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lockdown

Launches in Lockdown – Part 1

January 22, 2021 By Allison Symes 2 Comments

From a writing viewpoint, 2020 had the benefit of:-

1. Zoom.
2. Being able to have some writing events thanks to Zoom!

The major disadvantage was the lack of our usual writing events. This was something I discussed with YA writer, Richard Hardie, last week. He has faced the challenges of the pandemic as author and publisher (see link at the bottom of this post).

But writers and publishers still had books to launch, so I thought I’d look at how authors, including me, managed this during this strange period.

A huge thanks to all of the writers taking part in this series. They have all shared fabulous insights and something that comes across from what they share here is where one way is not possible, others will be.

That is something positive from 2020 I think.

Feature Image – Launches In Lockdown Part 1. Image created in Book Brush using an image from Pixabay

[Read more…] about Launches in Lockdown – Part 1

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Tags: authors. writing events, book launches, book promotion, lockdown, marketing, online, writing advice, Zoom

Richard Hardie, Authors Reach, and Lockdown

January 15, 2021 By Allison Symes 7 Comments

It’s fair to say 2020 was challenging. Next week, I’ll be starting a new series called Launches in Lockdown. Fellow writers and I will share our experiences of launching books during what has been one of the strangest periods in modern history. (I wish I could say I was exaggerating).

There is another side to this coin. How did 2020 impact publishers? I thought I’d talk again to local YA writer and publisher, Richard Hardie. He has a good view from both sides of the fence.

Feature Image – Richard Hardie, Authors Reach, and Lockdown. Image created in Book Brush by Allison Symes (image there from Pixabay)

[Read more…] about Richard Hardie, Authors Reach, and Lockdown

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Tags: Authors Reach, book fairs, book shops, book signings, creative writing, lockdown, online events, publishing, Richard Hardie, writing and publishing dilemmas

A Daily Visit by Royalty – and a Sumptuous Meal for a King

January 9, 2021 By Robbie Sprague 10 Comments

Kingfisher by Mike Lane FRPS

When I built the new Wykeham House in Hiltingbury I got the digger driver to dig out a large pond in the back garden, piling the spoil at one end in readiness to make a waterfall. This was the basis for our landscaping, planting and stocking once the lining and filtration system were in place. The day at last came when we flicked the switch and the water gushed and eddied down the waterfall. This comforting sound has stayed with us for the past fifteen years and it is a joy. When the water had cleared and the balance was right we stocked our pond with twenty golden rudd, some green tench, three black comets and three shubunkin – and the odd goldfish contributed by neighbours.

Herons
Heron-proofing the pond

Over the years, and thanks to the early morning visits from a hungry heron, we lost some fish – usually speared and left on the grass – so we had to find an ingenious way of heron-proofing the pond. At first, we didn’t mind the heron’s visits; seeing that majestic bird landing and taking off was exciting but he was greedy and cruel and had to be deterred. We strung fishing line across the pond and installed a water sprayer triggered by a motion sensor. So far, so effective………..

Every early summer there are a few days of frantic activity when the water froths like a cauldron and a month or so later a large shoal of small fry of mixed variety can be spotted and, over the years the fish population has multiplied alarmingly. [Read more…] about A Daily Visit by Royalty – and a Sumptuous Meal for a King

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Tags: Chandler's Ford, Covid-19, family, Hiltingbury, lockdown, nature, storytelling

The Christmas Jigsaw Tradition

January 2, 2021 By chippy minton 11 Comments

partially complete jigsaw - marmite

One of my childhood family’s traditional Christmas holiday pastimes was to complete a jigsaw puzzle (or two).  Christmas presents generally included at least one puzzle.  This year’s Covid-19 restrictions on travel and socialising made it a good time to resurrect the tradition with my adult family.

There is something incredibly relaxing and therapeutic about tacking a jigsaw puzzle.  You can’t rush a jigsaw; it takes as long as it takes.  They are addictive too – once you’ve started you have to keep going.  One evening, Mrs Chippy and I had to remind ourselves that it was 11.30 pm and we really should be going to bed.  I have been known to stay up into the early hours in order to finish a puzzle. [Read more…] about The Christmas Jigsaw Tradition

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Tags: board games, Christmas, Christmas traditions, coronavirus, Covid-19, Eastleigh, family memories, lockdown, pastimes, puzzles, storytelling, tradition

Keeping us Cheerful – the Windmills of my Mind

January 2, 2021 By Robbie Sprague 7 Comments

Little windmills in the front garden

On April Fools’ Day 2019, I had the following letter published in the Daily Telegraph:

Sir,

Every lawn in my road has been devastated by crows frantically digging for chafer grubs. The day they started on my lawn I ordered two hundred and fifty children’s windmills and placed them over the entire grassed area of my front garden. That was five months ago and not one crow has ventured into our garden and our grass has flourished. These colourful windmills are a great source of entertainment for families walking up and down the street – one or two have even spread into neighbouring gardens.

Having had success, I decided to harness the potential of each windmill by modifying them to become miniature wind turbines, interconnecting them and linking them to the National Grid. The power that is generated reduces the cost of my electricity bill by approximately 25%.

In these challenging Brexit times when we all have to become more self- sufficient, I offer this simple, yet effective scheme to save your readers money – and to fend off crows.

Sincerely,

We have given away literally hundreds of windmills to little – and not so little – children.
“I ordered two hundred and fifty children’s windmills and placed them over the entire grassed area of my front garden.”

[Read more…] about Keeping us Cheerful – the Windmills of my Mind

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Tags: Chandler's Ford, coronavirus, Covid-19, family memories, good neighbours, Hiltingbury, humour, lockdown, publication, science, storytelling, writing

What to do in Lockdown

December 31, 2020 By Mike Sedgwick 6 Comments

The gazebo

A Happy New Year to all Chandler’s Ford Today readers. Is there anything to be happy about? The only good news is that I have had the first of my vaccination jabs against COVID-19 (the Pfizer-BioN Tech for the techies, I can even tell you the Batch number if you like). The next one is due on Jan 9th. Then, at the end of January, I shall be free, protected, like a modern-day knight in armour. The vaccine is 95% effective. Does that mean that, if I get COVID, it will only be 5% as bad as expected? Or does it mean one in 20 of us might get COVID? More important is, although I am protected, could I spread the virus to others?

More important still is that the AstraZenaca vaccine is now approved and is more robust in that it is easier to store and distribute.

Vaccine Image via Kaboompics
Vaccine Image via Kaboompics

Party Outdoors

[Read more…] about What to do in Lockdown

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Tags: Chandler's Ford, coronavirus, Covid-19, family memories, Hiltingbury, lockdown, publication, science, storytelling, writing

Rumours of a cancelled Christmas have been greatly over-exaggerated

December 20, 2020 By chippy minton 7 Comments

Headlines across many of the today’s Sunday papers have been along the lines of “Christmas is Cancelled”, “The virus that stole Christmas” and other such hyperbole.  No, Christmas is not cancelled; Christmas has not been stolen.

December 25, Christmas Day, will still arrive this Friday.  OK, it may arrive in a different way than expected and we may have to spend a couple of days this week in reassessing and rearranging our plans.  But arrive it will surely do.

Negative language such as “killed”, “cancelled” and “ruined” gives pessimistic connotations to the thought of a scaled-back Christmas.  So rather than a problem, let’s see this as an opportunity. [Read more…] about Rumours of a cancelled Christmas have been greatly over-exaggerated

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Tags: Christmas, Christmas 2020, lockdown

How Has Your Summer Been?

August 28, 2020 By Allison Symes 2 Comments

I know, I know! With a title like that, this could be a very short post indeed!

It has been an odd year, has it not? Even the weather has reflected it. I noticed my first ripe blackberries out at the end of July, a good month early. And I’m seeing the leaves on the trees changing colour and some shedding of leaves occurring now, in August, significantly earlier than normal, and almost certainly due to the lack of rainfall over the last few weeks.

A beautiful summer image here. I suspect most of us will hope Summer 2021 will be happier than this year’s. Pixabay image.

[Read more…] about How Has Your Summer Been?

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Tags: Allison Symes, book news, lockdown, social distancing, summer 2020, writing, writing events

Lockdown Afternoon Tea

June 17, 2020 By chippy minton 4 Comments

Scone Jam Cream

In recent years, afternoon tea has become the new decadence, being offered at a number of cafes and tea shops.

The Blackbird Café at Fleming Park’s Pavilion on the Park has come up with a great way to put our love of cake, sandwiches and tea (but mostly cake) to good use during lockdown: offering a takeaway afternoon tea to help fund a lunch club on wheels service for people who are isolated during the pandemic and might not otherwise get a hot meal.

blackbird Cafe Tea Flyer

[Read more…] about Lockdown Afternoon Tea

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Tags: blackbird cafe, lockdown, pavilion on the park

Lockdown Effects on Writing

May 22, 2020 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

I must admit the one thing the lockdown has done which I hadn’t expected has been to reduce my reading! You would expect the opposite, would you not?

I’ve found writing to be no problem at all but it is as if my subconscious is saying “you can do one creative activity, Madam, but you’re not doing two”.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

[Read more…] about Lockdown Effects on Writing

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Tags: coronavirus, creative writing, effects on writing, lockdown, reading

What could the Covid-19 legacies be?

April 11, 2020 By chippy minton 15 Comments

Social Distancing Markers

While queuing outside Tesco, I thought that the tape marking the 2-metre social distancing spaces should be replaced with brass (a bit like the brass studs that mark the boundary of properties in shopping streets). They can then remain as a legacy after the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.

Social Distancing Markers
Social Distancing Markers outside Tesco, Eastleigh. Photo by Chippy Minton

Why?  So that in 20 years’ time when our grandchildren ask what they are there for we can tell them about the great lockdown of 2020.

So, what other legacies might the crisis give us? [Read more…] about What could the Covid-19 legacies be?

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Tags: coronavirus, Covid-19, lockdown, shopping

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Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal by Joan Adelaide Goater

Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal by Joan Adelaide Goater

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Growing up in Chandler’s Ford: 1950s – 1960s by Martin Napier

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Chandler’s Ford War Memorial Research by Margaret Doores

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History of Hiltonbury Farmhouse by Andy Vining

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Do You Remember The Hutments? By Nick John

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Memory of Peter Green by Wendy Green

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History of Vickers Armstrongs (Supermarine) Hursley Park by Dave Key

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