Richard surprised me this morning with a gorgeous amethyst ring. It's an unusual setting, with a delicate bow at either end of the oblong stone. I knew nothing about it until he handed it to me in the jeweller's box. That is so like him; he's always buying me little presents all year round, whether there's anything formal to celebrate or not.

Yesterday I put a few more tweaks to a short ghost story, The Homecoming, which is set in Parkgate just down the coast from us. I'll workshop it a Riverside Writers before I call it finished, though, as I'm not totally sure it makes 100% sense yet. Sometimes when an idea is clear in your head you can't always see that the words on the page don't convey that idea clearly enough. That's where Beta readers come in handy.

On Friday last week I was invited back to City Talk radio to record four more of my short stories: The Club, New Year's Day, Clara's Wristwatch and The Faerie Tree. These will be broadcast during Roy Basnett's Zone Unknown show on Fridays between 10pm and 1am (GMT) on City Talk 105.9 FM.

Alternatively, you can hear The Club at any time throughout this week by going to the website at: http://www.citytalk.fm/showdj.asp?DJID=48793 To hear my bit, move the curser almost to the end of the slide.

If anyone is wondering why this LJ layout has been changed back to the original design, it's because the new one "ate" my guestbook. Not than many people have actually signed the guestbook anyway...!!! But it's a sparkly little gadget and I like it.

While I was in Liverpool on Friday, I visited the World Museum (as it now calls itself) on William Brown Street. No longer do visitors hike up mountainous steps to reach the entrance. Grand they may look, but those steps really were a bit scary. Anyway, I wanted to view the new Egyptian Gallery, but effortlessly spent three hours meandering round the entire place, taking in the aquarium (no seahorses now!) and the Romanesque statue section, which used to be bigger, and my favourite sculpture was absent. There was a lively display of Tibetan statues, and a gorgeous Asian goddess with twenty-four arms, and absolutely heaps of interesting, beautiful or educational things to see.

The Egyptian section didn't seem to have much new in it, unfortunately (in fact, I can remember pieces from the old displays which were not on show now, but maybe they're being restored?) However the collection's presentation has been greatly improved.

I was standing beside a mummy when a mother and two small boys approached. One of the boys wrinkled his face and loudly declared, "That's disgusting! Wrapping up dead bodies in bandages! That's horrible!" The other boy kept watching the mummy's fingers for any signs of life. I don't think the tea shop stocked tanna leaves....

We know we're not supposed to be on here....

Wrote 1,850 words this morning, which takes the total word-count for Bethany Rose up to 23,250 so far. Writing the spooky bits is such fun...!

Warm spring sunshine yesterday enabled me to get some weeding done. Today's torrential rain has forced me to postpone further efforts. We have three yellow crocus and a patch of snowdrops in bloom. What happened to the rest of my crocus though? I planted heaps of them four years ago, and there has been less each year. Anyway, yesterday I had no sooner finished weeding a stretch of one border when a cute little robin came to investigate. I was looking out of the kitchen window as I was washing my hands, and saw a wren on the fence.

Bathed the dogs yesterday. I managed to capture them in the bathroom by stealth. Otherwise if they hear the 'B' word they hide under the bed and will not come out! I bathed Emily first as she was the cleanest. I'd no sooner towelled her dry than she jumped back in the bath to torment Ygraine. So then I had to clean the bathroom too--completely.

Sylvia's beloved dog, Gelert, died on Tuesday. He'd had a couple of peculiar wobbly spells recently, and then he had another and died twenty minutes later. Poor Sylvia is devastated. As any pet owner will tell you, shen a pet dies it's like losing a member of your closest family--more so, quite often, as people often far prefer their pets to their legal relatives.

Reminder: Until Friday, you'll still be able to hear Spanish Jones (part one) on http://www.citytalk.fm/showdj.asp?DJID=48793 Just move the curser along almost to the end of the show, as I'm on then.

Yesterday I was at Radio City in Liverpool to meet producer Ali McBride. While enjoying the amazing view across the city centre from the top of Radio City Tower, she told me about Roy Basnett’s Friday show, Zone Unknown
- http://www.citytalk.fm/showdj.asp?DJID=48793.

His guests have included the Most Haunted team, parapsychologists, Bigfoot hunters and a white witch, and he hosts debates on conspiracy theories.

Then we stepped into a tiny recording studio and I narrated Spanish Jones (part one), a tale of selkies, smugglers and ghosts. Ali said she will to add a few sound effects, such as the cries of seagulls and the sounds of the ocean.

While it’s only part one of a three-part story, it is complete in itself. Parts two and three are set in contemporary times, whereas part one is historical.

It will be broadcast on City Talk 105.9 FM tomorrow (Friday 6th) sometime between 10pm and 1am (GMT).

You can hear the latest show (or catch Friday’s show later on Saturday!) by visiting the City Talk URL given above.