Ghostly tales and knitting keep one homesitter busy

Posted on 19 March, 2018

Chester City of Ghosts by Mary Ann Cameron

Many of our homesitter’s use the spare time they have on assignment to catch up on hobbies such as painting, drawing or cooking. However, one of our homesitters, Mary Ann Cameron went one step further and wrote a book!

Mary Ann has been working as a homesitter for just over four years. Mary Ann enjoys home and pet sitting because it gives her the chance to explore different parts of the country, as well as have time to spend on hobbies or other projects.

When not on assignment she leads ghost tours around Chester, which is reputed to be the UK’s most actively haunted city. When she decided to write a book all about the ghosts of Chester she took the opportunity on one of her long homesitting assignments to research and write a book, aptly named, Chester City of Ghosts.

Mary Ann explains, “I have been a tour guide of Chester for ten years and that includes doing ghost tours. When I became a ghost tour guide I researched the old stories but I also get a news report of ghost activity every week or so. Occasionally my tour groups witness ghost activity and this was the main motivation for writing the book.”

Prior to starting writing Mary Ann had to visit all the places in Chester noted for ghost activity and check what was currently happening. She also needed to take photos of all the buildings and plan the layout. Once she had this she was ready to put pen to paper. The opportunity came when she had a long homesit in London.

Mary Ann said, “Having the time to write was fantastic. I was able to put the text of the book together, as well as do more research and plan the final format with my graphic artist friend. The book was launched in 2015 at the beautiful St John the Baptist church in Chester. The building dates back to the 10th century and has with a superb Norman nave, lots of atmosphere and even a couple of ghosts of its own.”

“The church is also the recipient of all the profits from the book - well, it's rather difficult to give money to the ghosts themselves! So far the book has raised over £500 for the church,” adds Mary Ann.

On other long homesits Mary Ann has completed a knitted bedspread, with different patterned squares and a crochet border, as well as finish an extremely complicated Kaffe Fassett cross stitch which she’d been working on for over 10 years, called Overlapping Squares.

Mary Ann concludes, “It's supposed to be a cushion cover but it's now framed and is displayed for all to admire – effusive admiration of it is a condition of entry to my house! I'm looking forward to my next homesit and shall go prepared with another task to complete.”

If, like Mary Ann, you would like to explore the UK and have time to spend on hobbies then home and pet sitting could be the ideal flexible career choice. The role entails staying in people’s homes and looking after any pets, whilst the home owners are away.

As homesitters are not permitted to be away from the home for more than three hours during daylight hours and one hour after dark – there is plenty of time for hobbies or even writing your next blockbuster! Take a tour of our website to find out more and apply.

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