The long silence is the result...

... of work on a major funding application. Approximately 40 pages of documentation, plus 20 pages of original prose and 8 pages of other writing samples.

It's eaten almost all my spare time, like a shoal of pirhana stripping a cow before it can breath. Most days I stop only to eat, breathe, fetch water and use the (non-composting) loo.

Oh, and to earn the yankee dollar at corporate towers inc.

D Day is May 30th - I've got most of the documentation done, and 15 pages of the original piece - that gives me approximately 20 hours to finish the trickiest part, revise and proofread. I won't be able to redraft the samples - they'll just have to be good to go...

eeek!

June 2 - If I make the deadline, I'll be lying in a meadow full of flowers and flies, talkin' to sheep and drinkin' beer.
June 2 - If I don't make the deadline, I'll be in bed at midday, eating cheese and contemplating a messy suicide attempt

Wierdest feedback from a creative writing class ever

"are you sure they had dogs in Shakespeare's time?"

What I did on Saturday

This is a Harris Hawk, and an unexpectedly up close and personal encounter at the magnificent Kielder Water Bird of Prey Centre at Leaplish Water.

Definately worth a visit - Owls of all sizes from Scops to Eagle(or "itty-bitty to ****** HUGE!"), sweet natured vultures, a chatty kookabura, eagles bald and golden, kestrals, falcons....

(The hawk is the one with the tail, I'm the one with the goofy grin.)

Northern Trains Haiku

Imagine this on continuous scroll in LEDS at the end of the carriage transporting me from Hexham to Newcastle.

"The Next Stop is Metro Centre.
This Train is for Newcastle.
This Train will call at Metro Centre and Newcastle
where This Train will terminate.


Poetry in motion....