JUGGLING - AGAIN
If I'd had a normal job, i.e. one with a pension, I probably would have retired several years ago. But as, apart from a a couple of short periods, I've always been self-employed, I've carried on long after normal retirement age. Also, as a nonagenarian friend said, you either use it or lose it, so I'm very happy to carry on, albeit slightly less intensely than in the past.
I've been lucky enough to have had a very varied working life and that continues. For a long time I was a professional modelmaker, often working to a deadline and a price. Nowadays I make and exhibit model railway layouts and they are usually well received and appreciated and I do it just for entertainment. That's me above with my Egyptian themed layout, Caravanserai at a recent exhibition in Hastings. Also above is a model of a signal box I made for another project
But, there are still bills to be paid so I do have to earn something of a living. After designing, building and exhibiting three medal winning gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show, I now concentrate on designing gardens for private clients. I do fewer than I used to but still enjoy working on several every year. In the last few months I've successfully designed and planted gardens in Cooden and Camber and there are a couple more in the pipeline.
Also, I have a cottage in Northiam I've owned for 40 years that I now use for holiday lets. My wife and I look after it, doing the cleaning and maintenance, something we both enjoy. It means we can make sure it's up to the standard we'd expect if we were renting it, plus it's good exercise!
Another string to my bow is giving talks. I travel all over Kent and Sussex speaking to various groups: U3A, WI and gardening clubs, about Chelsea, garden design and one talk called 'From Pottery to Potting Shed, or how I became a gardener' which is mainly autobiographical and goes down well.
Then, out of the blue, I got a call from a pottery, asking if I'd be interested in doing some mouldmaking. Now, I trained as a mouldmaker and spent many years making moulds for potteries across the south-east but hadn't put my hand in a bucket of plaster for 18 years. But I agreed, made the moulds for an exclusive piece, and enjoyed the process, finding that it all came flooding back.
Finally, back to writing. I doubt I'll ever make it as a top flight writer, or earn a living at it. Although I know my books aren't bad, there's too much competition - but I do enjoy writing. I'm currently nearly a quarter of the way through book eight, in the DI Sonny Russell series of crime mysteries, provisionally titled Pikes Tale. The story revolves around a poisoning and a séance and will have the same mix of intrigue and information I like to include in my books.
So, you can see, life is far from dull and, I suppose I must enjoy juggling!
