Another Direction

“Christmas is coming and the geese are getting fat,

Please put a penny in the old man’s hat”

is a rhyme from this time of year that I remember from my childhood and as I start laying in stocks of booze and food for the festive period I thought I might well update my blog with a new section devoted to … you guessed it, Food.

I haven’t done much on Curves recently, too busy with other rubbish, I suppose (more about that later), but I think I will overhaul the site and give it a new look as well as.

So, Food … hmm, recipes, I suppose. Now I can limit myself to traditional Irish recipes, given that the site is Red Branch Chronicles and was originally set up to promote my novel set in iron-Age Ireland, Raiding Cooley or … I can cast the net a but further afield and do world-wide recipes from places I’ve lived in and travelled to. Hmm, tugs at hair absent-mindedly, I’ll have to have a think about that.

Anyway, while I think of it – Happy Christmas everyone!

I will attempt to justify my lack of new Curves by telling you that I have been struggling with a wealth of data recently in an attempt to untangle where and when Irish people and their language came from, looking at the old annals as well as modern linguistic, genetic and archeological research.  Drowning in data at the moment but will hopefully make sense of something before Christmas.

The other thing is that I have finally decided to start on a new novel.  Spent the last two days scribbling away in a notebook and got quite excited about the whole project.  Something completely different to what has gone before, but that is all I can say at this moment.

Hibernations

I feel I have slowed down and gone into a form of hibernation, as it were. That’s not quite true though. I have loads of plans – for the garden anyway – but not so much in the writing area and while I have started on a few garden projects recently, I’ve put off finishing anything – it’s too cold, or wet or stormy and such excuses.

Mind you, it has been the coldest start to Spring in something like forty-five years, apparently. Windy too – a tree in the back garden was uprooted, taking out a whole stretch of fence with it. My chooks are now truly free-range!

Anyway, this hibernation might be a metaphor for my (lack of) writing. Just as I have a score of undone things to do in the garden, I also shirk from the idea of writing a sequel to Raiding Cooley or even a different type of novel, and have also started to neglect my website and blog. As for Social Media – FaceBook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, – I have completely reneged on all my intentions of getting to grips with it!

So, I need a new Curve! Summer is approaching here and – in lieu of physical travel which I am planning for next year – I am adding a new category to go with Celtic Trivia, Curves and Book Stuff. So, welcome to Travel Section with stories, comments and recounts of peregrinations worldwide.