• About Me
  • Books for Writers
  • Contact
  • Genealogy
  • Latest News
  • Novels
    • Mr Cavell’s Diamond
    • The Daughters of Red Hill Hall
    • The Drowned Village
    • The Emerald Comb
    • The Forgotten Secret
    • The Girl from Ballymor
    • The Pearl Locket
    • The Secret of the Château
    • The Stationmaster’s Daughter
  • Short Stories
    • Shortcut Through Time
  • The Forgotten Gift
  • The Girl from Bletchley Park
  • The Girl with the Emerald Flag
  • The Lost Sister
  • The Storm Girl
  • Work in Progress

Kathleen McGurl

~ Where past and present collide…

Kathleen McGurl

Category Archives: Holiday

It’s all go, here!

08 Sunday Jul 2018

Posted by kathmcgurl in Books, Holiday, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Promotion, The Girl from Ballymor

I’ve just returned from a lovely relaxing two week holiday in the Loire valley in France, in our motorhome. The days were spent cycling beautiful lanes between fields of wheat and vines, swimming in lakes or rivers, sitting drinking wine in the campsites.

Oh, and I also managed to get a lot of writing done! Somehow, possibly due to the laptop not being connected to the internet, I managed to get an average 1000 words a day written, which is more than I do at home.

And a complete idea for a new novel, set in France and featuring a chateau, arrived. Hurray!

I’m back at the day job tomorrow. And back to the Irish independence novel from today – it needs editing and returning to my editor in about a month so I need to crack on.

In other news, The Girl from Ballymor is on an Amazon Kindle promotion in the UK, and selling at just 99p. Hurry while stocks last, as they say! I’ve just received a lovely message from a reader about this book. It does seem to strike a chord with many people of Irish descent throughout the world. Hope the independence novel does as well!

twitter poster1

 

Advertisement

Catching up!

05 Sunday Jun 2016

Posted by kathmcgurl in Books, Campervan, Holiday

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Emerald Comb, Gertie, good news, Promotion

Oh dear it has been over a month since I posted anything on this blog. I had a fortnight’s holiday in Ireland in May, travelling round in our campervan, and I feel as though I have barely stopped moving since.

There is a little bit of bookish news to share – The Emerald Comb is currently on an Amazon promotion – 99p on Amazon.co.uk until the end of this month. Grab it while you can!

As a result of this, I now have TWO books with best seller flags which is extremely pleasing. Obviously I needed a screenshot of this – and here it is.Two best seller flags

While in Ireland we toured the south-west corner – counties Cork and Kerry. This is where my next novel is mostly set, so I found it very inspiring. No date yet for publication but I will let you know when I have one.

Gertie (our campervan) turned out to be perfect – better than we’d dared dream. I love everything about her. Just as well, because next year we plan to spend six months touring Europe in her! Here she is parked at the foot of Carrauntoohil, Ireland’s highest mountain, which we climbed on a beautiful and memorable day. That’s me, just before we set off.

DSCF1528

Birthday week

12 Monday Oct 2015

Posted by kathmcgurl in Holiday

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

Lake District, mountains

I made it. I have circled the sun 50 times. That sounds like a lot, but then again, it feels like just yesterday that I turned 21, so it can’t really be a lot.

My husband asked me at the start of the year what I would like to do for my milestone birthday. Would I like a surprise trip somewhere, perhaps a city break, or a party or what? Or would I perhaps like a few days walking in the Lake District?

Well, it was a no-brainer for me. I love mountains more than almost anything else and the Lake District feels like my spiritual home. Lovely husband then set about planning a walking tour – Coniston to Langdale to Wasdale to Eskdale and back to Coniston, staying each night in some of the lovely walkers’ inns which we’ve visited many times for a post-walk drink but have never stayed in before. (For those who know the Lakes well – the Sun Inn in Coniston, the Old Dungeon Ghyll in Langdale, the Wasdale Head Inn, and the Woolpack Inn in Boot, Eskdale.)

My husband let me plan the walking routes for each day – he knew I’d enjoy this. I picked two routes for each day – one over the summits and one at lower level in case the weather stopped us from going over the tops. Thankfully we were able to do the higher routes every day although we did not have any cloud free summits at all. We carried all thpicnice gear we’d need for 4 days – just basic walking gear plus a change of clothes for the evenings in the inns.

Big surprise on day 1 – my birthday – when I found he’d carried up a half bottle of Bollinger, two plastic champagne glasses and a small Thorntons chocolate birthday cake complete with candle. Now that’s my kind of summit picnic!

On that day we walked from Coniston over Wetherlam, down to Little Langdale and then across to the ODG via Blea Tarn.

Day 2 we climbed Bow Fell then Esk Pike, then down to Wasdale Hsca fellead via Styhead. Lovely walk.

Day 3 we climbed Sca Fell, and then down via Slight Side to Eskdale. This pic was taken part way up, with a break in the cloud revealing Burnmoor Tarn way below.

Day 4 was the biggie – skirted Harter Fell, dropped down into the Duddon valley, then up the Walna Scar track. We’d hoped to do Dow Crag and the Old Man of Coniston, but only if we reached the ‘decision point’ before 3pm. It was 2.55 when we got there, and we were very tired, but we went for it anyway. I’d recommend that ridge up Dow Crag – I loved it. We were on the summit of the Old Man at about 5pm and back down at the Sun Inn by 6.30, exhausted bmaput happy.

All in all we walked 60km in 4 days over the hills. Here’s a map showing the route for the map-junkies amongst you.

The week away was book-ended by a couple of rugby matches. We saw Ireland play Italy at the Olympic stadium at the start of the week, and then the fabulous Ireland v France match at the end, in the Millennium stadium in Cardiff. What an atmosphere at that second match! 50,000 people singing Fields of Athenry is something to be remembered for all time. I am only slightly hoarse.

Now it’s back to work, back to writing, and coping with being half a century old. It’s fine, really. Feels no different to being 49, except my knees are a little more achy than before.

Merry Christmas!

19 Thursday Dec 2013

Posted by kathmcgurl in Holiday

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Alps, Christmas, skiing, Tignes

Wishing all my blog readers a very merry Christmas, and a happy New Year. Whatever your plans, hope you have a great time.

I am off on Saturday on our annual ski holiday, to Tignes in France. We went to the same resort last year, and it is fabulous. We’ll be with a big group of friends in a budget hotel, and I can’t wait. I love being amongst the mountains.

2012-12-24 10.15.11

The photo is from last year – this is my hubby. Look very closely at his ski goggles and you can see a reflection of me, in my green ski jacket and helmet, taking the picture.

Oh, that pristine snow behind him! Sigh!

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 245 other subscribers

Blog post categories

  • Blogging (14)
  • Books (70)
  • Campervan (6)
  • Challenges (2)
  • Competition (1)
  • Free Download (1)
  • Goals (7)
  • Holiday (4)
  • News (1)
  • Running (2)
  • Uncategorized (40)
  • Writing (39)

Tags

Alps book book deal books bournemouth Carina characters charity Christmas cock-up Competition covers CreateSpace Daughters of Red Hill Hall editing Emerald Comb endings English language free Genealogy Gertie Ghost Stories Girl from Ballymor goals good news grammar Hengistbury Head how to inspiration Lake District Melvyn Bragg middle third Morgen Bailey motivation mountains Mr Cavell's Diamond Mum nanowrimo New Years Resolution novel Pearl Locket pier to pier planning podcast poll pretty things projects Promotion recommendations review RNA Running Sales self-publishing short stories Simon Armitage skiing storm swimming The Drowned Village The Forgotten Gift The Forgotten Secret The Girl from Ballymor The Girl from Bletchley Park The Lost Sister The Secret of the Chateau The Stationmasters Daughter Tignes time time management weekend work-in-progress writers block Writing writing advice

Archives

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Pages

  • About Me
  • Books for Writers
  • Contact
  • Genealogy
  • Latest News
  • Novels
    • Mr Cavell’s Diamond
    • The Daughters of Red Hill Hall
    • The Drowned Village
    • The Emerald Comb
    • The Forgotten Secret
    • The Girl from Ballymor
    • The Pearl Locket
    • The Secret of the Château
    • The Stationmaster’s Daughter
  • Short Stories
    • Shortcut Through Time
  • The Forgotten Gift
  • The Girl from Bletchley Park
  • The Girl with the Emerald Flag
  • The Lost Sister
  • The Storm Girl
  • Work in Progress

Blog Stats

  • 33,641 hits

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Kathleen McGurl
    • Join 245 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Kathleen McGurl
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...