Category: Challenges
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While we can, the joys of mobility . . .
One of the things about ageing is that easy mobility becomes compromised. Sometimes the ability to drive goes first, while often knees, hips, hamstrings, joints become compromised and a simple thing like a gentle walk becomes challenging. A reasonable expectation that our personal mobility is increasingly at risk is one of the primary factors in…
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With age, mellowness?
I took a call the other day from an old neighbour. We’d had a falling out over some promotion deal gone wrong, well over a decade ago, and I never expected to hear from him again. And yet there he was, on the other end of the line, chatting away as if . . .…
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A helping hand
When our big kitchen dining table broke the other day, I wasn’t sure it could be fixed. But after I’d squished under with our son and we looked at the broken culprit, a piece of wood stay that had sheared in half, I thought maybe we might be in with a chance. The screws holding…
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Camaraderie in commiseration
It’s not often, we find, that we meet someone who’s had a similar catering experience to the years in the hospitality sector that we’ve had. But yesterday we were privileged to chat with the owner of a local cake shop which had become what she called ‘a destination tea room’ to which people from a…
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Luxury of warmth
It was down to 2º outside last night. The auguries for a hard winter are becoming impossible to ignore, and so many people are facing complete destitution, having to choose between eating or heating, or neither. How, one might ask, can we be complacent in our delight at the warmth we may personally experience, when…
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Half-way joys . . .
It was a challenging day, but this morning, with any luck, will see the final finessing of the cluttered office into a place to display with pride. Imagine a home office with such a view of the valley beyond! Well, the reflection plays havoc with the view, and the internal bounce-backs are interfering with the…
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Joys of clearance
Our task today, since it’s damp and dreich outside, probably too wet for hedge trimming, will be to clear out the little porch. This porch has been my own domain, for my DIY tools, my writing space, and my LEGO studio, for the past decade anyway. But now we’re more interested in revealing the glorious…
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I was with Gudrid and Agnar yesterday . . .
It was Read a Book Day on the 6th September, recognised internationally as a day in which we should all curl up with a good book. I was delighted to have timed my completion of The Sea Road for this significant date in the calendar. I’m reading through Margaret Elphinstone’s bookshelf in a chronological order…
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Forsaking indolence . . .
Although some writing has flowed through my dancing fingers lately, I’ve been aware that indolence has crept up upon me and my daily discipline is suffering. So it was with some delight that I finally grappled with three fulsome critiques of my latest novel effort, and discovered that there’s really rather a lot of work…
Roads to Joy 