Home Thoughts Weekly

Looking towards the Cleddau Bridge at Neyland (the bridge makes a great run) ‘Right then, give me the camera and I’ll take a picture of you, too,’ says Tom. And then… but, wait, that comes later.  If there is a downside to living in a house with sea views, it’s that it’s easy to sit indoors and take root. Especially when it’s damp and cold. But you have to feel the world not just watch it go by, so we try to make a point of going out once a week just to do something different. The sunshine’s been so lovely this week that it’s looked like summer, despite the bitingly-cold wind. We decided to treat ourselves to a takeaway of sausage and chips (we know how to live) at Neyland , on the River Cleddau, then walk along the coast from the beach at Whitesands to the rocky headland of St David’s Head. I really like coastal path walking; I like being on the edge of the land and this particular walk isn’t too long but undulates just enough to feel as if you’ve put in a bit of effor...

Look, I just have to show you these!  I know that bulbs are supposed to produce flowers, but most of them are not planted by me - fortunately!  This is the same bulb kit I showed you a few weeks ago, the one my dear friend Ann gave to each of us that make up my ace gang girl group, The Thursday Girls.  Ma and my sister are both passionate gardeners. Ma's  attitude  to gardening is incredibly relaxed; so long as she's outside doing something, she's happy and she can make the saddest, most neglected plants grow.  My sister's brilliant at garden design and creating beautiful, elegant outdoor spaces. Although the gardening gene seems dormant in my case, I was determined that I would succeed with this little pot of bulbs for Ann, who has a birthday this week, for my Thursday Girls, who I miss.  Here's to friendship!

Happy memories of the Llanelli Half Marathon! Post-race triumph! I’ve been for a run; a joyful, glad-to-be-alive run in the bright winter sunshine. Nothing crazy; just a tentative two-miler after a long, long absence. During the time out, I’ve written about my love of running, I’ve thought about it and dreamt about it, but I was beginning to fear that running was destined to become one of those things I ‘used to’ do.  My enforced absence has been due to a troublesome posterior vitreous detachment (no, not a troublesome posterior) which – she says keeping everything firmly crossed – seems to have settled down. I hope. Though, of course, since both my eyes are the same age and are equally short-sighted it’s possible that I’m not out of the woods yet. Anyway, this morning all went well. From that first moment of picking up my heels, filling my lungs with cold, clear air and settling into the familiar rhythm of the ground passing under my feet, it was an utter joy to be out th...

‘You’re the family sandwich filling at the moment,’ says my dear fellow Choc Lit author, Linda Mitchelmore, ‘between the generation either side needing your help.’ To be fair, most of the time, all that’s required is a phone call, we’re not running around all over the place yet. Our surviving parents, by no means in their dotage, have the medical problems that come with age; aches, pains and the occasional referral which gives rise to concern. Our children are shaping their careers, settling down and even having children of their own.  It’s six years in April since I started writing Home Thoughts; pretty much unpublished, largely unread and free to let off a bit of playful steam. Lately, I’d begun to think this blog had run its course; family either side of me deserve a bit of privacy to get on with the nuts and bolts of their lives and months of grey skies, endless rain and constant cold have worn me down. Then a lovely reader left a very appreciative comment about Home Thoug...