a kind, helpful, sharing culture out there, and i'm lucky enough to know/communicate with some of the loveliest promoters of that phiosophy, who promote it simply by being themselves.  it gives me the warm fuzzies on a reguar basis.  anyway, here's what i had to say about it:

"I enjoyed this book very much. The main character is warm and giving, the supporting characters are human and three-dimensional, and the story and the world it is set in are well-thought-out, detailed, engaging, exciting and interesting. It's an excellent and thoughtful debut, and I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the series."

seriously - go buy it, and read it - it rocks!  ;o)

---

there was another storm this morning, at about seven o'clock.  right over our heads.  the thunder woke me up with a jump - the only time i don't mind being woken by sudden a loud noise.  it was absolutely lovely.  the rain had cooled the air as it hammered down, the lightning was fresh and clean, and the crashing and rumbling of the thunder was just so deliciously comfortng.  it swells my heart with bliss to remember it, and it lulled me back to sleep with a smile on my face.

.

description of a storm

currently editing Minotaur - hopefully to publish indie-style.  we'll see.  it's a lovely job in itself, though, as i get to read something i wrote a year and a half ago, with enough distance that i can appreciate it.  case in point:  a description of a storm that i just fell in love with all over again. 
jen has taken a walk over the downs on a beautiful summer day in an attempt to clear a hangover.  falling asleep with her back against a tree, she awakens to a gathering storm.  i love storms, and am likely to do the exact things Jen does in this extract - including laughing like a loon, whooping, and shouting with the visceral joy of being in amongst it...

-

When Jen woke, the day had begun to cloud over, and there was an ominous rumble in the distance. The breeze was getting stronger and gustier, and the leaves of the oak tree had gone from whispering, to an excited chatter amongst the branches above her head. She glanced around her. The shadow of a distant storm was creeping inexorably towards her. Lightning flickered in the depths of the cloud. She counted. Thunder rumbled again. It was a good five miles off, but closing fast. Better get moving. She rose to her feet stiffly, back kinked and etched with the striations of the bark she’d been leaning on for so long. She turned and laid her hand affectionately on the tree, looking it up and down for a moment. Then she turned and set off for the dark smudge on the horizon that marked the position of Harrington Hall. Walking swiftly now in the gathering gloom and wind, she was glad that her sandals had rubber soles, but unsure how much good it would do her if she was caught in the open by the storm. She was astonished to realise that her hangover seemed to have all but vanished. She took a few skipping steps to test her head. Nothing. Laughing delightedly, she took off at a run, just for the sheer joy of being hangover-free and able to move normally again. She flew across the turf on the wings of the approaching storm’s wind, which seemed to be getting stronger by the minute, her hair whipping around her head like a wild fire. She reached the top of the last rise before the hall as the rain hit her in stair rods. She was instantly soaked to the skin and absolutely exhilarated. Throwing her arms wide, she spun around and around, greeting each crash of thunder and flash of lightning with whoops and yells loosed from the very centre of her being. Eventually, she realised that the thunder and lightning were far too close together and the storm was very nearly overhead. Certainly, it was a very bad time to be dancing on top of a hill yelling like a maniac, so she turned and sprinted down the slope towards the gateway in the wall of the hall.

.

warm rock (and a video!)

so i was going to say that anyone who's been on twitter in the last few days will have noticed my unusual taciturnity and general miserable grumpiness when i was on.  but why would you, right? *blushes at own presumption*  but for anyone who was worried (bless you!) the tide of hormones has now retreated and i'm much more my usual chirpily irritating self. ;o)
so friday it was on the retreat, and i managed to drag my lazy arse out of the house to go climbing at Alter-Rock with hubby.  this was, frankly, a pathetic session.  i barely lasted two hours, climbed nothing above a 5+, and my hands weren't even sore when we came away.  bloody hell, my forearms were, though! (twanging tendons!).  headed to a pub in derby afterwards for dinner with some colleagues (remember the night out i forgot to go to? this was the rematch).  my mood took a total nosedive on the way there, though, as i had learned that my shiny new bike wouldn't be ready to pick up until maaaaybe monday, but probably tuesday, and various other little things had all crashed down at once.  however, once i got to the pub (i was early), liberal application of vodka, O...Saya by A R Rahman (from the soundtrack to Slumdog Millionaire), half an hour to myself, and sunshine had an astonishingly positive effect.  had a great night - even if it was two months late. ;o)
yesterday, the weather was beeeautiful, and hubby, astonishingly, managed to persuade me to go climbing outside for the first time in probably six months.  look, i am a*total* wuss when it comes to the cold.  i hate being out in it, and i hate climbing in it with a passion.  but i was persuaded that we should go here:

Harborough Rocks

it's a beautiful limestone outcrop near Wirksworth in Derbyshire.  it's very popular with climbers, and is particularly good for practicing trad climbing techniques, since the faces aren't huge, the terrain is friendly and easily accessible, and it's a particular kind of limestone that's pocked with lots of holes and pockets - easy handholds on lots of the routes.  it's used by a lot of groups - scouts, guides, etc.  there was a group there from Stafford yesterday.

it was so lovely.  the sun was warm, the breeze wasn't too cold, and the outcrop faces south, so it gets the sun virtually all day.  gods - i have missed the feel of warm rock far more than i realised.  maybe we should move to Spain?... 

we took all of the gear to climb trad, but ended up soloing instead (climbing without safety equipment - just shoes and a chalkbag). it was great for me.  i have virtually no confidence left after not climbing outside for so long, so i took baby steps soloing the easier routes with lots of juggy (big, easy-to-grip) holds, whilst hubby did the harder stuff.  the only trouble with Harborough is that it's so popular (also, people have been climbing there since the 1800's), many of the holds have been polished to glassy smoothness.  friction?  what's that?  had to be sooo careful!

and as we were soloing, we could please ourselves what we did.  so when i decided that i'd had enough, i just lay in the sun, or wrote a little more of my book, or wandered around on the hillside enjoying the gorgeous day.

i also spent some time admiring the perfectly blue sky - not a thing in it except for the local corvids (thank you, unpronounceable Icelandic volcano). utter, utter bliss!  i even caught the sun across my cheekbones and the bridge of my nose!  not quite enough to bring my freckles out, though - not quite yet.

but getting there... ^_^

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fair weather biker? you bet your ass!

well, well... the weather seems to be warming up, at last. out of the chilly breeze, the sun has actually been hot on my back during my cigarette breaks at work.  and the mornings and evenings are getting lighter, too.  this can only mean one thing... 
it will soon be time to get the leathers out, and put the old girl back on the road.

The Recalcitrant Old Bitch (as i fondly call her)

heh - not a great pic, but the only one i've got, i'm afraid.

so - i'm not what people would think of as a "typical" biker.  very limited knowledge of makes, models, etc.  no framed photies around the house.  no getting out on a sunday to polish her to within an inch of her life.  (um...*blush*...as it happens, she gets washed about once a year, if she's lucky..  mind you, every time i DO wash her, she develops an oil leak. so...*shrugs*)

and noooo riding in all weathers.  oh, no sireee not on your life!  or, in fact, mine.

somebody called me a fair-weather biker once.  which, as far as it goes, is true.  i am.  it was meant as an insult, though, and coming from this particular woman, it was particularly insulting.  but never mind that.

actually, yes - i will expand a little, here. 

fair weather bikers (when used as a perjorative phrase) tends to be applied to people who only get the bike out when the sun's warm and the roads are bone-dry, polish their toys to mirror-brightness, go for a ride, then head to Matlock Bath in Derbyshire (or somewhere like it) on a sunday (traditional meeting place of bikers since only the gods know when - a little bit of the seaside in the heart of the country...) in order to pose.

i am, indeed, a fair-weather biker.  but not in the above sense.

(btw, i was just running over what i wanted to say in this post, and i suspect it may be another of those loooong, rambling ones i seem to be getting so good at.  so if you want to, like, nip out and wash the dishes, or go to a restaurant, or on holiday, or something, go right ahead - i'll probably still be wittering on when you get back - i doubt you'll miss much, to be honest...)

aaaanyway - where was i?...  oh, yes...

so, i ride a bike.  but i tend to use it as a mode of transport to and from work, mostly, rather than as a pleasure-craft.  some people i know go out for a ride just for the sheer joy of it.  tbh, i can rarely be arsed with that.  i started riding about...oooh...seven-ish years ago, mainly because i finally got fed up with being on the back.  seriously - it's a pain in the arse.  (literally, in fact, if we're talking hubby's bike.  his is a chop, and the back seat is less than two inches thick, and six wide, if i'm lucky.  how the hell i did two 900 mile holidays on that terrible torture device, i will never know!) (p.s. it is, sadly no longer rideable - needed a new wiring loom and, by the time we could afford to fix it, it was knackered, so he drives Isobel, these days). 

so i started riding as an adult, with the healthy awareness of my own mortality which that (usually) implies.  also, i drove a car for years, and know just how careless car drivers can be.  therefore, i am a cautious rider, and i never go anywhere without safety gear - full leathers, boots, etc.  and bloody hell, but that takes a looong time to get on!  then, i have to get the bike out, which involves turning her around in a space not much wider than she is long, lifting her back end up to get her around a tight ninety-degree bend in the passage beween our house and next door, then usually squeezing between parked cars onto a road along which people drive like the clappers.  by the time i've done all that (and the bike is old, and, my gods, she is HEAVY!!!), i kinda need a purpose at the end of it all, like, say, earning a little money.  so she generally only gets used for work.  but that's fine, really - i suspect i enjoy my commute a damn sight more than most.  especially in the evening rush-hour, when i get to nip down the middle of the double jams, and really piss the drivers off, stuck in their metal boxes. *naughty grin*

but.... 

the flipside to this is the english sodding weather.  we have a green and pleasant land, but to have a green land, you need water.  and i hatehateHATE riding in the rain!  it fogs your visor, distorts the view, gets in everywhere there's a seam or a gap, or an imperfectly waterproofed item of clothing. 

and the roads!  standing water, diesel spills, puddles, hidden potholes, rubbish and gravel washed across the surface and DRAIN COVERS!!! 

and riding in the rain in the dark?  in rush hour traffic???  forget it!!! 

seriously.  i want to live. 

added to this, my low-light/night vision is pretty poor.  so as well as the fact that it's really unpleasant, there's the safety aspect. 

and riding in the cold?  if you've never ridden a bike (and i'm not talking pillion, here, i'm talking hands on the handlebars), let me tell you - you can tog up as much as you like but, at best, you're only going to be able to give your poor fingertips minimal to moderate protection from the windchill.  and that shit HURTS!!!  try putting your fingers in a vice for half an hour, and slooooowly tightening it, until all you can feel is the pain.  until, in fact, your whole world is the pain.  and again, if you miss even the tiiiiniest gap, that icy blast will get in.

so yes, i AM a fair-weather biker, insofar as i try not to ride in conditions under which there is a greatly increased risk of serious injury and/or death, or a chance of freezing solid and/or having to sit in wet underwear all day (i really don't reccommend it - makes your bum wrinkly).

but the nights are getting lighter, and the weather is sloooowly warming up, and my throttle hand is beginning to twitch.

i tried to start her today, for the first time since october.  she doesn't like being negleted, and refused to fire up, but the starter motor worked, so that was encouraging.  need to juice up the battery and clean the plugs, and try again.  and soon.

-

in other news...

today, i mostly did...well...not a great deal, actually.

i got some much-needed laundry and sorting-out-piles-of-crap done, taxed TROB (and i've never seen that acronym before - Trob rather suits her as a name, i feel... :o), and wandered around on facebook for a while (never been there before - i found it a little sprawly and hard to work...). 

and twitter, of course.

but i also decided it was high time i made me some lip balm, as my other one was getting low and gritty (nutmeg - all will be explained.  actually, it's not all that interesting, but i'm gonna tell you anyway..)

the recipe i got from a very nice lady named Holly Snook (i know - cool name, right? apparrently, her dutch grandfather's surname was Snoek, but it got anglicised.  which i think is a shame, but never mind), who i used as a starting point for the heroine in my current work-in-progress.  this girl is one of the nicest, warmest, friendliest, and generally loveliest people i've ever met.  and there's something oddly fey about her, but her looks wouldn't be considered fey...

...getting off the point, here, sorry...

she used to run a shop in Saddlergate in Derby called Boo - selling ethical, fair trade items of a variety of descriptions (also making miniskirts out of old neckties - soooo cool!).  tiny little place in a basement - very welcoming and always smelled deliciously of incense.  i haven't actually been in for months, but i went back on friday, as i was after some Melissa essential oil.  no joy. 

at first, i thought the shop had closed, as the board outside said Cherry Bomb Gallery, but thankfully i went to have a look before i wandered away in disappointment.  sure enough, as soon as i walked in the door, i could smell the incense - albeit fainter.  and, at the bottom of the stairs, there was the lovely Holly herself.  turns out, she's gone into partnership with some friends, as she's got an apprenticeship with a tattoo artist.  to learn how to make HANDPICKED TATTOOS!!! ancient art!  am absolutely floored with joy for her!  :o)

anyway, back when the shop was still Boo, she did little workshops on how to make various chemical- and crap-free beauty products.  i went to the one where she showed us how to make lip balm and moisturising/massage bars.  from pure cocoa butter and the like (which, of course, she sold).  i went home and tried it. 

it. is. sheer. bliss! 

forget Body Shop, forget (even) Lush.  this stuff is astonishing.  it's the best i've ever used.  and it's petrochemical free and ethical, too! *waaaaarm fuzzies*

herewith, the recipe (with tips / info included from the original leaflet, and a few of my own):

3/4 tsp wax (forms moisturising barrier - use apricot, bees or olive wax, or a mixture)

1/2 tsp cocoa butter (high in vit. e - regenerating)

2 tsp olive oil (high in vit. e - regenerating)

1/2 tsp organic honey (antiseptic, plus speeds healing)

or

1/2 tsp organic maple syrup (anti-oxidising, loaded with manganese and zinc)

plus a pinch of ground cinnamon for blushed lips, or a couple of drops of vanilla extract for sweet lips

N.B. NEVER melt butters and oils over direct heat, otherwise you will destroy all of the goodness.  use a bain marie or similar.

take a few minutes to melt the butter and wax in a small dish over hot water (the more finely grated these are, the quicker it will melt - esp the wax, which takes aaaages if it's a bit lumpy):

add the oil and honey or syrup, stir gently until all is liquid and blended.

remove from the heat and allow to cool for 5 mins before adding your flavouring. (i added a smidge of cinnamon as i'm very sensitive to it, and a smidge of nutmeg)

decant into a small pot, and leave to cool (stirring occasionally, or the honey is likely to separate out)

i tend to stir it until it begins to solidify (doen't take too long) , then put it in the fridge for half an hour to an hour, to set properly.

et voila! 

the best lip balm you will ever use - i promise! ;o)  seriously - it lasts on your lips for yonks, and makes them sooo soft - it's quite simply divine! ^_^

(added edit: it tends to be a little hard, especially in the wintertime, but if you scrape a little out with the back of your fingernail and smoothe it on your lips, it melts straight away, and works perfectly :o)

in the pic, the one on the left is the lip balm, the one on the right is an experimental solid perfume.

i used the same method, but with:

1 1/2 tsp kpangnan butter (don't ask me - i have nooo idea, but it's virtually odourless - great for perfume)

1 tsp yangu oil (see above)

1/2 tsp beeswax

melted the wax, butter and oil as described above, removed from the heat, then added 5 drops each of juniper and frankincense essential oils. 

smells divine - spicy and woody - just the way i like it!  hubby says it reminds him (not unpleasantly) of pine resin.

not sure how long the smell lasts on my skin because, of course, i can't smell it after a bit.  but i'll just stick my nose in the pot and inhale deeply anyway! XD

(added edit: sadly, despite how much wax i put in, the smell still doesn't seem to last too long. *shrugs* oh well...back to the chopping board...)

-

and now, it's late, and i'm cold, and i've been working on this post for bloody HOURS! (got distracted somewhere in the middle by a Twitter conversation involving kidnap, werewolves, tides and the moon...

so - cup of tea and bedtime for Squeaky, methinks. 

goodnight, dear, sweet reader. 

dream high and free.

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