This, that and more of the other

The spiraling of a geranium seed

I apologise, I'm being a rotten blogger at present. Network connections that are doing a startling imitation of a Jack in the Box, not feeling too well and the prospect of two huge manuscript rewrites have stunned me into a frenzy of inactivity. Add to that the fact that the young guinea fowl keets are dropping like flies, and you'll gather that all is not exactly sparkly in the Vanilla Goddess's garden.

We suspect a virus or parasite must have got the young guineas - they are dying at the rate of one a day or every second day. It is too pathetic to watch and there is little we can do. They are impossible to catch while they are well and by the time we can catch them it's too late to do anything. On top of that, they've taken to falling into the pool and I've rescued two in the last two days - dried them off carefully, warmed them up and discovered they smell utterly awful - a sort of sickly sweet, cloying smell that hangs around them - the scent of death, I guess one might say. Their numbers have gone from 13 to four or five in about two weeks. The parents are becoming increasingly twitchy - and who can blame them - and they can't make up their minds if I'm friend or foe. Even Mama Guinea has now taken to trying to attack me - flying straight at me the other day, claws outstretched as I fished a baby from the pool.

At least Ms Bo hasn't succumbed to whatever is ailing the keets and is flourishing and getting feistier by the minute on a diet of maggots, mealworms, cutworms, earthworms and other things that go wriggle and bump in the night (along with seed, corn and greens).

Meanwhile, instead of getting on with my rewrites - which feels rather like trying to eat a gargantuan elephant - I'm trying to write a children's short story for a local anthology and am getting utterly nowhere. What started as a children's story of 1000 words, has morphed into something quite different and more than double the length, filled with African deities, an inept wizard and a creature resembling the Ba-Kaaka Nostra. I worry myself sometimes, really I do!

I'm afraid blogging is likely to remain erratic for a while yet - my muse went off on her Christmas holiday and hasn't been seen since. This is, as you can imagine, of no earthly use in the face of two rewrites. If you should see her, please ask her to return home.

Do please bear with me and hopefully things will return to normal in the not too distant future. I live in hope - you may as well join me!

Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy these...

Sunset at Scarborough beach

The last sunset of 2008