Jo here, with Charlie playing butler in what I'm calling the Baronial Hall. :) More about that later.
I found my fountains and have two going, one outside, one inside. My Woodstock chimes are hanging -- inside, but where they can catch a breeze from the sunroom door.
But I still have stuff. A lot less stuff (I've been throwing things out. What was I thinking to bring them?) and I'm finding homes for things that I have to keep. Like books. Books aren't stuff anyway.
First there are my books -- my archival copies of my books, plus my extra copies of my books.
They used to be on spacious shelves in the basement. Now they're in bankers boxes against a wall in the sun room. Should I call it the solar?
This baronial hall doesn't have a basement -- the house does, but that's not the same -- but it is spacious.
Why the "baronial hall?" you ask? Because the apartment comprises some modern amenities plus the grand dining room and a semi-grand anteroom of an Edwardian mansion. Here's a picture of the dining room before the stuff moved in. The dining room is now my main living space.
It's paneled all around, but some is covered by more books -- my wall of research books. I brought the bookcases with me. They're not quite up to the oak paneling, but what's a writer to do?
Of course, I trimmed down my collection quite a bit. That's painful, but there's a lot of material up on the web now, so I don't need the text for occasional reference. I also had a lot of books from way-back-when which were fact checkers. Again, so easy to find on the web.
Apartment living. It's been a while, but if it has to be an apartment, this is the sort for a historical romance author, that's for sure!
In addition, life's been quite exciting since arriving here.
First there was a fire in a house across the road. (Can you tell I've acquired a new camera? LOL!)
Then, as if to enhance the old style ambiance, two young deer strolled by my dining bay window yesterday. What's a baronial hall without deer? But I promise not to try to roast any in the enormous fireplace.
It's the end of Canada Day here now, so I hope all Canadians had a wonderful one. We walked down to see the fireworks.
To all you Americans here, have a great Fourth of July.
If you're from another country, what's your national day, and how do you celebrate it?
Writing? Writing? You expect me to be writing? I'm getting back into the flow of The Secret Wedding and we've just come up with the cover, which will be lovely and much in the style of A Lady's Secret, though different. That won't be out until next April, however. Believe it or not, a year between books used to be normal. What do you think about frequent publication? I know we all prefer our favourite authors to write a book a month, but really, would you mind waiting a year for most authors to produce a new book?
I know I didn't pick a winner from last time. None of you really took up my challenge to identify one piece of clutter and, especially, get rid of it! So I'm awarding a book to Lindsay for a second hand sighting of Hugh Laurie. Pity there weren't pictures -- instruct your boyfriend in case of future luck! -- but it was worth a prize. Lindsay, e-mail me about it.
Happy celebrations, everyone.
Jo :)