Londonia revisited - in 2073

Having managed to grab a few days away from the routine at home - rampaging garden, B and B etc, I finally got down to doing some of my own work. Writing has been scarce recently but my objective was to start a series of pen and ink artworks to use for the Londonia crowd funding project.

Inspired by rivers, old boathouses, the sea and my quiet lodgings at a delightful 50s house in Quimper I faced the blank page, defeated the urge to watch re-runs of Masterchef and came up with several sketches to start off the series. 

Two sketches by Jarvis (a main character in the book and recorder of Londonia 2073 life via pen and paper - no cameras, iPhones, etc...)

my temporary art studio

Going forward with back catalogue

Or, slightly forwards and a bit sideways.

Being someone who doesn't overly trust this whole internet business, I decided a few days ago to self-publish my finished books, not to attempt to sell them online - I'm still naively confident that they will all at some point grace the shelves of lovely independent bookshops - but just to have words on paper between covers.

I haven't used Lulu publishing for a long time as Londonia was taken on and published in the traditional way. The site has changed dramatically! What used to take hours is now highly simplified and efficient, even for madame Luddite. I loaded up the last edited version of Smithi and a new copy of The 158th Book pressed, ok, do it, and forgot about the order until this morning when UPS delivered it.

Although the size of the book was not at all what I had anticipated, and I'd forgotten to put my name on the cover and spine - duh! the result was rather lovely. After flipping through it, I've realised that this was a very late edit and I should have printed the one before as a chunk had been taken out on the agent's suggestion - which I didn't overly agree with. So, I'll do it again, or maybe I'll just add a few loose pages with the suggestion that the reader can choose which version they prefer. And I'll add my name on the cover, maybe even make a hardcover which I did for early versions of Londonia - buying a suitable sized old hardback book and making a mashup of the two books . . . I'll post the result.

Next up, Lulu copy of The Panto Horse End, and The Couch. 

Holding back the tide

Of plastic.

Or at least a few tiny drops in the form of household objects which I had to buy to complete the itinerary of our recently-renovated annex. People expect certain things when renting - cutlery, a bed, towels, chairs, etc, and, when it's very hot - which it is here, and about to become more so - a fan. Not doing air-con. We can't afford it, and even if we could it just always seems like you get acclimatised to then have a horrible shock being anywhere outside the room/flat/house in question. And it's an environmental nightmare, something that should be used where people need it in order to actually stay alive.

So, a fan . . . and I suppose an iron might be expected. We went off to a vide grenier - (car boot sale/garage sale) and I was most gratified to be able to re-house a lovely, seemingly unused iron and nice chunky fan dating back to perhaps the 90s, both items in super working order and five euros a piece. A boring tramp around one of the hyper-elec goods stored was evaded, and we bought a beautiful pair of ancient, super sharp secateurs and baby onion and beetroot plants, carefully wrapped in newspaper bundles from an amazing elderly couple who probably never ironed anything and if they had a fan it would have dated from around 1946 and still be in excellent service.

The occasional usefulness of annoying things which can lead to marvellous encounters

In this case - unbelievably useful and very marvellous.

I suppose most of us suffer from insomnia from time to time - or a lot, or never. There are people, like Mark (husband) who reaches a seemingly profound sleep after a few seconds, his hands announcing the waves of slumber as his fingers twitch as if still on the piano's keys from the pieces he has played throughout the day. However, he experiences his insomnia in the early hours, often waking at four or five - five has become quite a luxury . . . 

I have phases when I drop off like a tired dog to stay asleep for a good seven hours (perfect for me) but more often it takes some time to switch off my mind, or I'll wake at the fearful three in the morning when all fairly manageable problems distort into a theatre of darkness and I lie awake staring at the dim outlines of the beams above me adding the fact that some of them look distinctly bowed and surely unable to support the floor's weight upstairs . . .

If the non-sleep is very stubborn I'lll try migrating to a sofa or another bed - if there is no B and B guest in it.  :0) I used to try sounds of thunderstorms, crackling fires, and meditation - which I still use a lot, but more as a daily routine whatever state my mind is in. Then I discovered audiobooks. I've always had a stock of comfort CDs such as Lord Peter Wimsey or Dickens, but The CD format is not ideal as the disc has to be changed, and not having got as far as an audible inscription I had a meander about on Youtube to see what was on offer. 

One of the first books which presented itself in a fateful way was The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, read by a certain Steven Red Fox Garnett. Fateful as this was one of my childhood go to books, its text and visual imagery so incredibly atmospheric; a comforting story of gentle triumph played out against a backdrop of wind-wuthered moorland and beautiful gardens - the perfect antidote to my life in grimy North London. As soon as I heard the Mr Garnett's voice I was mesmerised, listening to the whole book - without dozing off - and then again on subsequent insomnia nights more as a comfort blanket, waking briefly, lulled by knowing where the story had got to and then extending a finger to stop the recording if I felt sufficiently sleepy.

I keenly checked what else Mr Garnett had recorded and was excited to find he had completed Dracula in its unabridged form - a feat! This is an extraordinary work, the voices utterly believable, just the right amount of music and snatches of sound effects to add to the tension. I found the voice of Van Helsing to be incredible coming from the reader's 30 year old vocal cords, not a wisened, elderly Swiss doctor from the C19th.

Other favourites so far:  a wonderfully creepy rendition of Lovecraft's The Colour of Outer Space, and Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlett. The voice of Sherlock is spot on with again, just the right amount of background sound effects - hooves, grandfather clocks, old typewriter, chinking plates, etc.

So . . . I got to thinking about my own books and the fact I am not writing much for than the odd blog post currently due to a face pain thing which allows me only short bursts on screen - not conducive to writing as one never knows if one is about to be stabbed in the jaw bone/teeth/scalp, etc, making concentration on a storyline somewhat fractured. 

I wondered if Mr Garnett might consider reading Londonia, or any other of my works, and thusly contacted him. It took a while - he's busy, and probably suspicious of such offers, but finally we got there after he read the copy I sent him, and he was duly hooked. He's made a great start, deciding to work on the narration first and then add in all the voices and sound effects/music later. Even just listening to the narrated chapters without dialogue is extraordinary for me. All those words I'd partially forgotten, hidden in the pages of a book that I wrote, edited, re-edited, proof read, sent out to agents, and which was finally published by the marvellous, Tartarus Press.

Mr Red Fox has an impressive catalogue of titles ranging from children's favourites such as the Velveteen Rabbit and The Little Prince through to a recent and impressive recording of Alice in Wonderland, Animal Farm, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and many more. I'm proud and very excited to think of Londonia being added to his list, and am more than looking forward to how he will tackle all the voices - of which there are many. 

His YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@redfoxvoice/videos

I am putting together a crowd funding for Londonia as an audiobook and will re-blog when it's up and running.

 

Good year for the roses - as Elvis sang (Costello)

It is in fact the most incredible year for roses as well as all other blossom - here certainly, and I hope where you are too.

The crumbling garage is blessed with a pale yellow tea rose which ambles slowly up its stonework, usually giving up with an almost audible sigh as May moves towards June. This year it is as showy as a Liberace rhinestone suit - blossom deeper in colour, almost golden with a faint scent of darjeeling. I've tried to capture its beauty on film but it's almost impossible - maybe just something to place in the memory drawer of the mind.

All flowers seem twice as big as usual. We must have had enough rain, no heavy frost and sufficient sunlight over the last couple of months. I'd love it to stay like this but glancing at the garden hoses while trying to locate a paintbrush this morning, I suspect we'll be in for another summer of heat and dryness.

Camper vans have started to emerge like angular, swaying white snails along the main route to Saumur, the Loire already at a late summer level. Business as usual while the climatologists rightly state for perhaps the 40th year or so that we are heading in a more than worrying direction.

 

Modern 'agriculture'

Our rampaging garden/land is situated between several large fields - some of which I think can no longer be termed 'fields' more stretches of ground utterly devoid of anything natural - including the soil. 

The ground to our left has been scraped away, levelled; rows of raised 'soil' created, sprayed, layers of sand and fertiliser added, industrial radishes grown and removed - incidentally, the abandoned plants, of which there are many - sometimes around a third of the plants - never get touched by the local rabbit and deer population - all of it ploughed up again, faffed with, more fertiliser added, plastic put on, thrown away, irrigated during hot, windy weather, and so on . . . and so on . . . the sheer amount of diesel used, roundup, and general wastage is astounding.

The 'fields to our right are mainly corn which are cattle fodder and require astronomical amounts of water as soon as summer gets going, but at least the 'farmer' who owns or rents that land is trying out a 'no dig' policy and so far no spraying has occurred. 

The fields to the back of us are thankfully mostly pastureland and are left to grow along with many wild species of flower/insects etc. Cattle grazing has its own problems but at least the land is mostly left alone, and trees/hedges left in tact. Between the pastures are other fields which I have been observing with growing incredulity since the winter months. Ok . . . so . . . the farmer has employed no-dig so that the maize roots have been left in the ground, so far, reasonable; then they sowed broad beans which I assumed were for cattle, sadly not for humans. The beans grew to late flower stage then the farmer sprayed the whole lot with round-up before planting a new maize crop between the dying bean plants. Uh? I assume he'd heard that no-dig was a new thing and employed it, and that beans add nitrogen to the ground, so had sowed them to improve the impoverished 'soil'. But to add weed killer on top and then sow corn . . . all destined for cattle which will then be slaughtered having dined on round-up . . .

                                                               round-up and new maize plants

Thank the Lord of green stuff that we have pockets of sanity in the form of excellent organic veg growers in the locality. And . . . when I get more time, we shall have a bit more than beans and lettuce in our own veg patch. 

our back garden/wildlife zone 

a few meters away next door - the next crop of radishes, plastic and non-soil

Work in progress, and the tenacity of nature

Finally, the main work has been done on our renovation  project - which has cropped up on this blog from time to time.

Now it's down to the outside details - ponds, courtyard, rampaging garden, etc. To remind me, wonderful family, and friends who have helped so much with this ongoing project, here are a couple of before-and-afters.

Below. Remainder of dilapidated bread oven with tree firmly rooted in it, to home-made, rustic and actually very functional BBQ area.

With regard to the tenacity of nature - this hazelnut tree was cut back drastically four times, then torn out by its roots (sob, but we had no other option) from the old bread oven, then to sit on the ground for about three months while we dealt with the rest of the building. 

A while back, our lovely workaway helper (Christopher) suggested re-planting it - just in case it would re-grow, despite having no real roots left. He went ahead and a couple of weeks later the second photo demonstrates how keen the tree was to continue its life!

BBQ area

Below, back courtyard with very damp and unpainted wall to nice sitting out place - still work to do but the main stuff has been dealt with