Skip to main content

Six thankful things

Once again another month is screeching into the distance before I have had a chance to gather my thoughts for anything more than family updates.  So this is just a quick one: six things I'm thankful for this month. 

1. More writing contacts made, through volunteering to write about FIGMENT Derby - an art festival with the emphasis on participation.  I wrote a post about it for Love Derby, and another one for the Silk Mill Museum (not up yet but hopefully will be soon).  It was pretty interesting writing about the same event twice, for different audiences.

Adding to the beanstalk at FIGMENT


2. Runner beans from the garden.  This is the closest I have come yet to my ambition to have a glut; we are not quite overwhelmed but certainly have a steady supply!



3. Theo growing up.  He is now basically out of nappies (not 100% potty trained but I'll spare you the details) and has graduated to a big bed.  Or at least he will do as soon as the mattress arrives next week; for now he is in the cot with one side taken off.

And he can ride a motorbike...

 4. The life of our neighbour Mr Stokes, who died last week aged 94.  He was a keen gardener till the last.  This squash was from his garden; eating it seemed a fitting way to remember him with thanks.



5. Blackberries starting to appear.  We went picking yesterday and got a reasonable haul.  I froze 500g and made the rest into a delicious crumble.



6. And finally, it's almost the end of the school holidays!  Actually, it's been a good five weeks.  The weather has been great, with only a few days of rain, and we've done some fun things, with more planned for the final week.  I always find myself looking forward to getting back into routine, though.

We enjoyed ourselves!

Comments

John Evens said…
I'll be honest, I found your Love Derby article difficult to read, which is unusual. It didn't flow for me. I couldn't tell where any paragraph was going to go. Maybe I'm too American these days or just not a part of the target demographic for this piece. But since you seem to be giving this writing thing a go, I thought I'd give you some blunt feedback. Have you tried Hemingway Editor? I mean, I love a complex sentence. If everything is easy to read you risk being boring. I just needed a bit of balance. Maybe have some creatively worded descriptions up-front to get my attention but then dumb it down to convey the actual information of what you did. Don't mix literature and news. Have both elements but keep them separate. I have no idea if this is good advice or not. I just found it taxing to have to enjoy the imagery and extract meaning from the same sentences.
Martha said…
Thanks for the feedback! Reading it again, I think I see what you mean; perhaps I went a bit over the top with description at the cost of just explaining what it was. Maybe because I knew what had happened it was hard to read it from the point of view of no knowledge of the event. Anyway, I appreciate the honesty and I'll bear it in mind for the future!

Popular posts from this blog

Greece is the word! Part 2: Epidaurus

For the first part of our Greek holiday, see here . Day 4 - continued After much waiting around, we acquired a hire car and set off for the second part of our holiday. I am so glad that Graham can get into a strange car in a foreign country and drive away with no problems. I would be a nervous wreck. Even Graham was a little spooked by the Athens traffic - very narrow lanes crowded with cars and buses, and mopeds zipping in and out of every available gap. I had left Google Maps set to "avoid tolls", which meant that we stayed off the fancy new highway and took the old road towards Corinth instead. There was practically no traffic, so although it was slower, it felt very relaxed. We passed hills, hotels and oil refineries. Along the way, we stopped at a supermarket for supplies and drank Green Cola at the beach over the road. Crossing the Corinth Canal at Isthmia, we started heading south through the mountains of the Peloponnese. The sky had been growing darker and darker, and...

Derwent Valley: Derby City and the Derwent Pilgrimage

It was 8 am and I was already hayfeverish, headachey and hot. Why on earth was I setting out to walk through the middle of Derby, when I could be up in the hills of the Peak District? No one was forcing me to do this section. I could skip it entirely. But I knew I wouldn't, because this was the next part of the Derwent Valley Heritage Way. And besides, I had a suspicion that it would be better than it looked. Alvaston Park was certainly a good start. It's a wide sweep of green grass and mature trees. I used to come here quite often when the boys were small. I was glad to see some of the planets were still there - although Mars has had a lot of feet standing on it, I think. Here's a tiny Toby in 2013 with Mars... ... and a more battered Mars today. Alvaston Park I kept off the roads for a while by following a cycle route. Even when I joined the traffic, it wasn't bad. The factories and office blocks had roses outside. This road, now the A5194, used to be the A6 coming in...

Derwent Valley: Exploring the Astons

It was the hottest day of the year so far, with a forecast high of 32°C, and I was setting out to walk around three places with very similar names: Elvaston, Alvaston, and Ambaston. I was mostly hoping they would be shady! I was expecting to park at Elvaston Castle Country Park, where there is pay and display parking, but I spotted a large layby in Elvaston village, which was not only free, but also shaded by a large hedge. This meant that I didn't walk through much of the country park. Instead I skirted the edges, passing the village hall, with its decorative windows, and approaching Elvaston Castle itself along an avenue of yew trees. Elvaston village hall yew avenue Elvaston Castle was built for the Earls of Harrington and sold to Derbyshire County Council in 1969. Unfortunately the council is struggling to find enough money to keep the building in a state of repair. The castle isn't open to the public, but the gardens are well worth a walk around. The estate church, St Bart...