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.

On the Road

Friday, 16 March, 2024

It seems like we are continually on the road these days. The commute from our temporary accommodation to the house is becoming a chore despite the scenery en route. The landlord wants us to empty the house of our belongings so he can start work on the place, so we have to box up anything thing that is remotely salvageable and take everything else to the dump. Despite masking and gloving up, our chests are beginning to suffer, and we have had to remind the landlord that we can't "spend every spare minute in the house clearing things"  as he would like. We have our health to think of, as well as laundrettes to visit, rubbish dump trips to undertake, food shopping etc. I can feel my resilience lowering with each successive day...

Anyway, here are some road videos and photographs I've tried to entertain myself with today.

The daily drive to our house:

Pics taken en route to the rubbish dump:

Driving home:

At least there were two rays of sunshine to lift our moods today. The first was meeting a couple of friends from my work, who gave us an amazing gift to help us through our trying times - thank you, I love you all. Secondly, there was the more literal ray of sunshine. For the first time since all this nightmare started, the sun came out:

Showering Monty

Thursday, 13 March, 2024

Drying Monty after a shower

Another tough day. Met the landlord again. He seems to think his insurance will be able to help with our short term accomodation needs and we should learn more about that tomorrow. Bad news is that he needs the house cleared of ALL of our belongings before work starts repairing the place. And he needs us to do it quick. Including the attic!

Back at the trailer now, with just two more pages to get print ready before I can chill for the night.

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!

fudjcat chillin'

Nothing takes you out of your stressful situation better than
putting yourself into someone else's.
Continuing work on my 2025 novel, Familiar.

Carnage

Monday, 11 March, 2024

Here are a few pictures of the carnage. The worst part of today? Having to throw shelf after shelf of signed books, collected over many years and at great expense, into the bin!

Burnt to a char and still a smile on his face. I'm gonna be keeping this
fella no matter what he looks like after a scrub.

The cause of the fire - faulty electric socket wiring

Our digital clock

Our once bejewelled bedroom ceiling light

Our bedroom TV

The view from the bed

Our telly

My old Jaws shelf, videod here just the other day

Our bedroom fan

The plants in the front porch, however, loved the burst of heat.
I've never seen this Jade looking so good!

Caught the highest tide of the year briefly as we drove back to Mumbles after house-sorting:

We saw something strange as we approached the Airbnb then. Dont Ask! But it ended with a furious dog chasing me from the scene:

Been a busy day but can't complain when there is still time to chill with fudjcat and a good film - The Black Phone. It's our last day in this Mumbles holiday let tomorrow. On Wednesday we relocate to a cheaper caravan/trailer down Llanrhidian for a couple of weeks. Our landlord reckons it will take at least 6-8 weeks to make our house habitable again...

fudjcat

 Sunday, 10 March, 2024

Me and fudjcat

Fudjcat"s favourite pastime is watching TV:

Accommodation Decisions

 Saturday, 09 March, 2024

We've settled into the little bungalow we have hired for a few days whilst we find somewhere slightly longer term to hang out whilst the landlord does whatever landlords do to get their houses fit for human (and cat) habitation at times like this. Who knows what the next few weeks will bring,.. "We've had an idea of how to make the best of things whilst away from our home, but we'll need to see if our son agrees when he comes back from his overnight stay with friends today. I'm hoping he agrees, though.

Anyway, it is certainly a time to count our blessings, so I will start with gratitude for the fact that we live in such a beautiful part of the world. As a photographer, the joy and comfort I receive from the landscape are immense, so I thought I'd close this update with some of the locations where we have been making our decisions these past couple of days. I am in no way a religious person, but despite everything that has happened lately, our family is still blessed.

This is the village where I grew up. My Mum's house has poor internet, so we parked up here to search for temporary accommodation where we can recuperate from life:

We have moved to this side of the bay for the next few days. Our usual home is on the other side of this bay (see the land to the left of the pic in the background.

Fudjcat Chillin'

Friday, 08 March, 2024

Stayed at my mum's on the day of the fire. Spent yesterday staying there looking after our surviving furbaby, Fudge, between viewing what is left of the house with our landlord, taking The Soosh to the vet to arrange her cremation, sorted out my meds (which may have been ruined by the electricity being switched off as they need to be kept refrigerated at all times) (the health team are getting to me on that on Monday), visiting my doctor as I needed antibiotics for my illness, and finally arranging where we are going to stay for the next few days whilst we take stock and move on. We are now a little off-grid for a few days whilst we take stock of how we move on from here and lick our wounds. Fudj looks like she has overcome her anxiety as she settled nicely in the Airbnb last night.

Sweet Dreams, Sushi

 

Heartbreak

Thursday. 07 March, 2024

Lost The Soosh to a house fire tonight. Heartbroken and homeless.

Jaws

My Updated Guy N Smith Collection

 Wednesday, 06 March, 2024

Our Garden Fox is Getting Brave

 Tuesday, 05 May, 2024

GNS Reading Graveyard Rendezvous with One of His Creations

Monday, 04 

Models for a fotoshoot for my upcoming GNS zine: