Shaftesbury

This pic is of a rooftop decoration on Shaftesbury Abbey. I'm afraid it's a bit unfocused but I took it a few years ago with my old compact camera. And I guess my pic taking skills are not that good.

Shaftesbury is only a few miles from where I now live, and the Abbey is a great place to visit. It's mostly a garden planted over the ruins of the former buildings. The ones that still have a roof form a museum and some storage areas.

I took this roof photo from the pathway outside, which is called Park Walk and has the most wonderful views if you look away from the Abbey. Cue for another pic, I think.


At some point, I must write about the Abbey and its history. There are fascinating connections to a couple of Britain's monarchs. When I get to it, I'll report here. In the meantime enjoy some of the scenes of summer that keep us going through the bleak winter months.

A Waste of Time or a Winning Article?

This great pic of Elena Dementieva, winning a Master Series at Los Angeles, is by Rafael Amado Deras at Wikimedia Commons.

I have something to celebrate too. My two-month hiatus in sales at Constant Content has ended. This particular sale was not anticipated, although I am expecting more at CC this month. But as they have recently changed their payment threshold policy, I can now expect a payout even if I don’t sell any more before the end of January.

What sold was the third and final article I submitted to the site last week. The other two were for public requests, and at least one of them should sell. This one was rather different. The idea for it came from something I did on Amazon Mechanical Turk, where you can get paid for different types of work that they call ‘hits’.

I came across Mech Turk via another blog, and thought I’d give it a go. I accepted a few hits and earnt a few cents, but I soon realised that it wasn’t a good use of my time because of the pathetic level of recompense. However, I might as well continue until I could get to the payout threshold (there’s that dreaded phrase again. The words ‘payment threshold’ must be the bane of many a person’s life).

Anyway, a week or so ago I found a hit that appeared to pay $4 for a short article rewrite. I accepted it and did the rewrite, but when I went to submit it, I found that it required a second rewrite of the same piece. I’d been so excited at the thought of earning $4 for half an hour’s work that I’d misread the instructions. It would take much longer to rework the same article to the precise spec, in which each paragraph had to mean exactly the same as the original, but using different words. I decided it wasn’t worth spending another hour or so to put that much cash in my account.

So I’d been wasting my time. Or had I? I had one original article in my own words. Surely I could do something with that. And I did.

A few days later I did a little research and then spent less than an hour turning that basic piece into a longer and much more comprehensive article. It was called Who Benefits from Affiliate Marketing?, and you can no longer read it at Constant Content because it sold for full rights over the weekend, netting me $30, less commission. A lot better than $4, as I’m sure you’ll agree.

Oh, Christmas Tree

I decided on a small tree for Christmas this year and bought one growing in a pot. During the time it was decorated and indoors, I watered it a few times and it didn’t drop any needles as they do when they are cut.

On January 5th, before twelth night, all the decorations were packed away and my little tree was put outside into its natural environment. That’s when I noticed how much it had enjoyed the warmth of indoors. Look at the pictures and you’ll see that it has grown and developed. All those light green extensions were not there when I bought it.

I’m feeling some maternal affection for my little tree and am planning to look after it. Rather than plant it in the ground, I’ll repot it into a giant container to give it more room to develop. Then it can easily go with us when we move this year. (Notice I said when, not if.)

Hopefully it should survive the extremes of temperature it has experienced. I took the photos on an afternoon when we’d had a little sun to chase the frost away, but it has been bitterly cold here.
And we won’t have to fork out cash for another Christmas tree next year.

A Sweet Goodnight

It's Friday and I should be posting something scintillating here. I even went out and took some photos for it yesterday. But last night I couldn't sleep and today I've been feeling exhausted and rough. I finished one article and submitted it to Constant Content, I've done my site rounds and returned all the card drops from yesterday. Now all I feel like doing is getting under the duvet. I'll try and make up for it tomorrow. Hopefully a good sleep will do the trick and it's not the start of some dreaded lergy.

Wordless Wednesday - Towards Glastonbury Tor

The Handbell Fraternity

When I was doing some research for an article about handbell ringing, I came across this gem of a verse with its nuggets of golden wisdom.

A bell is no bell till you ring it,
a song is no song till you sing it,
and love in your heart wasn't put there to stay;
love isn't love till you give it away.

This pic is by Miya at Wikimedia Commons

From my research and the experience of some good friends, it seems there’s a lot of love going around the handbell fraternity. From joining their national handbell organisations – The Handbell Ringers of Great Britain (HRGB) or the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers, (AGEHR) for example – ringers get to know and support each other.

When my own friends found out about some bells that were for sale several hundreds of miles away, they mentioned their interest at a HRGB meeting. Within a week, the bells had been passed from hand to hand between members until they reached them. They were asked to send the money back the same way. My friends were amazed and delighted at the amount of trust within this new community they had discovered.

They had started their handbell team for their local church, thinking at first that it might be something for the youngsters to do. But they soon found that the idea attracted the adults too. And many of the large bells were too heavy for the children to manage. They ended up with a set of light hand chimes for a children’s team, as well as a full handbell team. They soon learnt how to accompany hymns in services, and held many fundraising concerts in the church as well.

My first handbell article was published in the Church Times about twenty years ago, and since I renewed my research, I’ve been fascinated by how much the international handbell community has developed since then. In 2008, the AGEHR hosted the 13th International Handbell Symposium in Orlando, Florida. In previous years these have also taken place in Australia, Japan and Korea, as well as in Canada and the UK.

Photo Inspiration

Some days, when I am scheduled to post here, I can't think what to write about. To avoid an absolute panic, I go to the photos I have on my computer and look for inspiration. Today was one of those days. And just look what I found.

Sam was a wonderful dog. I still tear up when I see this picture, though we lost him to cancer about 14 years ago. We've never tried to replace him as we found the ending just too painful to invite it voluntarily again. Maybe when we finally get to move to the seaside will be the time.

Meanwhile, I just try to remember all the really good times we had together. When he first arrived, he fitted easily in my cupped hands. He lived with our family, which included a cat, for eight years.

He tried to play with the cat and my daughter was horrified one day when she saw him with her head in his mouth. He was gentle though and didn't hurt her, but she was older and she knew how to put him in his place. Once I watched her walk along his back from one arm of the armchair he was lying in to the other. He just opened one eye, cocked an ear and whispered a growl. Hubby said he often came down early in the morning and found them snuggled together for warmth. They used then to jump apart as though they were illicit lovers and didn't want us to know.

Sam also liked to sit on my lap when we were relaxing. Often the cat would come and sit above him on my stomach and gradually he'd be pushed further towards my knees until he fell off and she had pride of place. It was quite comical. There is nothing quite as stress busting as relaxing with pets.

Isn't he just beautiful?