Well, the prof’s news is much more exciting, so let’s get my writing out of the way shall we?
I don’t know if you noticed but I pretty much stopped blogging in 2019. It’d become a full-time occupation – but I felt like I was speaking to an empty room half the time. So I decided I’d try and write stuff that I could get ‘properly’ published.
I was working on short stories and a novel, then a lovely editor I’d asked to critique some stories asked to see my poems. I only had one! That set me off writing poetry and now I’ve got folders full of the things, some so awful they’ll never see the light of day!
Yes, I’ve had quite a few things published. In literary journals and anthologies. Short stories, some non-fiction, poetry– and then there’s this:
There was a competition for a ‘new alliance’ of poets. Alan got us together to enter and we won it. Belisama was the result. No, it’s not to do with beauty, it’s the name Ptolemy gave to an area south of the River Ribble in Lancashire, roughly where we all live, the place that inspired all our poems.
I think I’m prouder of the cover picture than my poems! Yes, I took that, but they forgot to credit me. Just as well. I’d be swamped with commissions, haha!
The best thing that happened, though, was in 2021– I got shortlisted for a couple of prizes, the Bridport Poetry Prize, which is quite prestigious – and the Julian Lennon Poetry Prize.
Lovely to think Julian Lennon’s read a poem of mine! Yes, he definitely read the shortlisted ones. Of course that does mean he didn’t like mine best but hey, you can’t have everything.
What do you think, time for a glass of Cava? Or an Aperol spritz? People say it’s passé now but I don’t care. Great, give me a couple of minutes.
This is fun! Hope I got the proportions right.
Cheers!
The prof? Yes, he worked all the way through both lockdowns. And how. Our daily routine in 2020 and 2021– even 2022 – was him working non-stop while I was ordering food deliveries and baking and cooking. And worrying. And acting as tech backup when needed.
Yes, all online, two-hour lectures, that ended up being double the work they normally were. They had to be recorded but you can’t record student interactions so, after the first couple he decided to lecture and interact then record the full uninterrupted lecture later.
Then there were regular meetings with a big national committee on top of the teaching and admin, all using technology that kept changing. He was forever learning how to use new systems. It was pretty stressful and very time consuming.
And did I mention there were about a million stone tools to be analysed?! Our dining table was covered in them. A surrogate lab for two years!
Blinded by the light!
See, stone tool!
But, the big thing he was working on was an article that’s just been published in Nature. The oldest wooden structure in the world – yes, that’s him. 476,000 years old. The wood, I mean not the prof.
On site, not THE big find but a big find (that’s the wedge they found under there)
Where? At Kalambo Falls in Zambia. Well remembered! Yes, I did write about the time I spent there, ages ago now.
Eighteen months of working like stink with his team of experts paid off in the end. He’s been having interviews with media all over the world – except South America for some strange reason. The Guardian piece was one of the best I think, when you have time it’s worth a look if only for the pictures!
He’s made a little video with his university team that’s a really good introduction to it – only eight minutes. Now? Perfect. Here you go:
https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2023/09/20/archaeologists-discover-worlds-oldest-wooden-structure/
– I know, poor thing was so exhausted, he looks wiped out because he was!
You know, this is one of my all time favourite pictures of him that I took in 2006, I love how tropical it looks. The other side of the river in Tanzania, amazing, isn’t it?
Washing artefacts in the Kalambo River
Actually, the day his Nature paper came out I got a rejection for a non-fiction piece. It was strange, it didn’t bother me, even though it’s the only thing I’ve submitted this year. In fact it worked out quite well really because now I can use it in my next book.
Yes, I wrote a book! No, non-fiction.
Well, in a nutshell, it’s me rambling around ruined monasteries wondering why we like them and failing to find a proper answer.
In the cloister at Whalley Abbey, Lancashire, one of my favourite places. Turner sketched it. The river runs right by it and it’s so peceful.
A very personal thing. Lots of nature, poetry, art, memories – and Catholic guilt. I finished it this summer, it’s been going through some literary gatekeepers and now I’m submitting it and keeping my fingers crossed.
Yes, I’m starting a new one while I wait, inspired by an exhibition I saw in Sweden in July. Very strange. The theme is power… No, not political.
But listen, I’ve spent far too much time talking about me.
Let me top up your Cava then it’s over to you. Have some nibbles. No, you do not need to lose weight. Anyway, it’s a special occasion and they’re only small!
So, how are you? What have you been up to for the last three years?
Go on, I can still listen while I’m pouring…
MEMOIRS OF A HUSK 
I’ve missed you! Good to have you back. Thrilled for you and Larry.
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Fiona! How lovely to hear from you! I have been most remiss in not asking after you. As I said in part 1, I have no room to talk about not keeping in touch… I hope you are well and David too. Mx
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Cheers! Oh, I do love Cava. Congratulations both of you on the writing, publishing and keeping busy and productive during Covid and all its accompanying challenges, very lovely photography and coping with a dining table/lab bench… not sure I could manage the latter.
We were very happy to be away from the thick of the pandemic and grateful we’d moved from the city and were well-settled into village life which went on much the same in many ways although our plans to take some caravan trips after the G.O. officially reached retirement age during the Covid years were somewhat delayed not only by Covid but by MiL.
Seeing as you asked… during Covid I completed my permaculture course and we implemented much of the urban final design/5 year plan to our property… ‘cos we were a captive audience except when we were running around doctors, specialists and hospitals with my MiL trying to get her the urgent hip replacement that ultimately didn’t happen because she put it off for too long and was too frail to go ahead when she hit desperation point.
We were also dealing with a daughter-in-law and step/son who went down the conspiracy theory + antivaxxer + Covid denier + MAGA + crypto rabbit holes, so we spent much of it terribly worried about their downward spiraling life which has now sorted itself out, thankfully.
Nothing like the marvelous accomplishments you and the Prof managed though. I’m so pleased there were some bright spots for you.
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Just what I wanted, a reply telling me what you’ve been up to! To be honest I did know some of this from your occasional posts, the permaculture thing for example (which so impresses me, for actually implementing it in your life too) , but poor you, the anti-vaxxer/MAGA/Covide denier. etc stepson. And your MIL and her hip. I so sympathise. Yes, you were lucky I suppose to be far from urban life. We were at least lucky that we lived in the suburbs with an empty golf course and trees around us and a beach nearby so we could walk – that and the rather elegant and lovely local graveyard. I regard what you have done as much more impressive than anything I have achieved (the prof’s achevement is pretty impressive though!). I hope we’ll be hearing more about each other’s lives now and then now we’re back in touch.
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You know what I’ve been up to!
You have been very busy indeed, Mary, with the Belisama, the Bridport and Julian Lennon. You seem to have moved over to poetry. Well done for keeping it all going through a tough time.
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