Seeds and Nuts

I went for my daily walk early in the afternoon, today. It struck me that the weather is rapidly getting colder, so I made sure that my route took in the market that's held every Tuesday in the centre of town. One of the stalls sells items for pets, but also sells big bags of bird seed and nuts, which I like to buy for the wild birds in the garden once winter is on the way. I even have a couple of plastic containers specially purchased to store them in.

Once I returned from my walk, I spent a little while putting the garden furniture away for the winter and then dusted down the bird feeder and bird table before putting out the seed and nuts. I have them arranged so they are easily viewable from the patio doors in the kitchen. It's always a pleasure to watch the small birds feeding. It's almost like having a large number of pets with the whole of the surrounding landscape as one big aviary.

Back to the grindstone for June

After having four months off work following her knee replacement operation, June finally went back to work today. Her knee is still feeling a little stiff, so she's going back on a phased return to work and only working half days this first week. She bought herself some expensive ointment that's supposed to reduce the scarring, but as she's just started using it we don't know if it's working yet.

Not to be outdone, I spent the day lining up some possible future freelance work of my own. should kick in some time next year.

Near miss

Every now and again you hear on the news of a near miss between two aircraft. Well, I never thought that I'd see a near miss involving a bus...

I was on the upper deck of a double-decker bus travelling to York, sitting at the front. Part of the route took us past the local gliding club, just as one of the gliders was coming in to land. Because he was coming in very low, it was clear he was on a collision course with the bus. thankfully, the bus driver slowed right down and the glider missed us, but for a moment I was worried that the last you were going to hear of me was under a headline such as "Man Dies as Glider Hits Bus".

Phew! is all I can say...

What more can I cram in today?

Had a pretty full day, today.

I woke up early so I got up to watch the F1 Chinese Grand Prix. With Michael Schumacher starting from the pit lane and then having all sorts of issues during the race, it meant that the front runners actually got a chance to compete with each other and the top three were only separated by a few seconds for a change. The TV coverage could have been better, but I guess that just may be down to being used to a different set of sensibilities while watching other races.

Because that was all over before 9am, I managed to spend much of the morning doing some writing before breaking for lunch.

Instead of returning to the writing, I went out in the garden after lunch and trimmed the front hedges. I'm hoping it will now be the last time I have to do it this year. As I was into the groove, I spent some time tidying up the goldfish pond and cleaning out the header tank for the cascade. I think I should have cleaned it out a month ago as it was absolutely filled with mud. And frogs. By the time I finished, most of the mud had been transferred to me.

Once I scrubbed myself clean once more, I then spent some time working on an abstract painting I've been planning for over a week. I'm pleased with the results so far, but it will need some more work next weekend before it comes close to being finished.

I may spend some of this evening doing more writing...

New template

I've set up a new template. At the moment the comments don't appear to be working, so I need to look into that.

Please Take Note
The site URL is now www.juniper-crescent.com and all links will be adjusted accordingly in time. Please be patient.

Dane & Joe
A new strip has just been published over on the Just Adventure site.

Just to show I'm still around...
Sorry that my attention from this blog has been diverted away and onto my other blog, but with the dvelopment of my freelance writing and design career, it seems more fitting that I give that the lion's share of the attention.

I've been spending a day away from actual freelance work for a change and have done a strange mixture of things. From digging up half the garden (or so it seemed) to watching the women's marathon from the Olympics. It's a shame that Paula Radcliffe dropped out part way through. Well done to the men's coxless fours, though and the fourth gold medal for Matthew Pinsent.

I've decided that for the time being what little opportunity for comic strip creation is going to be devoted to Dane & Joe as this is the only one that's earning me money at the moment. Hopefully, I'll be able to return to the other strips at some point in the future. I hope that this isn't too much of a disappointment to those of you who enjoy the other strips.