Pet Points

I’ve been tagged by Maria at First Draft Café. Maria is one of the few bloggers who I know in real life. We joined together to present a creative writing evening for local residents... a most successful event. Now Maria has tagged me and the rules are that I must tell you 10 random things about myself but I'm changing that slightly to 10 facts about me and my pets (not forgetting some cat photos at the end of the post.)

1. The first fact has to be that I still miss my darling dog Josh who died suddenly exactly a year ago.

2. Josh was only my second ever dog. When I met Mr A he came as one of a pair, him and Ben. It was definitely a case of ‘love Mr A, love his dog’.

3. I’ve always had cats since I was a little girl. My first cat was called Timothy.

4. For many years I was the slightly embarrassed owner of two cats who my ex-husband named Plink and Plonk. They were lovely boys but, with names like that, I preferred not to call them in from the front of the house.

5. When I moved in with Mr A we had to introduce Plink and Plonk to Ben. Ben was a very excited dog. ‘Living with cats! Yo and woof!’ How wrong can a dog be? They sat on the dining table and took swipes at his muzzle as he trotted past. ‘What did I do to deserve that?’

6. I had Plink and Plonk for about 19 years... and then came Rosie, a loving little tortoiseshell cat. She had been rescued from a family where the toddler had stabbed one of her kittens with a scissors and thrown another down the stairs. The social services removed Rosie and her surviving kittens and rehomed all but Rosie… until we came along. We had her for almost 17 years. She died two years ago.

7. Long before Rosie was born my mum embroidered a picture of a cat. To our surprise it was our Rosie. She was always being held up next to it to show off the likeness whenever we had visitors.

Wasn't my Mum clever!

8. In March this year, just before mum died, she told me that it was time I got cats again. On her advice I did just that. It was good advice.

9. In March Mabel and Charlie entered our lives. They are middle-aged, blue/grey, girl cats who desperately needed a new home. When we first got them they were very nervous and timid.

10. Mable and Charlie are no longer nervous and timid. Only last night they were racing each other up and down the stairs and leaping across us as we watched the television. It’s good to have pets in the house again.     

Mabel: Why are you disturbing our breakfast?

Charlie: What's this camera doing here?

Now it's time to pass the tag on. I've tried to choose bloggers who I haven't sent awards to recently but who are regular visitors to my blog. Apologies to those I've missed.

Sarah Pearson at Empty White Pages

Rebecca Emin at Ramblings of a Rusty Writer

Ali Bacon at Between the Lines

D. J. Kirkby at D. J. Kirkby

L. G. Smith at Bards and Prophets

Misha's Guest

I’m a guest over at Misha’s blog today. I’m talking about memories. Regulars to this blog will know that I’m a bit of a nostalgia obsessive. Haven’t I warned you all about it in my bio? But I’ve also made money through memory writing. It’s not all self-indulgence, so do please go on over to Misha’s blog and find out how.

Talking of nostalgia, I’ve looked back over some of my old blog posts and, it’s true. I am somewhat obsessive.

Here I’ve talked about quirky old cars from when I was a kid....

...and here and here I’ve posted up some old sepia photographs of my Grandma and Great Aunts.

...and... hmm... there are too many posts to list. Even posts about other things seem to come back to the topic of memories, right down to my recent blog post here about swinging in the back garden.

So what’s your favourite childhood memory?

Have you ever used a memory as a starting point for writing?

And have you been over to Misha’s blog yet? ;-)

   

Good news at last...

... even if it does mean another change.

I’m always going on about how much I hate changes and it’s true. Even as I type this, Mr A is cutting down a wisteria. I fought for that wisteria to live. It provides green leaves outside our bedroom window but Mr A was adamant. The problem is that it hasn’t flowered for about ten years now and, as Mr A says, “What use is a wisteria that doesn’t flower?” 

He’s got a new one to take its place but it’ll be years before it reaches those heights and now I’m going to have to look at bricks from my window instead of leaves... I hate changes.

But there’s one change soon to arrive in our house that I won’t hate at all. Mr A is getting his driving licence back!! After one and a half years of having to rely on me to drive him everywhere he’ll be regaining his independence. All he’s waiting for is the licence to arrive in the post. It’s almost like a kid waiting for the postman on his birthday.

When his eye sight was first affected he was on a course of chemotherapy, high dose steroids and Gabapentin. The specialists still aren’t sure if it was his condition or the treatment that caused the problem but either way he couldn't see well enough to drive. I’ve always been a reluctant distance driver and so we were both uncomfortable in our new roles as 'me the driver' and 'him the passenger'.

For much of last year I drove no further than the hospital and back because he was so ill, but over the last few months his health has improved and he’s been eager to travel once more.  I’ve had no choice and in a way it’s done me good. My driving confidence has improved no end. I’ve driven to Manchester and back two weekends ago and down to London last weekend and I’m determined not to lose that confidence once he’s driving again...

...although there is something that I definitely will be losing, exclusive use of our car! But one look at the grin on his face makes it well worth it... I think!

    

That Special Thinking Place

Do you have a special thinking place in your home, a place where you can ponder a difficult plot twist, work out a supper menu for guests or maybe chant a meditation mantra?

When I was a kid I used to escape to the end of our garden. It was only a small garden but through my little eyes it was a long way from our house. I used to sit on our swing and lose myself in the movement of the sky. This is a much-cherished photo of that swing with my big sister and me.

These days I have a few favourite places to sit in our house. A lot of my writing is done at the dining table. It’s a substantial piece of furniture which Mr A had made from old, oak floor joists. If we ever have to shift it we’ll need an elephant and tackle.

For inspiration I sometimes sit halfway down the stairs. The landing window looks out over the tops of the fir trees. I love that view... even if it does make me feel a bit like Kermit’s nephew, [a TV Muppet Show reference!]

The best view of all is from our bedroom window. The sun sets behind a row of poplar trees and some evenings the colours are so amazing I can hardly believe they’re real. This is my special place for a quiet thought, a hope, a prayer...

...and now I have a new favourite place which takes me right back to my childhood... only in a more sedate fashion. We’ve bought a garden swing-seat.

I thought it would be an ideal place to get on with some serious writing but there’s only one problem. This is the view...

Where’s your favourite place?

   

My Chicken Soup Supper

Once or twice recently I’ve mentioned a useful all-in-one-pot chicken supper that I’ve created with the added advantage of having an almost authentic, just-like-my-Great-Auntie-Lena-used-to-make chicken soup the following day. A lot of you asked for the recipe and so I forced my friends to come over and share this meal with us so that I, in turn, could share it with you.

All you need are two carrots, a parsnip, two sticks of celery, a leek, an onion, two cloves of garlic, some potatoes (freshly dug from the garden, I might add!) and some chicken pieces placed in a large, shallow casserole dish.

Par-boil the potatoes, chop the vegetables and sprinkle it all over the chicken.

Add chicken stock, Telma stock cubes preferably, until it almost reaches the top of the dish. Cover with tin foil and cook for two hours. Check it every half hour, turning the vegetables and potatoes so they don’t dry out. For the last half hour leave the tin foil off so it all goes lovely and brown.

Not quite cooked yet!

The dish can go straight onto the table... which Mr A prepared earlier.

And the proof of the pudding supper...

Is in the eating!

Important point: The gravy is not gravy. It’s chicken soup! 

Put it in the fridge and don't worry that it turns into jelly. Heat it up next day and enjoy your chicken soup with lokshen (vermicelli) or knedlach (dumplings).

Who said cooking was difficult? J

  

Rock and Roll! At my Age!

I’m just about recovering from our nice, restful weekend away, but then I’ve only got myself to blame. We’ve been to the Warners Holiday Hotel near Harrogate and I dragged Rod along to one of their Rock and Roll classes. Warners is the sort of place where you have to join a class or two, get involved, or you haven’t had the full “Warners experience”.  The problem is, I never think these things through. I mean, one and a half hours of Rock and Roll! At my age! I ask you!

It never looks that tiring when you watch the celebrities doing their routines on BBC TV’s Strictly Come Dancing. They don’t ever have to sprawl across a table gasping and sipping water and I’ve never seen any of them having trouble walking afterwards. But that’s them. This was me! And what a shock it was! Not only is the music scarily fast, but the teacher wouldn’t let us get away with walking through the routine. Oh no! She kept shouting out, ‘Remember to bounce!’...

...One and a half hours of bouncing! At my age! I ask you!

And so that’s why I’m only just recovering from our nice, restful weekend away. In future, if I want to have a dance I’ll stick to the hand jive. It’s so much more dignified.

Anyone who can remember the Hand Jive first time around, the one with Johnny Otis, will have a bit of a nostalgia trip watching this You Tube clip. I don’t remember it myself, of course... honest I don’t! But I dare say some of you will.   *dives for cover as assorted blogger missiles whistle through the air*

My words through an artist’s eyes

I’m trying something new with my writing. I’m working with an illustrator. I suspect a couple of sharp-eyed followers will already have noticed a contradiction. Two posts ago I wrote of my dislike for change and now I’m about to embrace it. But when it comes to writing, I’m always keen to explore different styles and if I ever stop trying to improve my work then it’ll be time to hang up the keyboard.

Sue Hague

I have my writing group to thank for this idea, yet again. [They’re lovely, are my writing group!] We all belong to a children’s book group which meets once a month to read and discuss children’s books... and to have lunch, of course! One of the members is an artist. Her name is Sue Hague and whenever we have a meeting at her house we are in awe of her artwork, especially the finely detailed flower paintings. She is passionate about observing and recording all those tiny details in the world around us, the details that most people don’t notice... the same details that I, as a writer, try to record with words, whereas Sue uses a mixture of acrylic, watercolour and soft pencil.

Last week Sue ran an art workshop for us writers. We’ve never done anything like this as a group before. It was an amazing experience if a little messy... 

Our first task was to rub oil paint onto an acetate sheet and scratch a picture onto paper which had been placed over the top of the paint. My result was a little smudgy but the activity had been satisfying and absorbing in a compulsive sort of a way.

Alex Gutteridge (left), me in the middle and Debbie White who I suspect had prior art training! 

Pippa Goodhart

We worked with materials that I never thought could go together... like a pen, some bleach and a sheet of soft coloured paper. The effect appears gradually. It’s another fascinating process. This isn’t my attempt. It’s Pippa's.

I didn’t produce anything that would hang on my walls but then that wasn't the aim of the morning. What I did come away with was a lot of inspiration, especially when it comes to looking at those finer details of life that are all around us... but there was more. I had a chat with Sue about the art of illustrating and it was then that we planned our collaboration. I have a number of children’s picture book manuscripts, words only, with written illustration guidelines where relevant. I have a rough idea of what the pictures might look like but I was interested to see if Sue’s expert input would add another dimension to my work.

As soon as I got home I emailed a manuscript to her. She came straight back to me with ideas that were already ‘running through her head’. Changes began to happen, improvements began to emerge, as she suggested some fine tuning to my story line, things that I wouldn’t have thought about on my own. She’s now working on some rough drafts and we’ll be meeting up very soon to merge our ideas. We’re hoping to make a joint submission and although we both know that it could well join my list of rejections, it’s been extremely useful to look at my words through an artist’s eyes... and who knows, it might even be accepted!