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Breathing Space

Three-and-a-half-year old Bee is currently weighing up her career options and is torn between becoming a digger driver or a doctor. From the way she hurtles round the garden in her toy car, I’d say she needs to work on her driving skills, but she did receive a much-prized doctor’s kit for Christmas so I can confirm that she does very thorough examinations. She’s especially good at ears which is not surprising given that she’s on a long waiting list to have her adenoids removed and suffers with earache and hearing loss.

Shortly after my consultation with Bee, I take myself to my local GP because I’ve been laid low by the seasonal lurgy and a pain in my ribs which makes it hard to take deep breaths. It seems that I’ve coughed so much that I’ve damaged the intercostal muscles and the only cure is to take it easy for a while.

My first reaction is one of frustration; last year I ran 777 miles and my plan this year is to run 1000. With the Llanelli half marathon less than a month away, I’m worried about the effect on my training but there’s nothing to be done, I just have to be patient.

It’s taken me years to figure it out, but I’m beginning to realise there’s no point in banging away at closed doors. Professionally, I was disappointed last year with sales of my novella, Moonbeams in a Jar and suspect there isn’t a place for my gentle, small town fiction in the current market. However, I thoroughly enjoy my freelance work writing house stories for The English Home so I’m delighted to be working on a new commission for the magazine. The February issue, out now, has a feature on a particularly enchanting Sussex home which was a joy to write so it’s very satisfying to see it all come together.


Photographer: Jake Eastman
Styling: Lou Eastman

This year, rather than following the crowd or constantly measuring myself against other authors, I’m following my heart with my writing and giving myself some breathing space. As early in the year as it is, I’m already rediscovering the joy of writing and having fun again. The same goes for reading. I’m an avid reader and I’d be lost without my Kindle which enables me to take hundreds of books with me wherever I go. However, my enforced inactivity has reconnected me with physical books; I’ve had the luxury to sit down and enjoy the sensory delights of a real book and have especially enjoyed these:


Reveal. Interior Design as a Reflection of Who We Are by Harriet Anstruther (with more photos of her magical Sussex home as featured in The English Home Feb 2019)

The Almanac. A Seasonal Guide to 2019 by Lia Leendertz (recommended by Frances Oakley https://www.instagram.com/fgoakley/)

Poetry of Presence: An anthology of mindfulness poems edited by Phyllis Cole-Dai and Ruby R. Wilson (a birthday present from my dear friend, Julia McGuinness) 

Sussex (The County Books Series) by Esther Meynell

And finally, after recovering from my lurgy, I had the enormous pleasure of spending a morning with this little lady, our fifth granddaughter, a second daughter for my stepson Tom and his wife, Amey. Many congratulations to them. Welcome to the world, dear little girl.


Comments

Maggie Christie said…
I hope the ribs are better soon; that festive lurgy was a horror. Congratulations on another granddaughter! That's a lovely bit of news to start the new year.
14 January 2019 at 04:41
Chris Stovell said…
Thanks, Maggie. Cor, wasn't it? I hope you are on the mend too! We must rearrange our coffee date (snow forecast at the end of the month! Maybe we'll need to give it a chance to warm up a bit!). Yes, lovely to sit and hold a new little one - we feel fortunate. xx
14 January 2019 at 04:56
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