• We are so used to using computers and software now that incremental updates pass us by. I use a mac, so sorry if you are one of those windows users. I’ve just noticed a search box marked search history on the bottom right hand side of my Safari window. (Safari is my web browser)

    I typed in something I’d been looking up recently and it instantly brought up a coverflow selection of the websites I’ve visited recently that are related to the subject. Amazing!

    Not just a list, but good sized images of the sites. Not just saved images, but live connections to the sites so as I flick though them I can see if they’ve been updated. For a visual person like myself, this is so much better than drilling down through a history of URLs, generally broken down into days and weeks. I can never quite remember when I last visited a site.

    How many other brilliant innovations are there on my machine, that I will only find by accident? I suppose it was mentioned in a read me document or a welcome to the new look Safari video somewhere, but who has time to go through all those?

  • How does he do that?
    How does he do that?
    I’ve always wondered how puffins sort the fish they catch so that they stick out of the sides of their beaks in that nice, orderly way.

    I just heard a bit of kerfuffling on the roof of my studio. This is usually either cats, squirrels or blackbirds looking for grubs in the leaf litter. A minute later I was distracted by a movement outside my window. A squirrel clung to the trunk of the willow tree, that is about twenty five feet away. It was flicking it’s tail as if to get my attention. Then I saw it was carrying two apples in its mouth, arranged beautifully, like a puffin arranges its fish.

    I scrabbled around, looking for my camera, telling it to stay still for just one more moment. The camera does not zoom that far, but by cropping and enlarging in photoshop, you can see what he was up to. Once I’d got the shot, he shook his tail and disappeared.

    The birds have been acting strangely this morning too. Flitting around the pond in an agitated state – mostly tits and dunnocks that have been invisible all summer. It must be the equinox – a message has been triggered in their brains. “Get ready for winter!”

  • I seem to have so much to distract me from getting on with things – or am I really looking for things to do rather than get on with the job?

    I’ve mentioned before that I’m starting out on a new eight book series. This involves a lot more writing than I’m used to, so its a bit daunting. I dived in and wrote the first two stories, but knew they weren’t right, even before my editor said so. But that was good. It was a start and showed what was wrong and pointed me back to the original intention – the series was bought two years ago – I’m only now writing it, so its taking a while to rekindle the original inspiration.

    Thinking time is the hardest thing to justify when you work from home. Staring out of the window or going for a long walk does not look like fruitful labour. But it is necessary. Having spent most of yesterday fiddling about with my son’s car and other seeming useless endeavours, this morning I find my mind has been working on the problem all along and half an hour with my sketchbook has moved things along enough that I feel ready to have a go at a new first draft.

    The pressure is starting to build for cover designs. I need to plot out the stories and know the characters fairly well to be able to get on with the covers, which may well be designed and promoted before I finish writing all the texts. The plots are building and I feel confident it will all get done, but there is nothing like having a draft for the first book that everyone likes, so that is what I’m about to get started on… in a minute… when I’ve made a cup of coffee…

    The stories involve a bit of boys own stuff which I feel I should research properly, to the point where I might video what I do for the blog. It’s not easy finding something to write about every day, y’know?