welsh hills again

Well while we wait for things to happen on the house front I have decided to turn my mind to learning and doing.  I love that sense of stretching myself and gaining competence and I feel as if I have been floating along in my comfort zone for a while.  There have been so many things going on: lots of new babies (ten grandchildren now!  can you believe it?) and the buying of the plot and putting the house on the market.  Now the last of the new grandchildren is here safely, just ten days ago, and there is nothing to do with the house other than play the waiting game.  The garden is pretty cared for at the moment thanks to the 100 day project and we have an August full of visitors coming up.  So here is a week or so of lull when I think I am going to shake myself up a bit. I used to be a great list maker when I was working and have dropped the habit for most of the time.  Life is full of cooking and eating and going to yoga and choir and spending time ...

I have been wanting to do an Arvon writing course for years.  When I had the time I simply did not have the money.  When the money was not a problem it was because I was working so hard that I could not imagine giving a week of my hard earned holiday to something that did not involve the rest of my family.  But suddenly earlier this year I realised that I could do it.  I had the time.  I had the money.  Ian was going trekking with some friends in Norway.  There was not even the faint residual guilt of going away and leaving him looking after everything.  We would both go away.  Nobody would look after anything at all. I knew I wanted to write non fiction and when I found that a course on creative non fiction was offered in one of the weeks when Ian was going to be away it seemed entirely meant.  After years of writing with ease and pleasure, I have been struggling with writing the blog since my father died.  Maybe it would give m...

A blog is a funny thing.  I am feeling a bit lost with mine at the  moment.  What is it for?  I wonder if I should just decide once and for all what I want to do with it and stop fannying around. Some of my favourite blogs are gardening blogs, written by passionate and knowledgeable and fascinating people.  I love gardening.  It is one of my great passions too.  Often I will blog about my garden and will use the blog to inspire me to get out there with  my camera and to really see what is happening rather than rushing through, weeds in hand, on the way to the compost heap. But I am not a great gardener.  I am not an artist with plants.  I am not a plantswoman.  I am just someone who likes to grow things, most of the time.  I don't garden in winter or in the rain and cold.  Sometimes I just get bored with the relentless tide of creeping buttercup and bindweed and the way things die.  I love Garden Bloggers' Bloom Da...