… when photographing wildlife, is that it’s important to blend into your surroundings, to avoid startling the animals.

What do you think that squirrel is thinking?

More views from the mobile writing retreat…

Dumbarton Castle isn’t your typical castles with turrets, a drawbridge, and moat. It’s basically two massive rocks with steps (a LOT of steps) and a few builings and cannons dotted about.

This is the entrance to the ticket office.

And here are some of the steps on the way up.

And a few more…

You get the idea!

Here’s some of what you can see when you stop to catch your breath.

It’s a lot like writing a novel. There are a lot of steps, it takes a while, seems like hard work at times, but when you get to the top, or end, it feels as though you’ve achieved something. I still have a lot of the uphill part to do with the current book, but I’m getting there.

We are now in Scotland! Here are a few photos from the mobile writing retreat (campervan) showing our journey so far.

I’m making progress with the writing too. I’ve finished the first draft of book four in my Little Mallow cosy mystery series. There are still some gaps to fill, and plenty of work to do, but I’m getting there.

Did I mention that we’re heading for Scotland in the mobile writing retreat (campervan)? Well, we are but I managed to convince Gary that Wales is almost on the way, so we visited Bodnant Gardens. Twice actually, as a vehicle fire on the motorway meant we only had an hour and a half the first day, and that’s not nearly long enough.

According to Gary’s fancy watch, we walked for just over ten miles in the gardens over the two days. In my defence, that does include a trek to find pasties, as the first cafe we tried had sold out.

I’m not telling you how many photos I took, except to assure you, it wasn’t as many as the total word count added to the latest novel.

I think Bodnant is probably my favourite garden to visit. Can you suggest anywhere which might push it off the top spot.

Gary and I are now touring in R’ten our campervan, also known as the mobile writing retreat. Our first stop was just up the road at Mottisfont Abbey, and then a family visit, as a kind of warm up.

If you’d like to keep up with where we are, you can look out for ‘views from the mobile writing retreat’ on Facebook and Bluesky.

I have a story in the current issue of Yours magazine. If it seem familiar, you may have read it before in Take A Break’s Fiction Feast. When a story is bought, it’s common for the company to require the right to republish the work in any of their publications – and Yours and Take A Break are both owned by BAUER.

I’ve not been making much progress on my latest novel over the last few days. That’s because we’re having a new office fitted. That would be disruptive even if it was all going well. It is NOT going well!
The garden on the other hand is blooming lovely and time spent out there never fails to cheer me up.

We’ll be off on our travels soon (although not quite as soon as we’d hoped). I’ll be taking Little Mallow with me, in the form of the draft of the fourth book in my cosy mystery series. As I’ll also be leaving it behind in a more literal than literary sense, I popped down to take some photos of the view from the beach this morning.

The ladies swimming are braver than me! I don’t mind the cold water (I’ve been in when there’s ice on the beach) but I like it to be a a lot less wavy!

If you’re wondering exactly where Little Mallow is, then sign up to my newsletter (link in the right hand column) and you’ll recieve directions, and a special edition of the community magazine.