Category: Creativity
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Gotta love that hard frost
There’s a special joy to be had, sitting in the warm kitchen, looking out at the hard frost over the East Allen valley, as the sun threatens to encroach over the horizon. I know this, because I’m experiencing it right now for myself. And if I am cheerful and ready for the day, it’s no…
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Doing my bit for
Oh no! The big day came and went and I was out among the stars! But I console myself with the realisation that, in some small way I’m doing my bit for the day, if only because yesterday I finished Chapter Nine of my emerging novel. There’s one more chapter to go and then it…
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Delights of fine dining
It felt like an Instagram moment, right here in our dining kitchen, when our cooperating chefs laid out sushi and prawns, avocado slices interspersed with spring onions over black cod and raw abalone, soft-shell crabs fried in crunchy tempura batter. What a delight, and a fruition of a Christmas voucher! The sushi was enveloped in…
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Shooting for the moon . . .
There’s a little watchword, in creative writing circles: during the creative process, banish that editing devil from your shoulder and just channel the flow. Shoot for the moon, in other words, and adjust the trajectory later. I have a friend who can’t get going until they hone the first sentence of their effort to perfection.…
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Sharing joy –> further joy
I could have used any number of icons to illustrate the concept of sharing, of course, but this one struck my fancy. In so many senses, we’re all part of a team, aren’t we? So if I share my joy, and that joy gets shared around with others, well well well, more joy accrues! And…
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Bit of a damp squib, here
My chagrin was just about everyone else’s delight, as the expectations of blizzard conditions here in the North Pennines reduced throughout the day yesterday. And now, this morning we have another light covering of what looks like wet, possibly slightly crunchy snow out there. Not a big blizzard blow at all! But the devastation down…
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Simple tidiness is more than its own reward
I’ve never been the tidiest person, so on the occasion (rare) when I do tidy the place up, and when I sit back and look at the space that’s emerged from a jumble of accumulated stacks of papers, I have to laugh at myself admiring the neatness! That huge expanse of white, upon which my…
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Where do things start?
Sometimes I think that things need to percolate a bit, or maybe it’s more like stewing, but after the simmering, new projects emerge almost as if they’re fully formed. But they have to start somewhere. The current tally of nest boxes around our little smallholding, up on the high fellside of Sparty Lea, is seven…
Roads to Joy 