Dolly Mixtures

August and September seem to have slipped by in smirr of rain, wind and pond water. That jaunt to Mallorca early on in August gave the whole family lucky boost before the onslaught of the Scottish summer of 2011. The SS Wilding has barely moved from her mooring. Well, that’s not entirely true; we have ventured out a few times and floundered on a mixture of jaggy rocks and bad tempers. The boat trips are still stressful but at the same time character building. On one occasion, with a storm afoot, my son decided to play cricket with our one and only paddle. Needless-to-say, his sister used a sizable rock as a ball and managed to split said paddle in two. This resulted in a nightmarish thrash about, with what felt like a toothpick, before we finally made it back to shore. Sorry for shouting, Joe.

Book-wise, there has been interest from China and another batch of schools asking for workshops. I love visiting schools and with the prospect of doing some Tiffy Toffy sessions for younger kids, I have employed the sowing services of my youngest, Ruth. She’s managed to make some brilliant puppets and props. The ten, two-foot, pink, wiggly worms are the best.

At last, there is a glimmer of hope on the Seascape front. A few more re-writes and a look over some of the illustrations by Scott, and I’ll be ready to submit to the editor.

Finally, I seem to have been battling with an ongoing green slime problem in the pond. It’s never been the same since my 16 year old had a party in our garden, where a few of her salubrious guests added to the level and almost poisoned the goldfish.

Oh, I almost forgot, I saw the legendry Dolly Parton in Belfast. She was simply amazing. Okay, she does tend to give you her whole life story in between songs, but her talent and youthful swagger cannot be faulted. It was good to see her in fine voice and fettle.  I wonder if she will ever come back to the Wigtown Book Festival? See you there at the Box of Frogs Children’s Bookshop between 10am and 2pm on Saturday the 24th of September.

I’m not sure there will be any frogs in my pond this year but… hey ho. Fingers crossed for an Indian summer.

Sam
xx Dolly