Just a quickie...

I'm very pleased to say I now have permission to tell you that the writer of "Beggars' Dust" is actually Grace, my wife. C G Maskell is her pseudonym. So, go take a look on Amazon, https://tinyurl.com/33jsa8nd read the sample, and buy the book for just £3.99. It's available for Kindle Readers or any device, using the free Kindle app. I've never read anything quite like it!

"A story of gods and their people. Or of people and their gods.

When history is suppressed or rewritten, when the stories of how-things-came-to-be are twisted or forgotten, then the people have no defence when events begin to repeat themselves.

A thousand years ago, a being of ancient evil was trapped, bound, and buried by the Elders of the Nerehin, the ruling class of that age.

Now, in a new era, where history has become the stuff of myth, the Nerehin forgotten, tales of good and evil consigned to children's stories; now, that old evil is stirring, waking, ready to begin spreading corruption and discord once more.

Driven by dreams and premonitions, one man, the last remaining scholar of long hidden Nerehin writings, conceives a desperate plan. Using the mystical 'amhrazine', stones that once were said to encapsulate the spirits of the Elders, he will recreate those heroes in children yet to be born, and when they are grown, they will come to him to learn of their task - their destiny.

But he is old, and the evil one is already moving to infiltrate and control the highest in the land, to thwart any who would oppose him, to wipe out any last vestige of the Nerehin race...

The scholar's death comes too soon; he is still unknown to his chosen children. Without him, can they ever discover what has been done to them? Or will the evil one succeed in crushing and vanquishing them before they have the chance to realize their true purpose and fulfil the task for which they were created?"

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Enough of being negative!

Too much, in fact. I apologise for the recent whingeing. I sort of wish I'd stopped blogging when I said I would back in August last year. We really have nothing to complain about. If government cutbacks, sticky diesel and water weeds stop us from boating, then we will be eternally thankful that we had thirteen years of living on Kantara and enjoying so many adventures. That had been our dream and determination for decades, and we were very blessed to see them come into being. When we do stop, for whatever reason, we'll have very many fond memories - and this blog to remind us, too.

Being back at our house has  meant that we have seen our family so much more, and were present to welcome our grand-daughter into the world, and to see her often, watch her grow. We've been able to tame our garden and re-design it (not yet finished, but very enjoyable), and to visit numerous National Trust and Heritage gardens the like of which we never came close to when we were cruising.

We've not entirely ruled out cruising, but we do know that there may be risks in doing so. We've booked time provisionally in September for that, and we'll be going back to Kantara occasionally before then, too, to wash her neglected paintwork, test the diesel for infection, and generally prepare for the jaunt. We're looking forward to it.

So there will be no more griping in this blog. Things change. That's the way things are. We're changing, too. I'll be 72 next month, and Grace isn't far behind me. But one of the things for which we thank God is that our age isn't one of  the factors keeping us from boating. We're still fit and well, and confident of our abilities.

Bring it on!