The Creative Diary of Chris Elphick: Cats

Showing posts with label Cats. Show all posts

A New Chapter Begins...

Monday, 22 April 2022

Well, we finally left the caravan park this morning:

And moved back into the city. With a 3 month contract on a house about a five minute drive from our proper residence on the top of the hill:

It's Official! Back to the City We Go

Looks like our old pwscat will be on the movement. Life in the caravan down Llanrhidian Holiday Park has been good, but it's not ideal longish term for three adults, especially the travel time needed for work each day. And so, thankfully, we have finally found an available house available for rent until a buyer is found and the transaction is finalised. And so, this is officially our final week in the caravan. I wish I could enjoy it more, but I am back at the office to do the work of 'The Man' on Monday :(

Catweazel by Richard Carpenter

I really enjoyed watching this TV series in the 1979s. And rewarding it on Network DVD a fews years back. I'm also enjoying this novelisation and quirky illustrations. It takes me back to simpler times. Magical nostalgia at its best.

4/100

Wednesday, 03 April, 2024

It was another quiet day with just me and the pwscat. The writing for my GNS zine is going well, and ideas are unfolding fast.

I have also decided on the project that will replace the second edition of Avalon (postponed after May's visit to Glastonbury needed to be cancelled due to our housefire). More on this soon...

Day 3/100

Tuesday, 02 April, 2024

A really bad hayfever day, spent on my tod in the caravan as my wife returned to work this morning and my son has been working for a good couple of weeks now. I say on my tod, but I did have this little one's company. Though she was't too pleased with my constant sneeze and gave me a good old grumble everytime I sneezed.

As I will be publishing a previously unpublished short story by Guy N Smith in my tribute book to him, I designed a cover pic for the piece. The story concerns a dog who guides his owner through a treacherous swanp. I am quite pleased with the result:

Day 2/100 and a Laundry-time Meander

Monday, 01 April, 2024

Day 2 of my Guy N Smith 100-day-project. Working on the introduction of the Guy N Smith zine under the watchful eye of fudjcat.

Whilst staying at the caravan site, we doing our clothes washing in the landrette, the cycle lasting 30 minutes. With that in mind, we took a quick drive to the local pond on Cefn Bryn, Broadpool, catching the sunset there perfectly:

Returning to the campsite with a good 10 minutes to spare; we parked the car up outside the laundrette and crossed the road to photograph the sheep that were gathered near the roadside gate:

The sheep were very inquisitive and friendly and even allowed me to take a short video of them:

The Entrance to Llanrhidian Holiday Park

The evening light really has been kind to us since we have been staying in Llanrhidian, as as we left the laundrette with our washing, we were even rewarded with a huge rainbow over our caravan:

Day 1/100

Sunday, 31 March, 2024

Day 1 of my 100-day-project to produce a tribute to my favourite author, Guy N Smith. Before the first day comes to close, I want to have completed typing up Guy's hand-written story, Toby's Way, which will literally be the centrepiece of my one-off GNS zine...

And with my work on the GNS project competed for the day, I sat outside the caravan to do a little work on my next novel, Cold Comfort.

Never mind working on my writing,
I should start work on losing that belly

Peace

Sunday, 24 March, 2024

Peace. My favourite thing in the world right now.

We decided we needed a day away from the house today. And with beautiful sunshine being the order of the day, I enjoyed a nice little sit down outside the caravan in the afternoon :)

I finally put Cold Comfort to bed in the evening. I won't lie, this novel was a bit of a beast to write and is definitely the longest of my novels.

An early morning sesh

Friday, 22 March, 2024

An early morning writing sesh. Just a couple more days and Cold Comfort will finally be completed.

The Soosh

Monday, 18 March, 2024

We collected Sushi's ashes today from the vets. The bottle of her fur caught me a bit off guard.

Work on clearing our belongs and taking fire, geat and smoke damaged items to the tip is progressing. There is not much catching my eye enough to take my mobile phone out of my pocket now and photograph the place, but these two images seemed worthy of capturing:

Our landing ceiling with burnt detectors and lightshade

Sunset at our burnt house

On the way back to the caravan, we stopped off at the layby near my old childhood home in Penclawdd and took these pics to share with you all:

Rest

Sunday, 17 March, 2024

Today, we are taking a break from the house for our health and sanity. Here's Fudge sleeping as I continue working on my next novel this morning. Remarkably, it's still on track to be published at the end of this month!

And whilst leaving the caravan site's laundrette this afternoon, I came across this fella. It looks like fudj is not the only cat on this particular block.

Moving On and Settling Down

Wednesday, 13 March, 2024

We have now moved into this trailer, which is located very close to my childhood home in Penclawdd:

Last Day in Mumbles

Tuesday, 12 March, 2024

This is our last day at the Mumbles Airbnb. We picked up the keys to cheaper accommodation today on the other side of the peninsula before heading to our house and clearing more of the damage to make it safer for the builders who start work there next week. Fudjcat has settled in nicely here, so I hope the upheaval tomorrow doesn't upset her again. We've transferred the last of our Japan savings (we have had to postpone most of this year's planned trips), so we can hopefully afford to stay at the caravan/trailer until we can move back into our home. This should help ease fudjcat's anxiety and let her settle for longer. Loathe to post here without any pics, so here are some parting pics of Mumbles, all taken from the car as we drove to and from this particular let. These include some daytime shots of that strange scene I happened upon the other night. Onwards and upwards!