Tuesday, 6 June 2017

World wide Blog visitors

The stats of this Blog shows world wide visitors with The Netherlands and Russia on top.
Because my Blog is in English, I expected more visitors from the US (as is the case with my Skype Lifestyle Blog) or the UK but Russia surprises me. Dear Russian visitors: a warm welcome!

I was thinking about the countries where you, my visitor,  live and wondering how the weather is at your side. With the Climate Changes it might be high Summer in Alaska and mid Winter in Maroc. You can't tell.
In Holland it is mid Autumn right now: storms, thunderstorms and rain. Cosy indoors but nothing like Spring or Summer. And it is only two weeks from now that Summer begins. Oh dear....

My 'office' is my kitchen, my view is garden, fields and trees. And the trees are waving heavily at me, bowing in the wind. The trouble with storms in the Summer are the leaves at the trees. You will be familiar with the proverb "High trees catch much wind". Well, they do today!

Not a day for food shopping which was my plan. Instead I am writing a short story for a writing contest; dead line end of June. And writing is what I like to do most.
While typing away, I listen to the snoring sound of one of my dogs. They love to be outdoors but don't like this weather. They have chosen to sleep curled up, in their dog bed right in front of the large window with the garden view so if they wake up they can still see what is going on outside.
Even the birds in the garden keep quiet. And according to the forecast, we haven't had the worst yet.

www.helenvarras.blogspot.comAre you familiar with the word 'freubelen'? I doubt. It is similar to'fiddle (with), tinker (with/up).
With the word 'freubelen' you think of toddlers making beautiful things of paper but one can also 'freubel' (I love that word) digital. And that is what I did the past few days. I updated my Dutch Blog and simplified navigating on all blogs.
And I added Pinterst. One need to be on top of all the Social Media!

I hope you have much better weather, where ever you live. Enjoy the sunshine, enjoy each others company and above all: smile!

Helen

Saturday, 3 June 2017

Still visitors

Although I have not been posting for 4 years, there are still visitors to this blog. Thank you!

I know I have promised before to post more often but much has happened in the meantime.
Unfortunately my husband passed away in November 2016. I don't have to explain that this was a very, very sad time.
Early 2014 he was diagnosed with a heart problem and in July 2014 taken into hospital with a second heart problem on top of it. His health was critical at that very moment but still, his death in 2016 was totally unexpected. Not just by me but also his cardiologist and our GP.

Life changed dramatically without him.
I had to sell the motor home and are trying hard to generate an income, either a (part time)job or with writing.
And not only writing stories and books but also freelance writing, translations, proofreading.Please contact me when you think you need my skills

In March of this year, I published my very first e-book (in Dutch) 'Observaties' (Observations) and are planning to translate it in English this year, I received requests to do so.
The book contains 12 short stories which I wrote during our motor home holidays by observing people who behaved just a little bit different than expected.
I gave these people names and backgrounds. Therefore are all stories pure fiction.
The beautiful thing of writing is that you can combine a gentleman in France with a lady in Germany in a motor home on the North Cape. So many combinations are possible to create a story!

I write with the pseudonym Helen Varras, my e-book is for sale at bol.com, smashwords.com kobobooks.com and iBooks for 4,50 Euro's.

You will find all information on my 2 blogs Helen Varras (Dutch) and Skype Lifestyle (English)
You can find Helen Varras also on Facebook I would be more than happy when you like the page.

Although the massive loss and grief, life goes on, there is a new future waiting to be explored and lived.
Part of this future will be occasional updates on this blog. Feel free to subscribe to the other blogs, there are special buttons to do so.

From now on signed:

Helen