Menaced By Cows

I’ve spent the past week (?) I have no idea anymore, at my dear pal Katharine Dever’s place in Bristol, UK.

Last time I saw Katharine we drove to San Francisco from LA for the night, attended an event she was part of, raised a wee bit of hell, discovered our mutual adoration of Dolly Parton and made the long trip back home.

This time we watched “9-5″ and narrowly avoided being trounced by cows in a field near her house.

Climbing a barbed wire fence = uninvited

They don't look scary but they kind of really were

I don’t know if it was because we were trespassing on their turf or if they sensed that we’d dined on beef stroganoff the night before, but they, all 20 of them, ran at us at once.

The evil stroag

I started writing a novel a couple years ago and the problem with it is that I’ve got these great characters who I love and really enjoy writing, but I’ve got no plot.  They’re all just sitting there, staring at me, growing into real people, spitting out witty one liners, while they wait for me to give them something to DO.

It reminds me a bit of this post.

Because nothing actually happened after the cows ran up and scared the crap out of us.  They just started sniffing around and then we took a bunch of pictures with them and then we went for a walk.

Doop de doo.

But I have loved loved loved my stay here.  Katharine is one of my favorite people and England is just so…English – stone houses, regal gardens, blustery winds, proper manners, hilarious verbiage:

Ah it’s crap, it’s pants

Let me just get my bits and pieces together

You want some crisps then?

I showed up for a few days and ended up not really leaving.  But tomorrow I finally go to  London to see another friend, then California for some meetings and then………………it remains to be seen.

Plots.  Who needs them?