Category: Challenges
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Rough seas before calm
The other day we explored further west and we ventured into the prevailing wind to reach the agitated seaside. These days I sometimes wonder if I’m not pushing against the wind only to reach a seascape in turmoil. The problem with writing competitions, though I’ve related how I’ve got several outstanding submissions, is that like […]
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A trip down memory lane . . .
I had cause yesterday to renew my mental acquaintance with the research fields of my youth, adult and middle-age experience. Now that I am old(er!) I have to traverse back some two decades to remember some of the epiphanies of my research endeavours. After finally being redundified from my postdoc passions at the hoary age […]
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Running hot water
Having lived not far from Hadrian’s Wall, where there’s a lot of archaeological evidence of the Roman occupation, I’m aware that the concept of hot water on demand is not exclusively a modern lifestyle. But perhaps the universality of running hot water, if one can afford it in these times of cost-of-living crisis, is more […]
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Snow on distant hills . . .
My beloved says, of snow, that she enjoys it from far away, in a scenic setting. Up close and personal not so much. Perhaps you have to be born into a snowscape to love it for itself, for the feeling of it. However the context, its presence heralds the cold. We passed below many snow-covered […]
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When life’s fraught, and there’s a momentary break in the clouds
It’s been a busy couple of days, but mostly filled with increasing anxiety about the immediate future. Will the house sale go through? Will the anticipated surgery actually happen, for our own surgeon daughter, so she can keep working for the NHS? Will we get everything ready for the imminent arrival of family? Will there […]
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The compelling relief of access, or egress . . .
When you live far up in the high fellsides, half a kilometre from the nearest road, you do feel properly isolated. That’s lovely, and we’ve loved the sense of living in a remote location for the past decades, of course. But there are challenges to this sort of lifestyle, and perhaps the most salient one […]
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Joys and trials of battery life
My joys lately have been constrained by a difficulty in keeping my laptop charged, which is in fact a problem entirely of my own making: I inadvertently left the charger plug across the border! I have, however, been working in good cheer on things like final clearance of the loft, so that all four rooms […]
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The joy of 50 words . . .
I’ve got so much work to do today, all on my keyboard. I’m behind in most of my writing tasks. But I was given a fillip of joy yesterday evening, and early this morning I think I’ve managed to finesse my 500 word short story with the grace of an additional 50. The task was […]
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Autumn wood
We ventured forth, just after 3pm, to walk in the woods, along from the end of the village, over the manicured golf club lawn and penetrating deep among the moss-covered trunks by the path littered with fallen leaves. The damp colours seemed to shimmer in the last light of the day. There’s a little circuit […]
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Resilience: the gift that keeps giving . . .
I don’t know how a parent teaches resilience to their children, except by some sort of example. We’re pretty sure that ours have seen enough situations where we’re down, struggling, and have somehow managed to get back up on our feet and try again. Let’s say rather that we’ve certainly felt we’ve had our share […]
Roads to Joy 