Bank Holiday

The hot weather seems to have disappeared into the ether, it is so much cooler now. Actually it's the right temperature for the time of year. But we're still hoping to have a BBQ this weekend - a treat after gardening. A very kind friend of ours has given us 4 trays of bedding plants to put in - with 50 in each!! I reckon I'll need a drink or two after that. It's Spring Bank Holiday weekend - so it might rain. It always seems to rain on bank holidays. Or is that just here in the UK?

On the writing front I'm now on chapter six - while I'm still waiting to hear from my ed about the first three chapters. I hope she doesn't ask for too many changes. None would be nice. Fingers crossed everyone.

Barbecues

Did you all see Marilyn's absolutely fabulous recipes yesterday? My mouth drools simply thinking about them. And here is my promised one for a divine sauce to go with cooked chicken, chops, sausages, etc. I had it out of an old cookbook years ago, which has since disintegrated from much use.

1 oz (25g) butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
4 tablespoons tomato ketchup
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 level tablespoons mango chutney - chopped
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon French mustard

Melt the butter in a small saucepan, add the onion and fry gently until tender without colouring. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for two to three minutes and serve hot or cold with any simply cooked barbecued food.

It is much cooler here today in the UK - so BBQ weather it is not. But writing weather it is. Blake and Kara still haven't even kissed - but it might happen today!!!

Weather

It's been barbecue weather here today - while I've been stuck inside sat at my desk. Not that we had a BBQ - but DH did shift it out on to the patio. So that's a start. Last year we did not have a single one.

Has anyone got any good BBQ recipes they'd care to share? I have an excellent one for a BBQ sauce/dip that I'll dig out and post next week.

Happy weekend everyone.

Writing

No writing done today. I went to my art group this morning - where I've started a painting of a castle rising out of the mist. A bit tricky this. Maybe I ought to imagine Kara and Blake there - except that it's in ruins. But a scene in the moonlight? Mmm - food for thought.

And this afternoon I 'attended' a webinar run by Harlequin on the subject of - blogging, which was both interesting and enlightening. You'll have to let me know whether I improve over the coming weeks.

Kara & Blake

I hadn't realised that it had been over a week since I last blogged. How very naughty of me. My excuse is that I've been having in-depth conversations with Kara and Blake. Kara is Blake's PA and she has personal problems that he knows nothing about and she intends it to remain that way.

We'll see!

The good news is that I've now sent the first three chapters to my editor - so it's the waiting game to see what she has to say about them. I'm pressing on with chapter four and at this precise moment they're on Blake's own personal jet heading to a conference in Rome.

Aren't they lucky?

Another animal story

Forgive the title of this post. Fish aren't animals. But this happened on Saturday and it was very funny.



We decided to go out for the day into Wales. For those of you who are not aware of it Wales is very much sheep country. In the distance we could see a snake of traffic coming towards us, hundreds of cars it seemed. It was a long winding, hilly road and it was not until we got closer that we discovered the reason for so much traffic going slowly.



A lamb!



Strolling along slowly, looking a little bewildered, but nowhere for him to go. The hedgerows on either side stoppd him fleeing into the fields. Poor thing, he was completely out of his comfort zone. I bet all the drivers in the queue wondered what was going on.



This photo is not of the same lamb, it was one I took a few years ago, but he's very cute, isn't he?

Fish

Shock and horror this morning. My DH opened the curtains and looked through the window, gave a cry of distress, and was out of the house like a shot. Half naked! We have a pool in the garden - OK, maybe a pond - but it has at least a dozen fish in it. And for some reason the water had leaked out. He yelled out to me, 'The water's all gone and the fish are lying dead on the bottom.'



A slight exaggeration - but there was only a couple of inches of water left and the fish were gasping. Fortunately we only lost one and the rest are happily OK. Some are goldfish but some are koi and cost a lot of money.



DH thinks the leak is somewhere in the stream that feeds the pond. Actually the same water gets pumped round and round, so it might be in one of the hidden pipes. He's not yet had time to explore. But yes, it was a shock. We'd actually had a lie in, would you believe, so it brought us fully awake very quickly.

Contest winners

As I only had three entrants in my contest:

Denise Yen

Joy Isley

Mary Ann Derbin

I am going to send a copy of Married Again to the Milionaire to each of you and I thank you for entering.

Joy and Mary Ann I have your addresses. Denise, can you please send me yours. And I'll send off the books asap.

I've started my new book but it's fairly slow going. My heroine is the beautiful Kara, who hides her light under a bushel, and my hero is Blake. She has been working as his PA for over two years without him noticing her. But things are about to change...