Meme

I was tagged to do this latest Meme by KittyB via her Village Fate blog. She began by describing why she blogs – an occasional diary online – and lovely it is too. I think that’s why I enjoy reading blogs so much. It’s a bit like looking into someone’s house when they’ve left the curtains open and the lights on – a glimpse into someone’s life, a snapshot if you like. It’s also why I love trolley gazing in supermarkets and peering into cabriolet cars left parked with the roof open. It just invites a good look doesn’t it? You can tell a great deal about a person from what is in their trolley and the things they accidentally leave on public display.

I’m not sure really what my blog is. Is it an online diary? Or is it the place I rant against the world? Or is it just a collection of random thoughts? Probably all of the above. I’m not a great sticker to a theme. My husband says I have a butterfly mind – I flit from flower to flower, or rather from thought to thought, in a non sequitur kind of way. It keeps him in a permanent state of bemused confusion. Actually that would be a better title for my blog. Not so much ‘Life in the Preseli Hills’, more ‘Bemused Confusion in the Preseli Hills’.

Here’s some more.

Flower of the moment?

Tulips. Lovely inky dark ones from my garden. I don't know what they are called because I bought them for the colour rather than the name.

What are your current obsessions?

Running. Writing. Deciding whether to go back to work part-time as a journalist or not. Buying plants. Gazing at the new lawn I have sown. Gazing at the border looking for signs of life from the annual flowers I have sown. Doing the same with carrot seeds. Sowing seed after seed after seed. Watering pots. Weeding. Eating Spanish strawberries from Tesco. Avoiding housework.

What are you reading?

I have just finished ‘What I talk about when I talk about running’ by Haruki Murakami. It is a beautiful book whether you run or not, full of wisdom about life and getting older. It was one of those books that is so much a part of you while you are reading it that once you have finished you have a sort of bereavement process where you get used to life again without it.  When I have recovered I am going to have another go at reading ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ by Khaled Hosseini. If I fail for the third time I’ll give up. I seem to be scared of it for some reason.

Which item from your wardrobe do you wear most often?

At the moment my new Craghoppers mocha fleece and high rise bootcut jeans from Next. The jeans were only twenty quid and are the equivalent of a tummy tuck in denim. There’s some kind of flattening miracle in there somewhere.

First spring thing?

The dawn chorus. The first morning coffee outside in the sunshine (listening to the birds). Not today though, it’s cold and windy. I love drinking my coffee outside, but not when it is blown out of the cup before I can drink it.

What's for dinner?

Good question. Fish perhaps? Maybe a baked potato and some salad? I might even cook the lobsters that are still hiding in their icy shrouds in the freezer. Most likely it’ll be a hot and sour Thai-style soup with tiger prawns from the freezer and coriander from the polytunnel.

Planning to travel to next?

Devon (as usual) to see adorable friends N & A in lovely house with yummy food and posh wine. “Travel” suggests abroad, but my passport expired last October.

Best thing you ate or drank lately?

N’s venison sausage casserole with butter beans at Easter.  I’ll do anything for a good sausage/butter bean combo. Delia’s Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding accompanied by an utterly fabulous Cloudy Bay Late Harvest Riesling N&A brought back from New Zealand. I was just getting my taste buds back after my cold and I think my taste buds died and went to heaven.

Favourite ever film?

Slumdog Millionnaire. Difficult to say ‘favourite ever’ because I am fickle, but I loved this film as it is so heart-breakingly awful-beautiful, with a perfect ending.

Last thing you bought?

Adidas running top in ‘rave pink’ and its matching charcoal grey three-quarter length leggings with rave pink go faster stripes. Before that it was the Craghoppers fleece and the jeans. Why don’t I get to buy chi-chi little shoes and dresses? Designer handbags? Designer anything? Sigh.

Care to share some wisdom?

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Actually that is Ghandi’s wisdom, not mine, but it is so totally true and inspired me to write a novel about it.

If you were a god/goddess who would you be?

Nigella, Domestic Goddess.