Two poetry magazines arrived today. One has two of mine in it, one has none. However, as I didn’t submit any to the second magazine, this is to be expected.

This month I will be submitting fewer than planned, because I really haven’t been producing much for the last six months and haven’t been on top of the editing for the last couple of months. It was on the rise, but topped out and I can’t raise the old enthusiasm.

At the same time this is happening, I find that I am gripped by an ambition to write better poetry, so am hoping that less quantity will pay off in better quality. I have a suspicion that this what all lazy writers say.

Speckled Wood

Sorry if I worried anyone with news that I’d been for a scan, I often leave medical details out of the blog, but thought that the trouser anecdote was worth including, as was the distance I found I could walk if necessary – must try harder. The result was fine, not perfect, as I still need blood tests and treatment, but nothing malignant was found.

The trick, I have found, is to use two sticks. With two I can go faster, feel steadier and don’t wear out my shoulder. I bought some walking poles recently and am going to try using them next time I try for any distance. That way I will look less like a cripple and more like a serious hiker.

The Jury Summoning Service has emailed to say i have been released from service. Until this notification It was not official.  I have filled in the questionnaire they sent. It was, as with so many Government surveys, useless. It was predicated on the assumption that I had applied for release from jury service. I hadn’t. I’d applied to the Court for permission to use  a taxi and they had applied for my release on my behalf. This made many of the questions irrelevant. Somewhere, a Civil Servant, in fact probably a whole department, is being paid big money to produce sub-standard work. They should pay me big money to go through all this bumph and improve it. That way, things will improve and I will get more money. Win-win.

Large Skipper at East Leake

The only downside to the email from the Jury Summoning Service is that the Court had applied to have me excluded from further selection, but they have jut exempted me from this one and left me open for future selection. You can’t serve once you reach 70 so they have just over five years to call me again and as there is a pool of 30,000,000 potential jurors and they only need about 300,000 my chances of being called are slim. If my number does come up again I will regard it as an omen and buy lottery tickets.

Hummingbird Hawk Moth

My problem with photos is that I have been lazy with titles over the years and photos with ni titles are impossible to search for. I am now paying for my laziness over the years.