h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I sit at my laptop and think
why am I wasting my day?
It doesn't use paper or ink,
the laptop doesn't need pay,

but why do I bother to write
when no-one will publish my stuff?
It's not imbecilic or trite
but I need more relevant guff.

The story's not bad, I believe,
although descriptions are pale.
If I could write stuff to weave
magic spells and sent it out mail

no agent would give me a look,
let alone knock on my gate,
they wouldn't get me signing books,
because I'm now sixty eight!

Writing is not a choice
For some of us.
Without it, we've no voice,
Our lives tedious.

Publishing's different now,
And so are we.
Let's all take a vow
To eschew ennuie.

I admit one reason I keep on writing is that it's a break from housework. I hate housework!

I'm still working on a novel set against the background of the French Resistance, but I have all sorts of doubts about it. Does it start too early, or in the wrong place? How can I do all the research I need without sitting in a library in Toulouse for weeks reading the archives in French?

Are you working on anything? I'd be interested to know.

MY creative muse expresses itself in bright flowers, arranged in long rows at the entrance to the trailer park where I live. We have virtually no budget for landscape gardening, and we're a couple of volunteers, so perennials are essential to what we do. During the long transition from April to November, different types of flowers have their moments, then fade as others bloom. In the Winter, the line of twelve dwarf spruce and two holly bushes provide interest.

You name it, we've got it -- daffodils, roses, irises, Coreopsis, black eyed Susans, Echinacea, peonies, hostas, perennial sunflowers, sage, asters. Right now the echinacea is starting to fade while the black eyed Susans are coming on strong. In two or three weeks the asters will start to dominate. When they're winding down, the Montauk daisies will overshadow everything else. We'll then plant some Mums.

Congratulations on having so many flowers.

I've got a few roses, a buddleia and a couple of fuschias flowering but that's all for now.

My yard has perennial sunflowers, wild geraniums, Jacks in the pulpit, and the usual meadow flowers. Also Spiderwort. I've begun planting Mayapples in the shadier areas. I expect to receive some blue cohosh in about a month. That's another deep shade plant.