Category: Perseverance
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Checking out the willows . . .
Really, it’s anybody’s guess whether my willow plantings will be a grove someday or not. There’s definitely signs of growth in numerous whips, much more than last year evinced, but still. It’s such a harsh environment up here, until the trees create their own shelter and the succession of plants accumulates behind them. Some willow […]
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Opportunism: not such a nasty word
Any biologist will tell you that without opportunism, few plant species would survive. Their entire reproductive strategy seems to be built on the chance that a wandering seed, among many that are lost, might find a suitable place to germinate and grow. Whether the distribution is by wind, by animal, or by bird, eventually the […]
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Learning new things . . .
Embarrassed as I am to have been writing earnestly for the past three years and only now discovering a wonderful editing tool, I’m delighted at the same time. I’ve been fortunate to join a specialist writing group: five would-be novelists working in the science fiction genre, who have begun to share their work together. As […]
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The joy of the reveal
When the power flicked off, right in the middle of the bread baking, we thought it was probably a valley-wide outage. But no, the special indicator light showed me that power was still coming in to the house; actually the domestic RCD switch had tripped out. We wondered, as you do, what could have set […]
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The joy of building on criticism . . .
Let’s face it: nobody really enjoys criticism, but most of us suffer it with a pained expression. That’s to say, how could you not find my most recent contribution supremely edifying, wonderful and a sheer delight? But since you mention it, I shall try to understand what you’re saying. Before discarding your unwelcome contribution to […]
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Reclusive eccentricity . . .
I believe that I have Florence Trevelyan’s odd and lasting legacy to thank for my renewed interest in creative writing. We visited Taormina in 2012, a rare holiday, where we discovered the public gardens that she left to posterity. A plain, rather forbidding woman, she made her life in Sicily after a Grand Tour of […]
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Earth Day assessment . . .
Yesterday, the 22nd of April, was Earth Day, and I was intrigued to revisit a poem I’d written a couple of years ago about tree planting and recycling. It might be worthwhile to assess just how well these projects are going, but first, the recycled poem: Stewardship in a Smallholding Surrounded by grazed fellsides, meadows […]
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Some tasks are guaranteed to provide joy
My professional days were spent, mostly, chasing needles in haystacks, and never being sure, from the outset of any given project until perhaps half-way through the contract, that the needle would be found. Sometimes it wasn’t, towards the end, and so my professional days were numbered. Writing novels is not entirely dissimilar, I’m finding. You […]
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The joy of persistence
Halfway through my editing odyssey, I know it’s not really Homeric, but it does feel like I shall have to begin again when I reach the end. After all, my first novelistic attempt went through seven drafts, while my second became a rather convoluted series of fragments searching for a story. This third novel feels […]
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Can pretend joys become real ones?
When lonely Geppetto carved out a wooden boy to keep him company, he didn’t realise that the magic of creation might reveal a hidden side. But perhaps his effort was an early manifestation of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, the work of imagining a better way, rather than letting the negative ruminations overwhelm. I do not like […]
Roads to Joy 