Lunch monitor

/ The Magpie at Midnight / 1 Comment

One of my cats has become very interested in any butter or roast chicken we may have in the house. So interested that he’s decided to guard the fridge like this, which he has learned is the source of such things. Most afternoons I go into the kitchen to get a cup of tea and this is what I see.

I also make art. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

Lockdown recommendation: John Rogers on YouTube

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We aren’t really in lockdown in the UK any more, (although more local lockdowns do look likely) and I am guessing that many people reading this blog may be getting out and about much more. However, I wanted make this recommendation anyway because I’m not really venturing out very far at the moment. It feels like Corvid – 19 is lurking close by still, and combined with the effort involved in looking after baby magpie, I haven’t been feeling that confident to go out. My guess is that there may be a few people reading this who are in a similar situation.

I have really been enjoying watching videos made by John Rogers on YouTube. What he does is quite simple, but very effective. He takes long walks in and around London, and takes a camera with him. As someone who used to walk a lot before my pregnant and the lock down, I have really enjoyed ‘going’ on those vicarious walks with him. While out walking he talks about different interesting buildings, and the history and culture of different places on his routes. He has a website here and you can visit is YouTube channel here. 

Regular readers of this blog (hello!) will know that I’ve been working on a novel for some time (provisionally called Feeding Jasmine Valentine – watch this space for more info). Some of that novel is set in East London, and I’ve also found his videos to be particularly helpful from a research point of view while I’m not able to get around most of London myself that much. His videos have been helpful reminders of the feel and texture of the place. I particularly like the video above about searching for Leytonstone’s lost lido. It is particularly interesting to me as someone who loves (and misses very much) swimming out doors.

Walking has been one of the things that really helps me think things through, but towards the end of my pregnancy and in the first few months after Baby Magpie’s birth I wasn’t able to get out so much. I am, joyfully, just beginning to build my legs back up now. But I am thinking about trying out something similar here on Magpie at Midnight, except in South London, with a baby and a pram. As we moved into the area quite recently I think that a little walking project may help me get to know the area a bit better, although I doubt very much that I will be able to replicate the richness of the research the John Rogers does at his channel. Still, I’m going to see if I can kit myself up in the next week or so with some appropriate video/ audio equipment an have an experiment with things. Watch this space for more news.

I also make art. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

An English Summer: Early morning mists in the old forest

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I’ve really enjoyed this post from the tinypotager about walking in the forest with their daughter. Please give it a read below.

Lockdown is lifted and we can journey into the ancient forest again. An early start. On our short drive, the trees gradually reveal themselves in layers of green. The view is softened; we are watching the day form itself into shape. The mist feels like a fine spring rain, yet suspended in mid air. The […]

An English Summer: Early morning mists in the old forest

My cats have opinions on our interior design

/ The Magpie at Midnight / 2 Comments

wp-15944758543198870228975902411095.jpg We moved into our new digs just before Christmas, and just three months before baby magpie was born. The previous owners were quite fond of woodchip wall paper, which isn’t really to our tastes. Given everything that has happened, since we moved in (by which I mean learning to look after a baby) we’ve not been able to replace much of it, and my cats have begun to express their opinions. wp-1594475754132348089463864678055.jpg

I also make art. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

Update: Write every day?

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A month or more ago I wrote here about trying out the ‘write every day’ approach. I wasn’t sure if it would work for me after baby magpie was born, but frequently didn’t have more than twenty minutes at a time to work so thought it was worth a try.

Here are the results. A full first draft of my novel, Feeding Jasmine Valentine (working title). I had it prints so I could do an edit by hand. It’s surprisingly satisfying to hold the bound document in my hand as I’ve never reached a The End moment before.

So, write every day has worked for me so far. I will keep going with it.

I also make art. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

Pick up the baby: dealing with writers block when looking after a small person

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Regular readers of this blog will know that I have set myself the inadvisable task of trying to finish (and publish, or find a publisher for!) my novel this year while I am on maternity leave and also looking after a tiny person.

So far things have actually gone quite well, in that I’ve managed to finish a first draft of my novel. However it has been completed while I am in a sleep deprived daze, and so I am sure that there is lots of work to do now to make it readable.

One of the things I found early on was that when I did have those moments to myself in which I could write, I found it very difficult to get words down. I have previously blogged about some of the strategies I was trying out here, which included writing everyday, and having a (sort of) plan of what I would write. As I now have a finished first draft, I can say that they have worked ok.

The thing I didn’t write about in that post is what helps when those things fail. There have definitely been moments where I had a bit of time, and I knew what content I needed, but somehow the words wouldn’t come. In this situation I found that the best thing to do was actually to walk away, and pick up the baby. Or do the washing up. Or fold his cloth nappies. Something like that.

I think for me, just doing something different and physical like playing with the baby, paying attention to all the new little things he was doing instead of working on a sentence was actually a great way of giving my conscious brain a break. Often after a little bit of time I would find that my subconscious mind had worked through what ever sentence I was having trouble with, and something good enough for a first draft would pop into my mind.

Sometimes the only way to moving forwards with an idea is to step away from it.

I also make art. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

Seen in South London

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In the UK we’ve been in ‘Lock Down’ for about three months. Although technically we could have been going out and about for a walk for an hour a day as part of our ‘daily exercise’, we decided to stay at home while baby magpie was so small, and my section wound was still healing.

Baby Magpie has put on a substantial amount of weight since then, and I am completely healed up. While CORVID-19 has not gone away, cases do seem to be dropping a bit and the risk of getting it appears to be low when you are outside. For these reasons we’ve been going outside a bit recently to a local wildlife park to get a nice walk in a few times a week.

As we moved to the area not long before Baby Magpie was born, there is a lot about the area that I don’t know. Pretty much every time I go for a walk I see something new in my local area, which probably isn’t new at all to people who have lived here a long time, but which I find rather exciting.

The photo below is from the country park that is quite close to our house, and I rather like the idea that there may be some ancient magical creature living there.

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I also make art. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

Motherhood: time moves differently here

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It’s been a few weeks since I have posted anything as I have been engaged in a final push to finish a first draft of my novel. As I get closer and closer to the end I feel more motivated to put the few hours a week I have free to myself to that purpose. I’m very close now, which is really exciting. Regular readers of my blog may know that I have a bit of an issue around actually finishing things.

I’ve also been making sure I spend a lot of time just hanging out with Baby Magpie. He’s beginning to do all sorts of interesting things and I don’t want to miss out on them, as he seems to change every day. I’m not sure what I expected, but I find that the days just seem to drift past at the moment in a kind of dreamy haze. Some days are tough, and I get very tired, but mostly the time just slips by as my partner and I feed and play with him.

If you had told me this is what it would be like before he was born I’m not sure I would have believed you. A year off work felt like a long time then, now it seems to slip past so quickly. However, it feels like time well spent to me.

I also make art. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

Finding stillness, living in the present, and looking after a baby

/ The Magpie at Midnight / 2 Comments

Here in the UK we’ve been in ‘lock down’ for nine weeks (I think, I have lost count). In the Magpie household we entered lock down with a two and a bit week old baby to look after, and little real idea about how to do that. While this may sound like it is a difficult situation, I think that it has in fact been a real blessing.

Babies grow and change really fast. Everyday brings a new skill, a new sound, a new facial expression. In the last few weeks we have had new smiles and a whole new range of babbling sounds, each seeming to have their own meaning. While many others who are enduring lock down at the moment see the same thing everyday, for us each day brings a new challenge, and a new surprise.

One thing I have really appreciated while looking after a young baby during lockdown in how he forces us to be present in the moment. Everything is literally new to him. He see the light coming through the window, or touches the cat’s fur for the first time, and if we are paying attention we have the privilege of seeing these moments with him.

Some evenings are of course very stressful, if he cries and we are unsure what will help him feel better. Some nights truly are sleepless. However, I still can’t get over our luck, and often look at him and think, with surprise yet again, that he is so very beautiful. It reminds me of the principle of mindfulness, just to sit in the moment and allow ourselves to see things as if they are new.

I also make art. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

‘I’ll fix that later’: things that help when trying to write and look after a baby.

/ The Magpie at Midnight / 5 Comments
When I was pregnant last year I had difficulty thinking about how I would continue to ‘be me’ and also be a mum. Keeping up my creative practice was one of the ‘be me’ things I was worried about. As I write this my baby is almost eleven weeks old and, as I’ve written about here, I’m concentrating on the writing at the moment, as it’s the easiest thing for me to manage. This has been pretty helpful to me from a psychological point of view, as my identity inevitably changes, and I have limits on my time, I am finding myself able to continue with a few things that were important to me.

Obviously I’m no expert in productivity, I’ve been working on my novel for a long time (eight years and counting), but I’m beginning to figure out some of the things that help me actually get words on the screen. I’m also understanding what I need to let go of for now. Here are my thoughts for now:

1. The phrase ‘I’ll fix that later’ is your friend. I have found that the less I try to get everything down perfectly the more I can actually get done. Interrupting the flow of writing to try to fix something or research something normally just results in me not doing anything. Instead I try to keep with the flow, and where I notice I’ve just done something I don’t really like I think ‘I’ll fix that later’. It’s then quite straightforward to fix issues in an edit when there is a bit more time.

2. Small chunks of writing are possible in even very short periods of time. I have found two to four hundred words very doable in ten minutes, which is two to four hundred words more than yesterday.

3. Small chunks of writing are only possible if I give myself reminders. If I try to cast around for the muse in ten minutes I inevitably don’t find her. So, if I have to put my writing down quickly, which I frequently do at the moment, I’m finding that if I can get a sentence down (often highlighted in red) to remind me what I was going to write next I have no trouble returning to it.

I hope this is helpful. Now I need to go and cuddle the baby.

I also make art. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.