It was a surprise to learn that my piece of flash ficiton won. Then, having to set the new challenge, I've have enjoyed reading the entries. All wonderfully creative. On Tuesday, I must pick the best which will be hard as they're all good. Trying to write. Hoping to send off my novella entry this weekend but time is tight also there are 2 short stories buzzing around in my head. Quite unusual.

Yes, you've guessed it - I've spent a day at Mother's (arrgghhh!!) with my newly-widowed aunt, and we've actually had quite a nice day. I think my aunt manages to diffuse the normal family tension a little, which can only be a good thing. Though I do suspect that the older we get, the more we do become terrifyingly like Macbeth's witches. If the rest of the family start losing body parts and there's a cauldron brewing, they will know who to blame ...

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I just stumbled across this, I think it's fantastic:

Blackle was created by Heap Media to remind us all of the need to take small steps in our everyday lives to save energy. Blackle searches are powered by Google Custom Search.

Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. "Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen." Roberson et al, 2002

In January 2007 a blog post titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the popularity of the search engine. Since then there has been skepticism about the significance of the energy savings that can be achieved and the cost in terms of readability of black web pages.....

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Trogged my way through today, sorting out agendas and attempting to look efficient and professional. Ho ho. I’ve even been brave enough to ask for papers for one of the meetings – always a scary move. Lord preserve us but some punter might even give me a set of them. Horrors! Ah well.

Posted a copy of A Dangerous Man to Lisa Glass, author of Prince Rupert’s Teardrop as we both write in a similar dark and twisted area so thought we may as well swap products. Am looking forward to reading PRT, Lisa! I’m sure it will be just my sort of thing … Mind you, getting back from the University post office was something of an obstacle race – the automatic doors refused to open for me and I had to bang on the window with my nose in order to get the attention of the person on the other side, who did at least seem able to open them. Which proves my thesis that I am indeed not of this planet. Even the electronics don’t rate me as human …

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A scholar recently visited my Allan Cunningham Project at www.Artuccino.com. How do I know he is a scholar . . . well . . . anyone who is seeking information about the history of a plant collected in New Zealand in 1838 and can lay down a sentence like the request that follows must be a scholar . . .

"When you go to the Sydney Herbarium (NSW), I will be most grateful if you will look for the sheet of the Allan Cunningham specimen of this species [Polypodium dictyopteris] for me, which might be filed under the genus Anarthropteris (Polypodiaceae) or might be filed as Loxogramme, and then perhaps as Loxogramme lanceolata or Loxogramme dictyopteris."

If you can make a request like that you would have to be a scholar, wouldn't you agree!

You never know where your journey will take you and you never know who you will meet along the way. A scholar to me is like Justin Timberlake is to a pop star fan. Well not quite but nearly. Silly I know but it's fun. Before we go any further, I must tell you that I’m not really a person who is interested in botany in a serious way. It’s more the idea of it that gets me. I’m interested in the “how” of it and the “why” of it. The idea of someone quietly focusing on a plant captures my imagination. Life is so hectic with little time to rest, some people live their lives studying plants, how interesting. Plants are so quiet and so very beautiful, as nature is.

One of the joys of writing non-fiction is the research, the serendipity of discovery. It would have been nice to report that I found a specimen of Polypodium dictyopteris collected by Allan Cunningham in 1838 only months before his death and it would have been nice to say he discovered the plant on such and such a day in such and such a place. Unfortunately my opportunity for 15 seconds of fame has flitted in and flitted out of my life, like a butterfly. Never daunted, it will remain on my list of challenges and one day I will be able to reply to the request in the affirmative because I am on a quest. A quest to tell Allan Cunningham's story.

The challenges set for my quest don't include finding a sword embedded in a rock so I can slay the dragon. Thank goodness for that! I've been given a challenge with a minor obstacle . . . time.

As time goes by and the various challenges are met and obstacles overcome, somewhere somehow, while I'm looking for something else, Polypodium dictyopteris will suddenly appear and that will make me smile.

"Jump and the universe will catch you!"


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Was much bemused by the new duck-cams on “Autumnwatch” last night. Is Bill Oddie on drugs?? Surely no self-respecting duck will allow it anywhere near them? Or perhaps we’ll have lots of videos of ducks falling about laughing as they attempt to get away from the stranger in their midst … However, it’s good to see beavers back in the land again (as it were …).

And talking of nature, Lord H and I were wondering about whether we should have some sort of purpose in life, apart from running around looking at birds (us), attempting to write (me) and avoiding being social (him – well, us really, to be honest). He did suggest that maybe we should simply avoid the issue entirely and Adopt a Porpoise (rather than a Purpose ... - groan!) instead. It would save all that moral complexities/meaning of life stuff for sure ...

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I'm writing this to Laurie Anderson's album Big Science (those of you who were around in the early eighties may remember a weird and amazing piece called 'Superman' reaching the charts...). I know I'm not alone among writers in preferring to write to music, but one of the pleasures of blogging, surfing or getting hooked on some ridiculous online puzzle is that I can do it to music with words: Madeleine Peyroux is a current favourite, and Steely Dan an old one, while I clean the house and drive to Queen and Eric Clapton very, very loud.

Real musicians can't treat music as background in that way. Equally, I can't treat words as background to words: I have to write to instrumental music, or words I don't really understand. I can understand the Latin of a mass, but the words don't snag my ears, so that's okay. And it has to be familiar music too, so that I don't get too interested. Radio 3 is one of civilisation's great achievements, but just because of that, it's no use to me in a working morning.

There's something about the patterns in the music that makes my mind work better and more clearly...

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Just been watching Dragons Den on BBC 2. One of the pitchers was a fantasy author who wanted 175 grand to invest in a film production of her (lets be honest) self published novel, Dance of the Goblins. Now firstly there is no problem with being published by a small press but the hopeful pitcher was not doing a good job of convincing the panel. She had a print run of 2000 that in all truth she did not know how many were sales and how many were stock. I suspect she paid the publisher, who it was admitted, only had his book as the other title in the catalogue, and therefore got robbed in my opinion.



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Quite a calm start to the day – unusual for a Monday really. The boss is back too, after the birth of his second child – a daughter. Named Georgina – which is a great name. The family seem to be getting some kind of sleep too, which must surely be a miracle. Not that I like babies at all – or even children really – but it is nice when people get what they want. Such a surprise in today’s world!

Have spent this morning catching up with emails and sorting out student queries. It seems to be a bad time of year for them at the moment, poor things … Everyone is sick. Heck, I can sympathise though. I also remembered to bring in my over-the-elbow black gloves for Ruth who’s off to a fancy dress party soon and needed a pair. Good to know that I have my uses at times – and even more astonishing that I’ve worn them for real in the past. Well, my old company used to do ultra-posh dinner dances and you have to scrub up well ...

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Down the road from my home is a small common field, mostly used for folk walking their dogs or a shortcut for myself when I feel shagged after a run, recently in which a bonfire has been taking shape. It’s main fodder is a deforested clump of trees, alhtough I did spot a few household items and a sofa. BTW, in this part of Yorkshire building a bonfore is called “Chumping”.

However I get the feeling I am changing into Disgusted of Tubridge Wells. Readers of a certain vintage will know what I am referring to here.


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