Two things are keeping me busy at the moment – developing my new garden and writing numerous articles.

The bare bones of the garden are now in place and I can see what it will be like – hopefully – in a couple of years. But there are still plenty of empty stretches which will take some time to fill. However I’m enjoying seeing my new shrubs putting out their first blossoms and the apple trees, all two feet of them, coming into leaf.

And I have seed potatoes chitting on my window ledge in my writing room. Another week or so and I will be able to plant them into one of the new raised beds all ready and waiting. I have plans too, to sow vegetables in the other beds so by summer, I should be able to harvest some fresh, organic produce, that is, if the slugs and other tiny predators allow me and they haven’t fattened themselves up on my labours.

Article writing, for me, follows much the same process if, again hopefully, a good bit faster. I research my subject first, amassing piles of paper and books scribbled and marked in pencil and adorned with colourful sticky bits. Then I work on a framework, putting down bits and pieces of the most important information that I want to include; the bare bones of the subject. Next, I peruse my notes to fill out the various aspects I have identified in my framework, one topic at a time. I find that my mounds of research materials can be off-putting and I get on better if I can reduce it to manageable bits. It’s not quite so daunting that way!

Eventually, I have an article that is beginning to meet the demands of the editor or magazine I am writing for. Then to proof-reading and checking the odd fact (some of them very odd!) and a final once over before attaching the article to an email, sending it off and waiting for the response. That’s the worst bit, the waiting. Sometimes you never hear at all. My quickest response (and I’m not saying if it was a rejection or an acceptance) was 40 minutes. Scarcely time for the recipient to read it!

Once the potatoes are planted, it’s a waiting game too. Will they flourish or will some pesky pest make the most of the generous bounty planted especially for them? It’s a case of wait and see. Fingers crossed.