well, fancy that, i've been here a year. my, how time flies. i've come to like this space and have acquired a number of very good blog friends indeed, and that's been the pleasure of this for me. and unanticipated, as this blog didn't set out with that in mind. i just wanted to write, to get things off my chest, and didn't get the whole blog friends thing for quite a while.

i've changed the focus of my blogging in the past year; poor Troll Blog is languishing, but something I'd like to come back to one day: I like the idea of several interlinked blogs that can be used to create a kinda Troll World, but that's just me! CloudFactory has been a real success, I think. Wellie Blog was fun, but wasn't going anywhere, and is now, i guess, archived. Bloggerel rattles along.

so, i'd like to thank my blog visitors and friends for their contributions to my blogs over the past year...it's been a real delight getting to know you all.

:D:D:D

image by Florin Bleiceanu at SXC, 2007.

i went to a farmers market just before Christmas, a bought a jar of quince jelly: no idea what to do with it, but y'know, i liked the idea of it.

it has languished in the cupboard ever since.

then, i had some on toast [but only when there was nothing else in cupboard apart from marmite], and it was absolutely delicious. sharp, with this flowery kinda flavour. i dunno: it tastes of quince!

and, you know what, when it runs out, i'm going to have to hot foot it back to the Farmers Market for some more!

i've embarked, bravely, on an OU course on Creative Writing. it's interesting, because it is making me focus on the process of writing in a much more disciplined way.

so, the course has started by looking at strategies for sparking creativity and encouraging, from the outset, writing that is absolutely part and parcel of one's daily routine. write daily, it matters not if not well, just write; all else will follow. the first week has looked at freewriting and clustering as ways of loosening up thought and also enabling more structured thinking around a single idea.

i'm stuck in bed most of the time this week, with a lovely new laptop, pondering, resting. and am starting to think through a story that i've had in the back of my head since last year. clustering has helped me to map out, visually, where the story might go; but it as useful for highlighting the research i need to do to fill in the gaps.

and i'm starting to step back into the past through a wealth of online resources and historical respositories. it's fantastic.

i might be gone for some time....

1.
safe my slippers were
til i tripped and fell down stairs;
non-stick, i inferred.

2.
me and stilletos?
i'd rather wear my slippers;
safe, but a bit sad.

[haiku form: three lines; 5, 7, 5 syllables; er, make it meaningful, kinda]

:-)

photo provided by Kathryn McCallum at SXC, 2007.

:-)

trolly x

i have

1. Fleetwood's Fishing Industry, the story of deep sea fishing from Fleetwood 1840-1990 (Peter Horsley)

2. Trawling: The rise and fall of the British Trawl Fishery (Robb Robinson)

3. British Trawlers in Icelandic Waters (Jon Th.Thor)

4. a red notebook (paper version)

5. a red notebook (PC version)

6. My OU course book, also red

7. a bunch of OU papers

8. a pencil

9. a plate

10. a post-op infection that's buggering up my insides.

i've searached and i've searched but i can't find their fab version of 'Mac the Knife' anywhere...boo hoo.

i've started a Creative Writing course at the OU this week. it's something i've wanted to do for a while. i'd toyed with doing an intensive course, but never managed to get to the Arvon Foundation on their Short Story writing course, as much as i wanted to.

i've been writing short stories at Cloudfactory, on and off over the past year. i don't profess to be any good, but have this real sense that it matters for now, and for the time being at least i've got stories i want to tell. and it's all grown out of blogging.

it will be interesting to see how it develops....

but £80 for roses presented in a box, [of all things] that have had their magnificent long stems chopped right down?

what an exceedingly odd thing to do.

and although i adore roses, these cropped ones are not for me.