Wild West VI - Yellowstone At Last and Starlight at the Grand Tetons

The road from Cody was only opened on the day we entered Yellowstone, and the lake was totally frozen, even though the air temperature was in the 70s Fahrenheit. We could see the Grand Tetons range 50 miles away in the distance.

This is the Prismatic Geyser, so called because the minerals colour the steam. It's beautiful and magic.

 Here is the Yellowstone Canyon, with the distinctive yellow rocks that gave the park its name. The walls are a thousand feet high or deep depending whether you are on the top or the bottom. I walked the 600 feet down to one of the waterfalls, coming back up wasn't so easy. . .

Old Faithful at last erupting every 90 minutes or so to a maximum height of 185 feet. An amazing sight, although there are benches positioned in front of it where crowds of people wait.  All these volcanic features are within the  caldera or rim of the volcano that sits waiting under Yellowstone. . . even the hotel that we stayed in, which was a bit scary.

After Yellowstone, we headed south to the Grand Tetons. A range of mountains rising to over 13,000 feet and reflected in Jackson Lake.

At night, the stars were also reflected in the lake. I felt as if I could reach down and scoop one out.  The one in the centre is Venus, not the moon!

Wild West III - Devils Tower, as in Close Encounters, and Butch Cassidy's Cabin at Cody, Wyoming.

Did you see Close Encounters of the Third Kind way back in 1977? Do you remember how Richard Dreyfus piled mashed potato on his plate to make a mysterious mountain, and filled his house with mud and bushes to make an even bigger one? Well, here it is: Devils Tower in Wyoming - no apostrophe. The Native Americans called it Bear Lodge which I think is better. The story goes that seven little girls were being chased by giant bears. They jumped onto a tree stump and cried to the Great Spirit to be saved. The tree stump grew and grew whilst the angry bears scratched at it with their claws until it was over one thousand feet high, making the mountain that we see today, and the little girls became the seven Pleiades stars in the sky.

We approached the mountain along a red dirt track, wondering what the pioneers in their covered wagons must have thought when they first saw Devils Tower looming up, as they travelled through the red rocky cliffs and outcrops, topped by Ponderosa pine, and carpeted with pale green prairie grass.

At Cody, just east of Yellowstone National Park, we visited the Old Trail Town of historic wooden buildings, brought from all over the area. It was closed, but the caretaker said we could go in to take some pictures of the outsides, so we did. Here I am pretending to come out of Butch Cassidy's cabin from the Hole-in-the-Wall valley where the Wild Bunch gang hid out. OK, he was an outlaw, but I loved the film!
What's your favourite Western?

Wet Jubilee Weekend and a Visit to Hughenden Manor.

What a wonderful Jubilee weekend, despite the variable weather!
Yesterday, we visited Hughenden Manor, and managed to see the former home of Queen Victoria's Prime Minister, Disraeli, and the gardens before it began to rain.
The house, although grand, was quite intimate, and you could imagine guests arriving from London for one of the weekends that his wife, Mary Ann, would delight in organising. Of course, his most famous guest was Queen Victoria who came for lunch. We saw the chair that she sat on. Disraeli ordered the legs to be sawn off a bit so her feet could reach the floor.  It made me wonder though if she could still reach the table, or did she disappear from view as she sat down?
The other interesting part of the history of Hughenden is that it was used during the Second World War as a secret intelligence base to analyse aerial photographs and produce maps for bombing missions. The old Ice House is set up to show the photographic workshop, and the cellars of the house to recreate the lives of the people who worked there.
Thanks to everyone who took advantage of the Gipsy Moth free download over the weekend. Over 850 copies were downloaded! I hope that you will enjoy reading it!

Last Minute Gluten-Free Jubilee Cup Cakes!

Do you need to bake some cup cakes for that last minute Jubilee tea party?
The problem with gluten-free cakes is that they are often rather dry. I've found that the answer is not to skimp on the milk you add. I know you don't normally add milk to a Victoria sponge mix, but it is essential with gluten-free flour, and five tablespoons to the 3 eggs, 6oz self-raising flour, 6oz caster sugar and 6oz margarine works well. (Cook for 20 mins Gas 5 or 190 degrees Celsius.)
I got these decorations from Sainsbury's. I really wanted red, white and blue sugar strands, but they'd all gone, so I had to buy them separately. I particularly like the pearls contrasting with the red and blue. The resulting mix looks a bit like royal jewels!
Thank you for all your support with my free download offer on my novel, Gipsy Moth, which ends at 8am BST tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of this wonderful Jubilee weekend!

Gipsy Moth and KDP Select - Free Download Still Available this Bank Holiday!

Apart from having copies of my novel, Gipsy Moth, printed and available to read like a traditional book, I also published it online with Amazon Kindle.

I had heard that by joining Amazon KDP Select, you could offer your book for free for a period of 5 days within 90 days. It was easy to do, I just clicked the option beside the book title.

And over this Diamond Jubilee weekend,  I reached number 7 in the Historical Fiction Chart! 

I'd love to make it to Number 1, so if you haven't already downloaded my book, you can do it here, or forward the details to someone who might enjoy it. 

Waving to The Queen and Wellingtons full of Mud

When I was three, the Queen came to open a new building at the local university. I can't remember whether we  walked or went on the bus, but I do remember standing in the crowd lining the street with Edward, the boy who lived next door, and our mums, waiting to see her. At last the royal car swept by, and everyone waved their flags, then Edward and I (it must have been his idea because he was four) ran down the street to the end of the crowd and waved to her on our own (the world was a much safer place in those days), and she waved back. A special wave just for us!
I used to play a lot with Edward, and one day (he was full of good ideas) we filled my shiny new Wellingtons with wet mud to see if they were waterproof, much to our mums' horror!
I used this incident in my novel, Gipsy Moth, which you can download for free this Jubilee Weekend.

Queen Victoria and the Jubilee Concert

These are the preparations for the Jubilee Concert to be held outside Buckingham Palace on Monday 4th June.
You can't quite see Queen Victoria in this photo, but she's there behind that giant canopy. I wonder what she thinks about all the high tech wizardry going on around her? She probably enjoys the crowds of people surging forward to celebrate her great-great granddaughter's Diamond Jubilee, and is proud that Queen Elizabeth has achieved sixty years on the throne like she did.
Victoria has seen it all before, of course, as there was the memorable concert in 2002 for the Golden Jubilee with Brian May playing his guitar on the roof of the Palace!
If you can't get to London for the celebrations, or the rain is dampening your spirits, you can download my novel, Gipsy Moth, free this weekend from Amazon. Happy Jubilee!