pixie-led | Chris Elphick

Sabotage

June 1, 2023

A morning writing session sabotaged by fudjcat:

In the end I had to relocate outside away from furry intrusions lol:

Took the day off work for a photo-shoot of my exploration of the land around Swansea Airport. Found numerous reminders of the old WW2 RAF base that was once situated here too. If you want details of what you are looking at, you will have to wait a month for the publication of Explore Gower - Remnants of War. Thank's to L8 for the company (and sorry about the bog I led us into). Oh, we also heard a cuckoo!

Graveyard Rendezvous

My first GNS zines. These make for fascinating reading.

Last Day

Monday, May 29, 2023

Last day of our 1st holiday of the year. I've ticked everything off on my To Do list for May so today is just a day for chilling and acclimatising myself to the thought of returning to the office tomorrow. Still, I'm off again soon enough for a day-long reccy of somewhere I have long since wanted to explore - watch this space...

Sabat 2

Sunday, May 28, 2023

Time for book 14 of my 2023 GNSathon. After my enjoyment of Sabat 1, I though I had to stay with the man for his next dark adventure:

A Lazy Reading Kind of Day

Saturday, May 27, 2023

Guy N Smith's Sabat has rapidly become my favourite GNS book.

Hiding Interest

Friday, May 26, 2023

Pottering about in the garden, adding hidden interest for those with exploring fingers...

Wind Turbine Roundup

I don't know why people hate wind turbines. These majestic constructions are stunning, and I have always enjoyed visiting them.

Last nights sunset visit to the local wind farm was a success but the photos do not show just how chilly it was out there. As for today's tasks, the sunniest week of the year so far will no doubt draw me into the garden again, where I hope to get a good chunk of reading done. This evening's task/is to continue to trawl through my terribly messy files for suitable images for RoW. Anyway, time to crack on...

Reading Sabat / Watching Wind Turbines

May 25,2023

A fairly quiet day yesterday - the first half of which was spent undertaking a big spring clean of the house. I spent the rest of the day reading and digging out my photographs of the old WW2 radar station up on Rhossili Downs, which I shall be working on today for the RoW book. I have plans for this evening. Heading out to grab some sunset shots of something most people seem to hate but which I am particularly fond of. More of that tomorrow though...

My GNS Collection

May 24, 2023

My Guy N Smith collection of books, manuscripts, interviews and reviews.

I've started reading my 13th Guy N Smith book of 2023: Sabat - Graveyard Vultures.

RoW Progress

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

This week's shoot for RoW has now been completed. The introduction has also been written. I've also added more photographic content to the book. Gower WW2 remains covered in my new Gower book so far include those found at Clyne, Whiteford Sands, Swansea Bay and the watchtower out on the Burry Estuary near Weobley Castle. Oh, and I also finished another GNS book! I haven't yet decided on what the next book will be on this years GNSathon...

Private Property

Monday, May 22, 2023

2023 Publish Dates

The Vampire in Chains Cover Design

3/10. The second draft of Vampire in Chains has been completed, and a publication date set. The next five weeks will be devoted to my third book on the Gower Peninsula, which will be titled Remnants of War and has a publication date set in stone. I will be visiting a few locations along the old 'Gower Stop' line today on the Burry Estuary, with another scheduled Gower shoot pencilled in for May 31, when I will be spending the day sourcing the World War II relics located around Fairwood Common. With this morning's update completed, it's time for me to crack on...

Oops. But a project is a project:

These are the North Gower anti-tank defences on the Loughor side of the estuary:

Our parking spot for today's photoshoot

May Holiday, Day 2

Sunday, May 21, 2023

2/10. Well, day 1 of my holiday was lovely. It was my gorgeous wife's birthday and also our wedding anniversary. And the weather was glorious. I managed to get a lot of work done and should now be able to complete the second draft of ViC this evening. Meaning I can now do some planning and map out the north Gower WW2 anti-invasion sites I want to photograph tomorrow. Oh, how I love a holiday. The only sadness is that my meds warn that I have to keep out of the sun so I have to sit in the shade all day lol.

10 Days of Freedom!

May 20, 2023

1/10. I have been unable to put as much work into my project over the past few weeks as I would have liked. But, at the end of the day, I have to help keep a roof over our heads and food on our table, and training on my new day job has been quite demanding. But I now have ten clear days of holiday ahead of me and I am going to plough through my real work now with a vengeance. By the end of May I WILL have completed the second draft of ONB, which has now been retitled Vampires in Chains. I will have finished reading GNS' Water Rites and moved on to the next, as yet undecided, book. On the GNS front, my book detailing the joys and frustrations of collecting his and the addictive aspects of collecting is a GO and will form the main output of my project work next year. But, back to the here and now, and the next ten days in particular, I also need to photograph two separate Gower Peninsula sites for my third Gower book - Remnants of War, which I will be focussing on writing in June. With the weather looking generous for my holiday, I will also be spending some time working in the garden, so expect the Magickal Gardening website to kick back to life very soon. Well, that's me done with this update. Time to crack on...