Day 168 - It might be time to hide. xx

Monday 17th June

Another glorious day on the island with lots of warm sunshine.  I think we must be hogging all the lovely weather in the UK.  We really must learn to share.  I have been into the tunnel to hose down the inside for two purposes.  The first being to kept the atmosphere damp to prevent red spider mite which does a lot of harm at this time of year.  The second is to keep damp spaces for my little Bertie, the toad.  I need to keep him in that tunnel.  I want to take a picture so you can see just how enormous he is.  I am assuming he is that big because he eats a lot of slugs.  Good boy!

Home school this morning and a continuation of our design work but this time getting behind it and producing a costing analysis.  The boys have run their own micro businesses for years so they know all about costings.  They spent a long time on the task and are quietly confident of impressing Molly.  That said, we did have serious debates about how much cat food a hedgehog eats a day!  Hedgehogs are now on the critically endangered list and the boys want to rescue as many as possible.  This is fast becoming a serious task.  The usual Monday spellings later and home school was finished for another day. 

We have the lovely Annie coming off the evening boat so this forces a spell of housework.  I am watching the floor with interest wondering whether Max will ever get on with the hovering.  I feel some whip cracking coming on when I finish this post.  George is working away in the kitchen on a practice cake for a birthday order he has.  A triple sponge covered in buttercream swirls.  I am on standby in case of swirl disaster. 

It is my lovely niece's 22nd Birthday today so my mother and I have just taken her out for coffee at Coast.  I might as well move in there! I can vaguely remember being 22.....Helen is gearing up for her graduation next week and I was telling her that I can remember every minute of both of mine.  Perhaps the fondest memory was for my Masters degree ceremony.  I could only get two tickets so Mum and Dad had those and Pete was outside in a packed marquee wanting it on screen with our then 18 month old Molly.  As I went up the steps she rushed forward to the screen and shouted 'That's my mummy'.  How special is that?  And now, this time next year, we will be going to her graduation.  That time passed in a heartbeat. 

So a real bits and pieces day but lots of little boxes ticked.  I am looking forward to a few days off with Annie and, as the weather is set fair for the whole week, I hope to take some lovely photos of the island.  I am currently researching how to convert documents into ebooks and how to market them.  There are so many companies now offering this service showing a real explosion in ebooks.  The more I can do myself the less I have to pay someone else so I need to stick with this research.  Surely, it can't be rocket science?  I want to wrap up the Creative Arran project before October and then put that out to publishers to see if anyone bites.  Ebooks won't work for this project as, ideally, it will be image rich. Perhaps technology will allow for that format by October!  I have also managed to set up an email newsletter account for my new site One soul, many hearts.  As I see this site as a dialogue this will be an important feature. 

Speaking of dialogue I posted the Butterfly Tree film on their facebook page and this is what Jane said after viewing it 'Fiona Doubleday's commitment to helping The Butterfly Tree has moved me to tears! This is just one of many fundraising events she is holding to raise money for mosquito nets.'  Of course in accepting such a lovely comment I am doing so on behalf of all of you who have helped in so many ways.  I am about to put my little begging bowl out again for a small, but perfectly formed, team to work on the preparation for the Butterfly Tree supper in September.  So, be warned, if you see an email from me....hide!


Until tomorrow.  xx