Strop

 Ellie is generally a bubbly, chirpy bundle of joy. Now and then she has a moment! This morning was one of those moments. When the Gorse Fox arrived at Zoe's, Ellie was in a full-scale sulk. Nothing was right. No suggestion would appease her. She stomped around the house until it was time to leave for school. Even the walk to school made no difference and she really would not interact with any of her usual friends. We handed her over to the teacher - and wished her good luck!

Back home it was another semi-isolated day at home. The Gorse Fox edited journals and Diane pottered. Late morning, Zoe phoned. She had heard some more regarding the interview. There was still no confirmation regarding an offer, but they were asking her to select which stores would be best for her to complete her training. As the Gorse Fox said yesterday, the omens are good.

The postman rang the doorbell. Two nicely packed parcels were handed over. The first two years of the Gorse Fox's journal were handed over.

You will know that he had previously processed 2010. That was an experiment to see how it turned out, whether the photos bled through the paper, and how the editing could be improved. This was a very useful exercise because it changed the approach.

These two books are the first books printed using the new approach.

I'm very happy with the cover (and the back of the book has a quick summary of the year's highlights).

Inside, the photos have been standardised so that they fit into left and right columns and have room to overlap where the text allows.

The index also seems to work well and helps the reader find specific people, places, or events that have been featured.

The Gorse Foox has continued to process the raw data for 2005 today. He is hoping to get that finished over the weekend and then send 3 more books off for printing. (Currently, the printer is working on 3 years that he sent last weekend).