Inevitable hiatus

My blog's been suffering of late. My postings have become less frequent in recent months but there are good reasons why this is so... 1.I'm doing a lot of things for the second time around and so that's not especially interesting to write and read about, 2. I'm putting more effort into writing my book and that takes up my spare time 3. The weather has been so bad for months that there's little point in heading out and trying to take photos or even trying to visit places, do different things. 4. I spend my weekends at JC's house and he's mostly content to potter around his property. 5. I'm not feeling energetic or motivated because I'm emotionally stressed out much of the time. Why's that you ask? Well, being in a foreign country on your own without being competent in the language is exhausting. It's exhausting because I'm actively listening all the time, really concentrating and it never seems to get easier. I'm stressed because i don't earn enough money to get me out of the boxy lifestyle I must live in- being removed from gardening (my major passion in life) for two years means I have no way to get myself grounded in nature, to calm myself, to enjoy my favourite hobby. Having a couple of pots of flowers really doesn't do it.

I'm trying to find somewhere else to live because I'm fed up with my studio and its limitations, even though it's at least affordable. I need to have a few bits of my own furniture around me to create my own environment, my own oasis in this sea of strange challenges. I'm stressed because my professional talents and interests don't really get used and I have no control over my own work-it's patchy and always dependent on folks who don't do things in a timely manner, if at all. This may not be an uncommon situation but it certainly affects job satisfaction.

 I've been trying to obtain a car but am being forced to be extremely patient. I found one after lots of trawling through the internet and had a test drive but it needed a controle technique (Warrant of Fitness)so I waited for that. Then it needed something doing to its muffler so I waited for that and the retest. Then the vendor's mother died, in Turkey. Sad for him and frustrating for me as another two weeks went by just for that. My need for it wasn't urgent but all that took a bit of the gloss off plunging into a new lifestyle. Maybe next weekend I'll have my car.

 In the meantime I've had my Nikon D60 lens die on me so my camera is virtually useless. That has affected my interest in blogging too, but it's also made me think more seriously about whether I want to replace it with a good quality compact camera. I need something small I can pop in my handbag and whip out discretely when something interesting happens or if I need to go overseas for work. I'd also like the idea of making mini videos. I'm considering a NikonCoolpix S100. Lugging a reflex around with its interchangeable lenses is not that enjoyable even though I loved my camera.

So things are changing slowly. I've included photos of a rather ingenious dog deterrent created by JC. Fed up with having his newly emerging hostas chewed and dug out of their pots he has come up with a really effective strategy. We think the dog understands it's a trap and a painful one for the nose or paws. It's working.