No yak, crusty sourdough starter and an end in sight

31. Thursday 5 February 2026

I only wrote one chapter today but it was a key chapter and had to be written from scratch, so no copying and pasting from version 2. I felt quite excited when I finished stenoing and writing it as the end is now very much in sight. I have three chapters to write, and I’ll need to rewrite them all, except possibly the final chapter, which anyway is very short. My word count is 96,000, so this version will end up being less than 100,000 words (which will be cut). It was good to feel excited and I’m relieved that I’ll hopefully be finished with rewrites and finally ready to edit it, and well ahead of my 14 February deadline.

                Today’s chapter, I part-stenoed and part-typed. It’s kind of mystifying to me that I mix it around. However, there are certain sections that I feel a need to type, so I do.

                Tomorrow, I’ll be having my regular writing chat with Narissa and I’m looking forward to telling her about the progress I’ve made since we spoke last Friday. I’m also hoping to be able to finish … dare I say it? Tomorrow!

In other news, I have partially cooked my sourdough starter and Chef Google tells me I need to start again with the beginnings of this loaf.

  I picked Chris up from Lockerbie station this afternoon. It was good to have a walk and get out for a while. I’d lit the fire in the morning and it was a real joy to come home to a warm living room. I stopped off at Samye Ling, the Tibetan temple that is about nine miles down the road from the house. I fancied a late afternoon walk around to clear my head. Good call; it was, as ever, peaceful and calm and I saw the usual ducks but also a lot of pheasants, including a black pheasant, and a rabbit. No sign of the yak, though I’ve only ever seen it once. There are all sorts in this part of the world, the stories I could write and tell!!