I have rushes of both delight and alarm on seeing a bit of my life in a museum; it happens more often than I’d like to admit. This one was mostly delight. I found it at the Beamish museum this spring. In the bit of the afternoon where Mike and I had parted for some… Continue reading Nanna’s Tablecloth
I’ve not done much in the way of creativity this past week, but I’ve been keeping entertained with twitter and facebook. One of the things going around on facebook has been the meme about what was number one on the day we were born. And now it turns out that Clara at I Want My… Continue reading Monday Mixtape – Birth Dates
4 of 366 Another festive season officially over; time to hang up my fairy wings for another year. When I was growing up, we had a book of old music-hall piano songs, one of which was “Nobody Loves a Fairy When She’s Forty”. That always sounded ridiculously ancient to me – how on earth could… Continue reading Wings
It feels a bit self-indulgent to be picking out lots of my own pieces to mark the year, but doing just that is one of Mama Kat’s prompts for this week so I kind of had to join in. I bought this domain name on New Years Eve last year, although I didn’ t make… Continue reading My Posts of the Year
Do you see the concentration on that little face? The hands resting on the keys that, at first glance, look like the effortless hand-over-hand movement of a concert pianist? The beginning of family lessons in music, because we’re from Yorkshire and there was no point throwing good money away on an actual teacher. Learning mostly… Continue reading Making Music
Our Table Topics theme at Toastmasters last week was based around the advice that we’d give to our 10-year-old selves, given the opportunity to go back and have a word. Table Topics are normally given quickly, moments before having to stand up and speak with no preparation. They’re about as ‘life on the edge’ as… Continue reading Most Important Advice
I think it must be thirty or so years since I was asked to write a piece about Autumn. I’m not sure that I appreciated it as much then. I guess that the gap between one autumn and another seemed impossibly long at that age, and perhaps I hadn’t realised how much it signals a… Continue reading Falling for Fall
A potato. Kicked into the little bonfire and pulled out an hour or so later with a bit of green stick that happened to be left on the ground. Burned potato skin pulled open with a rusty fork. The same fork that had stirred the curried beans warmed up as a side dish. Beans curried… Continue reading Potato
