This is Why!

I felt I had to post this, it's two e-mails received from my husband, Bob. Yet more evidence of the stresses and strains inflicted upon one through airline travel. This is by no means an unusual occurrence for my poor husband, and easily explains why he's usually stressed when traveling… ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..... E-mail sent Saturday 25th August: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Hi Heather, So the plane flies us into London on the big British Summer Holiday weekend. The August Bank Holiday weekend. Down thru the clouds, out of the clear blue skies and sunshine. Down thru the clouds Down thru the clouds Down thru the clouds ................The clouds don't stop until the plane is 50ft off the ground! It’s dark, grey, overcast and drizzling. Miserable! Oh well, this is the English summer holidays. So the world and his wife, their 3 cousins, and their dog, are all at Heathrow airport... Along with the entire world contingent of wheel chair warriors, all crowding in to take part in the Paraplegic Olympic games (that I also timed my travel to co-inside with) I'm in awe of these amazing people and their incredible talents, I just really didn't need to be traveling through the airport the same time that they were ALL arriving... So I have plenty of time to one finger this update into my blackberry as I stand waiting in the long winding line. That every so often the prison guards come to extract anyone who is within 1 hour of boarding time. The rest can expect many fun-filled hours stood in these regimented ranks of the downtrodden, under the watchful eyes of the warders. Oh well I will keep waiting, and people watching. See you later, Luv Bob, …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...... Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Hi Heather, So... after an hour or so. A prison guard stands in front of the drill yard and calls out that all the prisoners who had been told to stand in line to await their sentence, if it was for the crime of wanting a boarding card, then you had received an incorrect sentence. We should have been sent to another prison So after waiting in another line. Finally I got my boarding pass. Less than 90 seconds. Great now I have been moved to a new line, where we wait to be let ride up escalators, where you wait in another line to be let ride down escalators. To wait in a line to…! (I think this must be a modern version of Chinese water torture, but I won't crack). Occasionally another prisoner can't take it, and breaks ranks to makes a break for the plane. hmmmm.... But the warders are to good for that. And they were only looking for an excuse to make an example of him. I am keeping low profile waiting my chance to slip away un-noticed, into the sanctuary of the frequent flyer lounge. (I hope I don't have to wait for the cover of darkness to provide cover, I would miss my plane) I only have 8 hours to plan and execute my escape before the last rescue plane gives up and leaves at 15:00 hrs. PS, if you get this message, send food and a file for the bars. Luv Bob, ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Daisy's Book

So, I thought it only fair, to let you all know that my book will not be published until the end of the year. I've stumbled, clumsily across so many complications of late. There's so much more to publishing a book than just writing it. The writing of a book truly is the easiest part of the whole process. That being said, I don't think the problems with my book launch will particularly interest anyone, so I won't elaborate on it any further. I do, however, realize that this will be a huge disappointment to the millions of you out there counting the days until my book is released… just kidding… I wish! Meanwhile, as the finishing touches are applied for the publishing process to begin, I'm working about 20 hours a day on the second book. Needless to say, the consequences of this are the need for a larger pant size. Sitting for hours and hours do not favor a slim figure!

Thank God for my beautiful horses, without them I don't think I would leave the house.

I'm beginning to understand why so many writers become hermits. It's so easy to live in your writing. In my case, my book is non-fiction, so I'm basically living in my past, I'm not sure how healthy that is either, especially when I'm writing about so many of my dumb blunders at sea. A life at sea will test you in every way possible, I believe that I failed so many of those tests. Fortunately I'm able to laugh at myself, and make fun of much of my stupidity. However, I'm not slow at making fun of others either. People do some really dumb stuff on boats, there's little you can get away with, without witnesses when you're living the watery life! :o)

Happy Days :o)

Daisy I'm Coming Back

As Bob makes all his preparations for his circumnavigation, I have to do my bit, even though I'm not doing the trip, there are still several jobs for me to do. In 21 days I fly out to Grenada for 3 weeks, I'm going to be varnishing, don't forget I am, the varnishing queen! At least I am to to Captain Bob. According to Captain Bob no one can varnish as well as me :o). I'll also be packing up as much of my "stuff" on the boat, as I'm allowed to carry back with me. This will be a huge relief for Captain Bob and my brother Paul, who was astonished by the amount of crap I had on the boat. It took me 5 years to completely fill every single little space on Daisy, and I'm going to have just one trip to empty it. I may be giving the Islanders a lot of things. But one thing is for sure, when I'm done Daisy will be a lot lighter, and sit much higher in the water, LOL I haven't been on Daisy since January of this year, it's going to be strange to go back, but I'm really looking forward to my time at Le Phare Bleu with Bob. We barely see each other these days, and we're not going to see much of each other over the next 2 years. I'm really quite happy living in Atlanta now. My days are so stress free, I barely know what to do with myself. I've had so much stress for so long I'm still adjusting to my easy going lifestyle. Apart from taking care of the horses which I love, and running all over Atlanta with my camera, photographing butterflies and plants, I spend my days mostly working on my writing. If everything goes to plan my first book will be published by the end of this month. I'm already half way through the second book, and I have plans for a third. So, while Captain Bob is making his watery way around the globe I'll be busy writing, marketing and shamelessly promoting my books. My first book is titled "No Fixed Address, Tales from a Reluctant Sailor" and will be available on Amazon and at Barns & Noble. My web site is currently being built, details will follow, and Nic and Robert are helping me plan a book launch party at their studio in October. So much happening, and so far all of it good. I'm hoping to find other fun

things to write about when I'm in Grenada, so watch this space :o) Back soon...

Reptile's in Atlanta

What is one to do for entertainment in Atlanta on a day when the heat's soaring to over 100 degrees?  Well I would think that it's obvious really, take a drive outside the city with Nic and her friend Holly, to a Reptile exhibit, where there were a million heat lamps burning brightly in a room filled with hundreds of every kind of reptile and critter not to mention some of the scariest looking people, and the heat inside exceeded the heat outside…  I really didn't think that was possible.

The heat in the exhibit soared as more and more people came in,  and when I say it was hot, I really mean hot.  If we were slightly sweaty before we entered the exhibition, we were soaking when we left.

The experience was bittersweet for me, because I love gecko's, snakes, lizards etc, but I'm terrified of spiders, and there were lots and lots of them in the exhibit, thankfully for me (but not so much for the spiders) they were all safely contained,  but I have to add that I really don't like seeing anything in a cramped plastic box where it barely has room to move, even if it is a spider.

The exhibit had so many incredible gecko's, some of them were really friendly and cute, whereas some of them were freaking out poor things, there were some amazing and colorful snakes, from tiny little worm size things to huge 15 + foot long Boa's.

 People were walking around wearing their pet snakes around their necks like jewelry,  I wasn't impressed, I felt as though they were exploiting the defenceless creatures, and I couldn't help but feel so very sorry for them, but that's just me, I love all creatures, but I also believe that most would be happier being left in their natural environment instead of being draped around someone's neck.  Truthfully though I have to say I don't know what scared me the most the people or or the tarantulas?

Nic's friend Holly who has several vivariums and critter tanks, bought a beautiful little gecko, rescuing it ( I felt) from further exhibits and road trips.

Nic and I resisted the temptation to set up a vivarium ourselves, we both loved the Gecko's, but weren't sure we could deal with the insects required for feeding them.
Then we saw the beautiful little rain forest frogs, so colorful and so tiny, tiny, tiny, unbeliveably cute, no wonder Bob and I were never able to spot them in the jungles of Panama, no matter how hard we looked, they're about the size of my fingernail, you would almost need x-ray vision to spot them.  We also loved the baby bull frogs, so colorful, fat, and adorable,  we actually very nearly came home with some, but thankfully sensibility took hold and we left the exhibit empty handed.

It was a hot sweaty way to spend a Saturday afternoon, but a really fun and different one,  I'm so glad I went.  Holly's little gecko is now called Gunther, I'll see if I can post a picture of him…

Life in Atlanta is turning out very different to how I imagined it would, but I'm loving the change.

New Stuff !

Well it's been a while since I wrote my last blog, sorry about that.  Life has been really busy, and a little difficult, in as much as I've been trying to get everything organized and tidy in a house that is quite small and has no storage other than a small attic, and I have so much stuff…  It's been a little like trying to pour a gallon into a pint pot.
I'm still not as tidy as I would like to be, and I'm missing a guest bedroom, an office, and an art room, but I have the best kitchen I've ever had, love, love, love my new kitchen.  The 3rd bedroom sort of doubles as an office and a guest bed, all be it with a futon, or sofa bed rather than a real bed, which according to Danni is bloody uncomfortable and much like sleeping on the floor :(  and my dining room is mostly used as an art room.  Improvisation in motion here.

The back yard is really tiny, a small space squished in between us and the house next door, but I've still managed to plant 17 tomato plants, 5 pepper plants of various types, basil, tarragon, cilantro, parsley, squash, zuccinni, 2 eggplant's, spearmint and rosemary.

We have banana trees growing on our back deck and a couple of days ago we had a fabulous Regal Moth stop by, Nic and I were very busy with our cameras taking splendid photographs of the incredible creature.

Regal Moth, or Royal Walnut Moth

I'm learning my way around Atlanta slowly, but I have to say the drivers here are the worst I've encountered anywhere, they're so rude, and I've seen more accidents in the last month than I've seen in the last 5 years, it's certainly made me sit up and pay a bit more attention while I'm driving.

Travis and Sultan are happy (I think) in their new barn, it's a small family owned barn, nothing fancy, no indoor arena, but lovely people that give excellent care to the horses; along with various other animals, an enormous pig called Princess who freely wanders the property and sleeps outside of Travis and Sultans stalls, and there's a goat called Billy, and a hen called Elane.   I could write a children's book about this place.  There's no grass on the property but the best, beautiful hay, so my boys are happy munching on delicious green orchard/alfa,alfa hay.  

Having almost organized myself in the house, and settled the horses into the barn, I'm now planning on putting a photography show together for the Fall in Nicolette's studio.  I have so many amazing photographs from all my travels, so we'll see how that goes.  

More later...

Postponement...

This is stretching itself out to be the longest move, with numerous complications and interruptions.  I'm still in Columbus waiting for Travis to recover before we can trail him down to Atlanta.  The morning of our planned move he was limping around with apparently sore feet following a shoeing the previous day. He's looking better today, so unless we have another catastrophe overnight we should be able to leave tomorrow, but who knows, when dealing with horses nothing is ever certain.

I keep thinking "once I'm settled", of course it could be possible that I'll never be settled, this is quite simply the way my life is,  just one chain of events after another that will permanently keep me busy doing things other than what  I actually plan to do, always preparing and planning for something but never actually doing it…

With luck I'll get the horses safely to Atlanta tomorrow,  and then the next faze of my peculiar life will begin.
However, with regard to my many plans, I'm not holding my breath...

Almost Back To Normal

Life's been so totally crazy for me over the last couple of months, and I have to admit I'm quite exhausted.  I've really missed my writing while I've been busy packing, clearing out, house hunting, and moving, and I'm so looking forward to getting back to posting again regularly.  My blog will have some changes though as my life's about to do a total ass over tit about turn… From a wind blown yacht bitch sailing around the Caribbean, to a hippy, happy, artsy, Atlanta hopping Daisy on land…

Me posing outside the home I'm hoping to win, in Serenbe
 (thanks to Edi who has entered my name every day for 2 months)
fingers crossed, I think I have as much chance as the other 2 or 3 million entrants… LOL

Tomorrow Danni and I move the horses to their new home in Atlanta Georgia, which will be the final phase in the 13 stages of the "Morgan move".

I've rarely stopped to take a breath over the last few months, and moving into a new house that's much smaller than the house I moved out of, has been quite a challenge, but I've found that a positive attitude really helps.  My new house with Niki, is really cute, and I have quite possible the nicest kitchen I've ever had, including my kitchen at Morgans Run.

We're right in downtown Atlanta, and despite my reservations about living in a hugely built up area I love it, the neighborhood is nice, the neighbors are really friendly and helpful, and I'm only a 6 minute drive from IKEA, a store I've frequented regularly over the last 11 days.

Despite an emergency root canal performed right in the middle of the move, everything seems to be falling into place finally.

I'm excited about getting involved with Nic's studio, and I'm already planning my first photography show, which will be the next item on my agenda, I'll post photographs of the show (when it happens).

In the mean time, I'll be on the road tomorrow, transporting Travis and Sultan to their new home, hopefully the weather will be kind to me, with no horrific storms or interstate pile up's and long traffic delays.  One can always hope...

My fabulous new kitchen under a deluge of boxes,
this was not even half of them!

Atlanta, Georgia, I'm on my way :o)