DIY and the church serial killer

Lord H and I put in an appearance at Shackleford Church today - not many of us there but some rousing traditional hymns, which I always love. There's something about singing which raises the spirits indeed. In the best possible way of course. It does make me smile though that the man with the wine cup holds onto his responsibilities with grim-faced determination - so you always have to grapple with him in order to get a taste of wine at all. I suspect that the Good Lord Himself would prefer one to have a rather larger swig of the goodies. After all, that's His job. Ah well. Other church amusements: the preacher got her robe caught on the pulpit steps so we nearly didn't get a sermon at all. Which would have been a shame as it was bloody good. And quoted poetry, which naturally I approve of. And in our post-service vicarly chat, the vicar hoped that our DIY phase wouldn't cause the usual stresses and strains between husband and wife. On the contrary, I told him, I'm extremely supportive of Lord H's DIY skills, as I'm actually very sweet even though I do look like a kick-ass serial killer. The vicar found this all very amusing - evidently not realising I meant it.

Anyway, we have ordered our terracotta curtains for the living room - which we're told will arrive in seven days. Much like the earth in its original form then. The woman who sold us the curtains in Homebase may not have been the best customer-friendly person in the world but, ye gods, she knew her stuff and was super-efficient. (Again, much like God, I suppose.) And really that was all we wanted. And the bathroom is finished! Thanks to Lord H's and my painting skills - though mainly Lord H's, I have to say. And it's all put back together again. It looks fabulous, hurrah! We're both extremely pleased with our efforts, and are already planning what we might do in the kitchen. Careful, people, careful ...

In the midst of all this, I have edited a couple more chapters of The Bones of Summer and am now at the start of Chapter Eleven, page 107. Once Chapter Eleven is done, that's Part One of Two out of the way. And I must say I seem to be packing a hell of a lot in. Rediscovering the story is always a surprise - it's funny how you do forget what the hell it is you wrote until you rerun it again at the edit. Still, if it's a surprise to me, one hopes it will be a surprise to the reader too.

Tonight, I am worshipping at the altar of Harrison Ford, as "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is on - and even though we've seen it countless times before, it's such a class act that we're looking forward to running through it just one more time.

This week's haiku (understandably) is:

Walls scrubbed clean, fresh paint
and white spirit: the real signs
of Spring's arrival.


Today's nice things:

1. Church
2. Editing
3. DIY
4. Harrison Ford!

Anne Brooke
Anne's website
Goldenford Publishers