I was gardening today with little Noah recuperating with me in the sunshine and my neighbour appeared to see how he was. We sat for a little and then she said she hadn’t been round to our other neighbour because she felt bullied and upset. I explained that the last…
Sometime around now
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Long Live The King
I loved watching the King’s coronation. it gave me tingles and on and off I cried a little. It’s the history. That’s what gets me. A throne from the 1400. Some words first uttered in 940AD. The emblem on top of the golden carriage made of timber from Nelson’s ship….
Poems & Stuff
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Menopause and the chill of gardening
I’ve been reading a book about middle age and this paragraph struck me: ‘Menopause, at its best, can be a sacred pause in the hurtling trajectory of life. It is a time when all the “dross” can be shed, all those years of compromising, adapting, pretending to be something we’re…
Poems & Stuff
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That dream again
That dream again. I’m always going ‘home’ or ‘back’ In any case I’m leaving where I am now. There is so much to pack To fit into a small case or supermarket bag Too heavy to carry. It’s taking too long whilst I go through wardrobes and drawers Making sure…
I remember in my 50's
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Dad on the answering machine
So I return to my home one day and see that my dad has called. He’s left a message on the answering machine. As always he sounds exasperated. As if I’m never in or I don’t call him straight back, which is not the case. Straight away I feel small…
Sometime around now
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Recurrent dreams
I have recurring dreams. One is being lost in Leeds. I ask people for directions to the station which depending where I am is so big you can see it on the skyline. Sometimes I’m very near and sometimes I’m in the depths of Leeds walking strange dark streets. Even…
I remember in my 50's
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Eggshells
I drove us home shakingIn need of a drink. Something to calm the nerves, like brandy or JD.All that walking on eggshells for the good part of a day. Watching the play of a relationship conducted on a tripwire.The slow and steady build up of ire, the furious stabbing of…
A Single Life
Single life No pit shaving and stinging deodorant No unwanted sex No fake tanning No cooking No make up No cleaning No fucking about with toenail polish No being told what to do No fanny ripping wax No being told when you’ve had too many No Saturday supermarket hell No…
Fabulousness
Female friendships created by the random acts of life Throwing us together, willy-nilly It’s a very special thing. These three women with history and stories. We didn’t meet at school, through work or in the pub. We aren’t meeting for coffee or doing lunch. But this calmness This chilled normality…
Weird shit…
It was back in the days of MSN groups. Somewhere around 2004ish. Fuckface Zuckerberg was still being fed pulped organic avocado and spinach and happily filling his nappy. So I had made a private group just for me and a few female friends. It was one of the first online…