JUGGLING - AGAIN

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!

 

WHO'S ZOOMING WHO?

 

WHO’S ZOOMING WHO?

Shinglesea 2007

I generally give between 15 and 20 talks every year to a variety of groups: WI, U3A and gardening clubs. The most popular talk is called ‘BEHIND THE SCENES AT CHELSEA’. No, not the football club, or the London borough, but the annual, prestigious Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show where I designed and built three small show gardens. I talk my audience through the process of applying to exhibit, sourcing plants and materials and approaching sponsors. Then how, in ten long days, starting with a patch of bare turf, we create a little bit of landscape that looks like it has been lifted bodily from somewhere else in the country and plonked down on the Chelsea show site. The talk, that lasts about 45 minutes, is illustrated with more than 80 high quality photographs.

Spana's Courtyard Retreat 2008

This used to mean that I had to jump in the car and drive to the venue. As my ‘fame’ spread further, the distances I had to travel had increased so the journey there could sometimes take more than an hour and just as long to return home - often quite late in the evening. On top of that, I had to make sure I could find the hall and that I’d remembered all the equipment I’d need: laptop, projector, relevant connecting cables and extension lead. And most importantly that I’d got the right day. But, like so much else, all that changed a year ago.

The Pilgrim's Rest 2009

Now I’ve become used to giving my talks via Zoom. The upside is that I can do this from the comfort of my own home. No worrying about closed roads or inclement weather that I’ll have to drive through; no last minute panic that I’ve left something critical behind or that I haven’t left enough time to get there (yes, I am guilty of cutting it fine). The downside is slightly different.

The Pilgrim's Rest 2009

People have become accustomed to, and comfortable with, using Zoom so it’s surprisingly easy to access nowadays. The groups are well versed in setting it up so all I have to do is fire up the laptop and click on the link to their group. Once the preliminaries are over I can start my talk and share the photos I normally project onto a screen and this is where it becomes strange. Almost without exception my audience is muted. This means that apart from just four people visible down the side of the screen, I’m basically talking to myself – which is a little weird. But, I’m very grateful that groups still want to hear my talks and long may it continue.