Sylviawh.co.uk Blog

Well after quite an interval I am back, but its not good news on the organic gardening front. It all fell flat and this is due to taking a weeks holiday back in May

My son who was asked to water and tend the little pots of growing vegetables forgot all about them once we left, resulting in just a lot of dead and dried up plants.

I managed to rescue a few tomato plants and they are coming on fine but I gave up on the rest.

My weeks holiday wasn’t much better, we went to the island of Madiera, the island of flowers and sunshine. It was my third visit to Madiera but it turned out a great disapointment.  My days of sitting on the balcony in the sunshine with a good book relaxing to my hearts content proved a failure due to the weather.

The mornings were’nt bad but around 12 pm the clouds came down and a cold wind struck up, we also had a few days of rain.  I still braved the balcony but wearing my jacket, and as my daily wear was mainly shorts I sat with a towel covering my legs to keep the chill away.

I am off to Colwyn Bay for a few days in July, I am hoping the weather will prove better than Madiera. I was born and brought up in Rhos on Sea and lived half my life there also my brother and his family still live there so its just a return to old surroundings.  My daughter and three grand children are accompanying me and we are hoping for nice weather so they can spend some time on the beach and in Eirys Park.

At the end of August my daughter and I are going to Toronto in Canada for twelve days, I am looking forward to this as it is one place I have not visited yet. We intend to see the Niagra Falls and do some more sight seeing. 

Well the weather has been so bad lately that nothing much has been done in the garden. We have got rid of the rubbish and done a bit of burning so as the weather is supposed to be improving tomorrow it could be a good time to get started on the digging.

It is lawn at the moment so it might take a bit of time as we’ll have to get all the grass roots out, then the soil might need some feeding before it is right for planting.

We are not experienced gardeners,  in fact this is the first time and a new venture for us so our organic vegetables might not be a complete success this year but we will do our best and it will be experience for the following years.

Up to now the only thing I have grown which I do every year is tomatos and I usually get a good crop of those. Lets hope the sun is shining tomorrow. If the weather men are to be believed we are going to have nice weather for a few days, so heres hoping!

Many people start up their blog with the express reason to make money. If your blog becomes popular then you have every chance of this happening.

To become popular you need to find and write about something that will interest people, but thats not all you have to keep interesting them to keep them coming back time and again.

Money seems to be a big incentive to most people so posts on how to make money will always be popular.

But don’t you wonder why is he or she writing a blog to make money and not using the information himself to make money!   It maybe that writing is their forte and this occupation is perfect for them, there is no time scale and the work can be done in their own time and when they feel like it.

If your blog is new it can often take some time before you start getting traffic so why not participate in some of the blog competitions that seem to be springing up everywhere, you can win prizes and money and they can even be fun. Competitions are great and if you win you’ll feel a sense of achivement at doing better than others plus knowing you can write something that appeals to others.

Just search the web for blog competitions there is always one or two going on somewhere, and who knows what other interesting information you will find as you search.

The one way to make money with your blog or your website is to rise up the ranks and appear in the top ten for your search words on Google and other search engines, once there you have to keep updating to make sure you keep your exalted position.

There are millions of websites all fighting to take your position from you so make sure you keep updating with worthwhile material that will keep the traffic coming and show the search engines that you are worthy of your exalted position.

Well today the garden had a good clean up, it was looking pretty grotty after the winter season. We got rid of all the rubbish that had collected via the scrapman.

My old gas stove, a washing machine that finally gave up the ghost last week and an iron garden seat that had seen better days.

We had a good burn up of all the rubbish and the garden is now looking quite respectable, it just needs a few dry days now so we cut the lawn and decide how much to dig up and use for our organic garden.

I hope the sun decides to shine very soon as I don’t fancy working outside in the cold weather. 

If you are unemployed an ideal business to start is an ironing service.

Ask any working mom or professional person what chore in the home they hate most and four out of five will say ironing.

  After a busy day at work no one wants to stand ironing because apart from needing the rest valuable time is spent as ironing is not a job that can be done in five minutes. 

Money is not an issue for getting started in this business as the only implements you need are an iron and an ironing board which most households already have,

  A car or van is also required to pick up and deliver the ironed clothing. 

In this instance we are talking about starting off in a small way and as the business grows other implements that will make life easier can be acquired.

  A small press and steam gun are useful but these can be added as money allows.

If money is a problem at the start then contain your advertising to local shops and supermarkets, £1.00 or £2.00 a week should cover this so no drain on the finances.

  As you are unemployed you will not be under pressure so you can be prepared to wait for the business to grow on its own accord. 

As you begin to make profit always remember that a business grows by ploughing your money back in for a while so take the advertising to a wider audience by advertising in your local paper, it will cost more but if it brings in the customers it will be well worth it.

  As your business grows you might even need to employ other people or farm some of the work out making a small profit from this for yourself. 

Don’t forget that favourite saying of mine. From little acorns great oak trees grow.

Its very true, and what starts out as a small home business could expand and become a very profitable business.

Your dream of becoming an author and producing a best selling novel is more often than not just that, it’s a dream but many dreams can become a reality

To your eyes your novel may look and sound great but you need to ask others to read the finished article.

Listen to their views and criticisms and ask them to be honest in what they tell you.

Were they glued to the book and unable to put it down until they reached the conclusion, or did they find their mind wandering and not really taking in what they were reading.

If the results were the latter part of the sentence then your novel would be assigned to the pile of return to the sender and the months of waiting to hear from the publishing company would have all been in vain.

Don’t give up at this point, examine your plot and ask yourself is it feasible, could it happen in the way that you have described.

So how do you go about writing a best selling novel?

You have evidently got the story and ideas planned out in your head and you are raring to get started.

Years ago an author used to write their novel with a pen and paper and then have a typist to type out the finished product.

Now most authors use a computer and print out their story ready to send to the publisher, or easier still put it on a disc after making sure this is acceptable to the publisher.

Always keep a copy of your novel as the postal service is not always 100% secure.

There are many things you need to know when you are writing your novel if you intend to send it straight to a publishing house.

Here are a few things that you should have and things you need to know.

First of all you need a good dictionary, and a thesaurus, these are tools of the trade to a writer.

Another useful book is (The Writers and Artists Year Book) this gives you a list of all the publishers plus many of the requirements a publisher is looking for in your style of writing.

For instance you would not send a romantic novel to a publisher of crime novels etc.

You will also find a list of magazines and the types of short stories they require. Greeting card publishers are often looking for new verses so this is a good market to get in to. 

Twenty years ago I received £8.00 for each verse I wrote so I imagine now it would be quite lucrative to go down this road if you have a poetic mind.

You will find a host of useful information in the book and it is worth every penny of its cost.

When you begin typing your novel you must have double spaced lines and a two inch margin on either side, this is to enable any corrections the proof readers might need to do, and it also makes easy reading of the pages.

You will need to count the words on each page so you know the length of your novel.

When you have written your first chapter or your short story, put it to one side and leave it for at least one week then read it again, you will see it with new eyes and you will note if there are any alterations you need to make.

A good author will often write then rewrite a few times before he is satisfied with the end result.

When you finally send off your book to the publishers you can expect to wait at least three months before you hear from them and quite often it is simply to return your novel as not suitable to them.

If you believe in your novel don’t shove it to one side and give up on it, parcel it up again and send it to another publishing house.

Some authors send out to numerous publishers before their book is ever accepted.

One word of warning, stick to one publisher at a time, don’t send out the same novel to two or three publishers at the same time.

That also goes for short stories, magazines and greeting card verses; they have to have exclusive right if they buy from you.

Always make sure your book is copyright just by adding that simple word, this means that no one else can claim the story as their own.

For more detailed information on writing a novel visit your local library they should have numerous books on the subject.

Tomorrow we are going out to buy a greenhouse, it won’t be an expensive glass house as we need to know our project will be successful before we spend out too much money.

It will be a walk in greenhouse at least 6ft x 4ft to give us room to move about and plenty of room for the seedlings and vegetables that need a warmer environment.

We have checked around and Homebase seems the best place, they have one for around the £60.00 mark so thats fine.

Our total estimated spends at present, including the greenhouse will be around £100.00,  that is £60.00 for the greenhouse, around £20.00 for seeds, £10.00 for a compost bin, one bag of seed compost and the small pots that can be planted straight into the ground.

There is lots of work in the offing and more money to be spent on canes and other things that come up but many of these items will be reusable for other years and like any new venture the main cost comes at the start.

We intend to learn about collecting the seeds for the following year and keep costs down for the future.

I have not done much today I am waiting for the weather to improve. The seeds are coming along great but some seem to be coming on too fast and look quite frail as the stems are growing long and need a bit of help with staking.  I am wondering if it is worth trying cocktail sticks or simply just sowing new seeds.

At the moment they are in the spare bedroom and it may be too warm for them so it is speeding up the growth, still I will learn by my mistakes so I am not worried.

We must get a green house soon to see better results I think.  Most of them are ok and some look quite sturdy so it is not time to cry yet.

Another month almost over, don’t forget April fools day on March 1st, think up some good joke now to get them going. The suns shining today but some clouds are coming over, it almost feels like spring is here.

My daughter and I are starting an organic vegetable plot as soon as the weather picks up, flowers are being dug up and we intend to have our own fresh organic Vegetables this year,

The seeds are planted in small disposable pots that will go straight into the ground, we have been potting them at regular two week intervals so we don’t have gluts all at once.

At the moment they are on a large decorating table in the bedroom but hopefully we will be able to buy a greenhouse soon and really get down to business.

While the sun is shining I intend to start the manure bin, we bought it from the council a bargain at £10.00 as it is a big one, It means the garden will also get tidied at the same time as there lots of cuttings to get rid of.

I will get my son digging soon as the weather improves, it won’t be a huge patch but big enough for what we need. We have carrots, cabbage, lettuce, abergines, leeks, onions, sprouts, Runner beans and a few other different types of veg and of course a new organic gardening book.

As it is our first go at vegetables we will be learning  all we can especially at how to keeps the slugs and other pests at bay, hopefully it will prove successful.

Happy Easter everyone, this is my first posting in bits and pieces.  It is just bits of information or possibly something nonsensical.

I did start off with business opportunities but I am sure most of you find what you are looking for by surfing the web, so I have decided to change tack and just post what I feel like doing.

I have just had a Kingsmill hotcross bun and it was delicious, I have to give them 10/10.  I expect many of you are off for the weekend, if its in the UK then wrap up warm, you won’t be needing shorts at this time of the year. 

They should keep Easter in April we would have more chance of nice weather then and the weekend would be enjoyable, still as long as the rain keeps off it won’t be too bad.

We are almost a quarter of the way through the year, I am going to start buying my Xmas presents in the next week or two. It might sound crazy but it keeps the credit card bills down so no worries after Xmas.

How many of you have given up already on your New Years resolutions I wonder! I played safe and didn’t make any.

 Did you know its the Spring equinox today, that means there are equal parts of daytime and night time. It is said to be the official start of spring and the equinox is how christians calculate when Easter is celebrated.