Workplace

The clearing of my desk went something like this:

I have a three tier filing tray. The top tray is for anything pending, filing, something interesting I want to keep, etc.

The middle one is for anything connected with my website.

The bottom one is for my current work in progress (though usually this remains sitting on my desk right in front of me)

The top tray was about four inches thick - it is now about half an inch. So that is good.

The middle tray has halved in size as well. A lot of stuff has been shredded. In fact it's a wonder my shredder hasn't stopped working due to overload. I was thinking about this - my shredder must be about twenty years old. It's a Rexel - so three cheers for Rexel!

And the bottom tray is empty - oh, that's because I've put everything to do with my book behind me on our grandson's high chair (The chair lives in here with me because there's nowhere else to put it. Ditto his box of toys. Ditto the treadmill.)

This is the most cluttered room in the house, but it's also the one I feel most comfortable in. If I turn around and look behind me, my three bookcases are overloaded. Every now and then I send some books to charity but they still keep piling up.

This is my work room and I'm entitled to get it a little untidy when I'm working on a book. Which is most of the time. At least that's my take on things.

Am I the odd one out here? Does everyone else keep their workplace as tidy as the rest of the house?

Revisions

The revisions are finished and are now with my editor. So once again it's clearing out the office time. How does so much paperwork accumulate? The answer - I'm a procrastinator. My DH is just the opposite. If something wants doing it's done immediately - and sometimes I'm the one who has to do it - so how does that work? Me - I leave things until the last minute. They say opposites attract - I guess it's true in our case, but it happily works.

The Lake District

Last week I stole a few days away from my revisions to visit the Lake District and I thought I would show you a few photographs of this incredibly beautiful and diverse part of England .

This is Hardknott Pass which was a particularly exhilarating drive. I'm thankful my husband is a very good driver because it was windy and raining - and very exciting! You can see the winding road shining as the light glints across its wet surface.

In contrast a serene scene of Coniston Water where Donald Campbell once raced his jet-powered boat Bluebird.

And finally a farmhouse nestling in one of the valleys.

Revisions

I'm deep in my revisions at the moment but all is going well. So if you don't hear from me for a few days you'll know why. And I'm not sorry that I'm stuck in the office because the rain is howling down outside. It seems that our summer is well and truly over.

Spreadsheets

I've recently changed to Microsoft Office 2007 - have I told you this before? I find some things work better than the old edition and some don't, but I've got used to the word processing side of things.

For the last two days, though, I've been working on a spreadsheet and I found this very different - certainly not so easy. I've actually been tearing my hair out - no, that's not true - but you know what I mean. Why won't it do this? Why won't it do that? How do you this? How do you do that? Do you know, I much prefer reading instructions from a book than using their on screen help.

Does anyone else think the same way?

News

I've heard from my editor - just as I was starting my paperwork! She likes the first half of Blake & Kara's story, but the second half needs some work doing on it to make it stronger. I'm leaving it, though, until everything else is in order. If I don't I can see the jobs never getting done.

We've had some terrible downpours of rain today and our electricity went off for a few minutes - luckily I'd just saved the work I was doing on a spreadsheet. Because we live in the country we often have power cuts, usually only lasting a few minutes, sometimes seconds, but it can be annoying when I'm working on my computer. I've got into the habit of saving my work every few sentences. But you can bet your bottom dollar that if I forget to save because the muse is working well then that's the time the electric will go.

Life

Life is back to normal. If it ever is normal! I have a mountain of paperwork to cope with - the main one being my annual accounts which I've kept putting off until I can put them off no longer.
And while we've been enjoying ourselves with our grandson the weeds have sneaked back into the garden - so that's another job to be done.

Also - I'm still waiting to hear from my editor. In one respect I want to hear, in another I'd like the time to get all my jobs done.