Writerly Things...

At last, after months of searching I finally found my writing desk!  I had a picture in my mind and nothing I'd seen, in shops, on line had fitted my mental tick list - it had to be small (ish), have a couple of drawers, space at the back for storing things and most importantly have some character - I was thinking along the lines of a vintage french/swedish design in wood, limewashed the palest off-white.  I've trawled the usual places and the unusual places to no avail, until one evening driving home from work I spotted my desk, sitting proudly in a shop window only two minutes from home!  Even better - I got it at a reduced rate - meant to be, destiny...
So, I had a fun hour 'dressing' it and this blog entry is its christening, the first time I've sat at it to write; the first of many I hope and now I can indulge in my other secret (or not so secret) obsession - stationary, and all the other writerly paraphilalia that I'm addicted to, like heart shaped paper-clips; vintage paper notebooks and pens in rainbow hues.

My Book Log

Ready to write

Petal Power (picked from the garden)

Ten Things I'm Thinking About...

Lazing in the garden

• Tomorrow's 'short write'
• having a bath
• wondering how I can be so tired and it's only Monday!
• Will Geordie's fur grow back?
• Booking a hotel in Paris
• ordering some new books for my kindle
• writing some cards at my new desk
• calling my family
• will I make it to the gym after work tomorrow
• what colour nail polish shall I paint my toes

Family Ties

A few weeks ago, when I was home in Newcastle, my Dad brought out an old leather suitcase.  It had been lying in his study for some years, since my Grandpa's death and he had only just begun to go through it.  Inside was a cornocopia of items; things my Grandpa had kept because they had meaning for him and my Granny.  Through these objects I had brief access to a tiny slice of the things they deemed important - it was humbling.  Inside this leather case were cards and congratulations messages to them on the engagement and marriage of my parents; their order of service; letters my parents sent to them from Kenya, complete with details about me and when my sister was born, a letter detailing how ill she was.  There were exercise books that I had written in, sentences that I had copied when I was no more than four and bizarrely some passport sized photographs of my friends from primary school and another photograph of the lady who lived next door - Auntie Rae! Who knows how they came to be in there.  Tucked away under these relatively new items, was evidence of family long gone - my greatgrandparents death certificates/birth certificates, detailing the Welsh side of our family.  Going through all these things with my Dad gave me a wonderful sense of continuity as well as a strong feeling of belonging to a family that had a history, one that I was now playing a part of, and one that my children would go onto play their parts too...

Agape

I realise that it's been a while since my last blog post! Life and all that accompanies it, I guess, sometimes gets in the way of recording it!As coincidence would have it, today I walked again along the Wey navigation (see last post) , in warm sunshine and a blustering breeze.  In the intervening weeks I've been up to Northumberland, hosted friends from Australia, celebrated Easter and watched a very royal wedding.  I'm not a 'royalist' in any sense; I don't stalk them and the news pages; I don't queue to see them make a 3 second appearance along London streets but I was looking forward to Will and Kate's wedding and was happy to fight their corner with the more grumpy of my friends.  After all, in a world where headlines are dominated by Tsunami's, earthquakes, wars, and other pestilence, in my book a wedding and a chance to celebrate some of the good things life has to offer, namely love, is always worth the effort, royal or not.  So here's to love in every guise, filial, romantic, agape, I raise a glass to you...