Saltwell Park

Coots are great

On first December I met a friend for a cuppa and a walk in Saltwell Park, Gateshead, and it was a tonic.

I fell in love with this place in the autumn of 2023 while staying in a Victorian house of multiple occupation on Saltwell View when I was separated from my now completely ex-partner. It was the house that inspired the story I had published back in April in Uncommonalities V, ‘The House of Stopped Clocks’, and in which the park and its precocious squirrels get a mention.

I did a lot of writing and editing in various parts of the park during my three-month stay in the area, and on the first day of advent, if you observe such things, I felt compelled to once again take up a bench in the sunshine to jot notes for this final post of 2024. My friend had asked during our chat something that had been on my mind as this arbitrary marker of time winds down (or ramps up - who knows?) and another looms on the figurative horizon:

What are your plans for next year?

Such a loaded question, given the changes and things in process in my own little orbit. Something I’m considering - if I stay in the North East - is moving back to the Bensham area of Gateshead when I need to leave where I’m, currently laying my head and stashing some of my stuff. My contract is up in September and good transport links to Newcastle with quieter surroundings and cheaper cost of living are desirable. Plus the jewel that is Saltwell park is a huge draw, and Gateshead Central Library became another haven altogether for me.

My immediate priority for 2025, though, is peddling this manuscript I’ve been poking together for years and seeing what’s next for it and my writing life. More short fiction perhaps, and maybe trying a novel blending more memoir and something speculative. Could I manage something funny or satirical? What even is satire in this world anymore? The only way to find out is to get cracking.

More paid work to facilitate these impulses and habits of mine will be needed. It’s all possibility as I settle into a new phase of becoming.

What about you? What are your plans or aims for 2025?

Thanks for sticking with me. I’ll see you on the other side. Enjoy some coots.