another gorgeous weekend

Current work: outlines and plotting
Listening to: Beethoven piano sonatas
Reading: Milly Johnson, A Summer Affair (finished on Saturday - great ending!) and Jennifer Crusie, Anyone But You (this was utterly brilliant – perfect Sunday morning lie-in read while trying to stave off the lurgy… and I had a spaniel cuddled up in the crook of my knees, so I enjoyed Jenny’s Basset/beagle combo, Fred, even more)

Great weekend. More or less finalised one outline on Friday; did a bit more on Saturday morning, then DH’s best friend and his wife came over for a barbecue in the afternoon. Was lovely just to sit in the garden with a frothy coffee and natter. (OK, so the wine came in later…)

Spring has definitely sprung. The tree in our front garden is just full of blossom.

Sunday was a research day. Dragged DH and the kids to Bressingham Steam Museum. Reason being, they have Victorian gallopers. This one (a three-tier set of gallopers) was built in the late 19th century by Frederick Savage of King's Lynn.

Littlest thoroughly enjoyed these, and I was able to chat to the staff about exactly how a fairground organ works:

They also have narrow-gauge steam engines. The one through Alan Bloom’s flower gardens was particularly nice – bluebells, lots of butterflies, rhododendrons (have also earmarked Blickling as needing a visit ASAP as their rhododendrons are stunning) and acers.

The engine went round on a manual turntable. Think this brought back memories for son (who was a huge fan of steam engines when he was little).

There was also an exhibition of Dad’s Army (hmm, only UK readers will understand that; it was a long-running sitcom set in World War Two around the Home Guard, for readers outside the UK). And they mocked up shops and banks and offices… Unsurprisingly, the sweetie shop was a major hit with my two.

And there were static exhibitions of trains, including one that stunned me. Would you believe this was a train carriage?

Or this?

Actually, these are royal carriages from the early 20th century. Fabulous, aren’t they?

Popped in to see my stepmum on the way home; and then a chilling-out evening with DH while I wrestled in my head with the plot of the other book and found large box of tissues (note to self: on way home from school run this morning, pick up fresh lemons and another large box of tissues, and chicken soup).

The new book is definitely taking shape. I have a proposal scene to outdo anything I’ve written so far. Just need to do some research on paper tapes and pianolas. And I need two more research trips, preferably this weekend. (Poor DH. They did agree, however, that yesterday's trip was great fun and this book gets the thumbs-up.)