More than Writers

Image by TheAndrasBarta from Pixabay Two weekends ago I was sitting and waiting for a talk to start at the Festival of Faith and Literature in Winchester. To pass the time I got chatting with the lady sitting next to me. She had come up from the New Forest that day so talk turned to the ponies there and their charming habits of innocently wandering in front of cars. She said they now wear reflective collars so that they can at least be better seen at night. I suggested they could be fitted with red and green running lights, like boats, so drivers can assess their direction of travel as well as their presence. After a while she looked at me sideways and said, “Are you Ben?” We had only been at university together, [mumble] years ago. I was at her wedding. We hadn’t seen each other for around three decades so pardon my face-blindness. She had gleaned enough clues from our conversation to work it out. I’ve often driven through the town where she and her husband live. Since then...

If you’ve been reading my blogs for any length of time, you’ll know I love a good metaphor. Well, I’m not sure if this is a good one or not, so please let me know in the comments! As I was considering what to write this month, I thought about offering another really practical blog, but I did that last month. And I might next month. So instead, I thought of the things I’ve been doing that don’t involved writing, or business, or cleaning, or any boring stuff. One of them is planting potatoes. Nope, I do not consider this boring stuff. Give me a spade and a bit of ground and I’m a happy girl.   We’ve got a fab garden since we moved, but in order to prepare some ground for veggies, we had to clear a huge area of brambles and self-set trees that (apparently) was the old owner’s vegetable patch. It has great soil and, most importantly, a south-facing wall. But it was an absolute mess.  We couldn't even see the wall! Now, I’ve had my seed potatoes chitting nicely on the windowsill fo...