Maloney arrival!

Really, people, could yesterday get any better after my fabulous hole in one (um, did I mention that already?)?? Well, apparently, yes: when Lord H came home, complete with congratulation flowers (what a super-hero indeed!), he found a box of Maloney's Law copies on the path (the postman must have been tired, poor love ...) hot off the press from PD Publishing. Triple hurrahs and let's all throw our hats in the air! My baby has come home!! I then spent several glorious minutes ripping apart the box, taking out all 18 of my babies and clutching them to my bosom whilst crooning. So no changes there in my reaction to getting author's copies then ... The sad part comes when I have to send them all out again as review or thank you copies and in one case to my hugely patient competition winner - hope you enjoy the read, Tony! Though I will keep one or two just to hug in the long winter evenings. As you do.

Anyway to today. Lord H and I have trundled off to Warnham Nature Reserve near Horsham and had a pleasant couple of hours wandering round the very beautiful woods and lakes and staring at the usual suspects (ie a wide variety of tits, finches, ducks, herons, etc etc). The weather was a tad too muggy and headache-y for me though, so after a late lunch we came home via Mr Waitrose. I think I might even manage to fit in a nap this afternoon - a woman in her prime can enjoy several, you know.

I'm not sure whether I'll get round to Hallsfoot's Battle, but we'll see. I don't want to overtire myself after all ... And there's comedy on TV tonight, so hurrah for that. Oh but there's sad news as the glorious Paddy Burt who always does the hotel reviews for the Saturday Telegraph is retiring today - shame!! It's one of my favourite columns and, honestly, I feel I've grown up with that woman, and I'll miss her hugely. It just won't be the same on Saturdays after this. Sigh.

I've just finished reading Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch's poetry collection, Not in These Shoes. Um, something of an enigma really. There were some poems I really loved such as (amongst others) Grandfather Clock, which took me right back to the good parts of my childhood, the punchy tragedy of Give Me Another Word for It, which had me reeling, and the wonderfully surreal Snowstorm, which I hugely related to as (sadly) I do collect snowstorms. (I even have one with the old Pope in it, you know - well, I need all the help I can get). But there were way too many things about the sea (if I ruled the world, I would ban all poets from writing about the sea - enough already, please!), and there was something about the collection as a whole which just didn't hang together. It put me on edge. I think I would have liked to see a chapbook for this one, and maybe wait for a collection to gel at a later date. Or maybe that's just me? Anyway, if you read it - and it comes with 60-70% recommendation, I think - let me know.

Today's nice things:

1. Getting my author's copies of Maloney, hurrah!
2. Warnham Nature Reserve
3. Napping
4. TV.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website