It’s Friday, which means it’s time to unite the Catholic bloggers of le world! I’ve been in a very strange mood today, which ranged from excitable before I left the house, lethargic and dreamy mid-afternoon when I was walking through heathland, and super productive this pr/evening. This week’s host is Carolyn, so pop on over there to see what everybody else has been up to 🙂
~1~
I’ve been on holiday! Rather last minute, an old friend of mine invited me on holiday to Suffolk with her family. It’s been an incredibly filled week, with the four of us going out every day, and me using the spare moments before and after to write my CampWriMo novel. In case you didn’t notice, I’ve also been blogging every day of this week to make up for the skewed schedule when my laptop charger failed on me.
~2~
We’ve been to a lot of animal sanctuaries, including one where the goats there didn’t know the meaning of enclosure. The adults simply jumped over the fence as if they were show horses, whilst the kids…oh, the kids were adorable. They wriggled under the fencing to meet us and ended up walking all over us for cuddles.
~3~
I tried lobster for the first time! (And learnt how to properly eat an artichoke.) In spite of my not being a fan of shellfish, I actually really like the taste. What can I say? I’ve always had expensive, quality taste… Lobster, caviar, champagne… *noms* Seaside fun, eh?
~4~
The fact that my friend is almost encyclopaediac in her knowledge of animals and insects meant that our activities focused a lot on farms and bug-seeking activities. At the camel farm, we were able to ride a pair of dromedary. This makes my second time. 🙂
~5~
However, there was always time for my activities, including seeing a couple of monastic ruins – as well as a living, breathing cathedral, which had, the day we came, been setting up for the town’s flower festival the following day. So God blessed us with seeing the flower festival for free! And there were some ingenious and gorgeous displays.
~6~
Oddly, it’s always the summer in which I feel the loneliest. Although I promised I wouldn’t watch so many Steam Powered Giraffe videos whilst writing, their beautiful ballad Honeybee exemplifies how melancholy I can get. Watch, if you like, and pray for me.
You didn’t have to look my way; your eyes still haunt me to this day. You didn’t have to say my name, ignite my circuits, start a flame.
~7~
My novel is coming along nicely. I…reached 50-thousand… Okay, I say it hesitantly, because I’d already written a chapter and a bit (~5K) before I started, and the plan is at the bottom of the Word doc., too. So not completed NaNo yet. But feel free to celebrate prematurely. I know I will, with my 2K-a-day plan.
An extract from the end of chapter 21, where Cathy is sick of her New York guardian’s resistance to go in all guns-blaring to rescue her fiancé, from whose kidnapper she’s just escaped:
“Well.” Charles emerged, in his hands a jade number in a thin velvet with a high neck and gold brocade across the sleeves. “Here.”
Cathy sucked on her lips, and reached one hand to her hair. A hairpin had slipped loose even as they’d wandered the way from Westchester. No wonder her hair lapped at half of her face, whilst the other half still climbed up the top of her skull. Even the ringlets had let themselves down and faded. Whilst she had certain ability to place her own hair, she would need a maid for this complete mess.
She unplucked the last three or four pins and the wave of chestnut filled her entire sight, until she tossed the two woven sides behind her ears, pushing them from her skin. Her hair draped down her back. The feeling was unusual, but not foreign. To sleep with one’s hair up would be too irritating.
“Thank you. I can find my own lodgings from now on.”
“Cathleen.” A warning tone that would take no rebuttal as its answer.
Alexandrina Brant 
Congrats on hitting 50K!! *parties quietly with you* But it’s not done yet? I hope you keep going. I’ve never done NaNo (I so need to try it one of these years) but Mime did and she wasn’t quite done at 50K but she kind of lost momentum. And I wanted to read her book, so I kept bugging her to finish writing it. (She did and it was awesome. Hehe.) YAY FOR GOATS. I have to admit I’m not a fan of lobster though. Or actually…any sea food. The only seafood I’ve ever liked was battered and fried squid at a Chinese market once. It was delicious. Probably had something to do with the batter and deep frying….lol!
No, not done yet. Only my YA mysteries are as short as 50 (and I’m even rewriting one to pump it up to 55-60K now). According to my WIP page- *investigates* -I’d like to be 80K, which would make sense, since my Fantasy Romance has also settled at that length. But I don’t think I’ll make that on the first draft. Having alpha readers is always a good incentive for writing. I think H is the first full-length novel I’ve not had alpha readers for/posted on a writing site, though my short stories I tend to write without alpha readers, because that’s a lot more difficult to sync writing and sending.
Yay for GOATS!
I LOVE fish dishes now (though I used to really dislike them), but I don’t like shellfish. Lobster is the weird exception. Mmm, deep frying. Bleh, squid. xD
Hm. I don’t think I’ve ever had lobster. I should remedy that. I do love shrimp though. Goats, not so much. Unless they’re kids, because then they’re adorable. My grandpa had goats when I was little, and I named one of the kids Rosy Dozy, which is kind of embarrassing now. I think it was a distortion of the “Does eat oats, and mares eat oats” rhyme. Ha!
Weirdly, I don’t actually really like shrimp, or crab, for that matter. I guess lobster is a slightly different flavour – and it’s texture isn’t too gross-chewy!
Yes, kids are adorable, and don’t mind adult goats, either. They can be a bit head-butty, but they mean well as long as one has food. I’ve never heard of that rhyme. Sounds fun, though 😀
Thanks for the comment!