Sorry I haven’t been writing or visiting blogs for a while. The volcano in Iceland turned a spur of the moment week away into an expensive and traumatic travel saga! I’ll be writing about my holiday when I’ve rested and caught up a bit, but in the meantime, for those of you who are enjoying my blog-birthday wanderings through the archives, here’s another post from my first month of blogging in April last year. It’s the best advice to bloggers I’ve ever written.
From the category archives:
Music I love
I had big dreams, when I created this blog, of filling it with music for you to discover and enjoy. As I’m still enjoying the blog-birthday indulgence of rediscovering my archives, I wanted to share his post with you. It’s the second musical post I did. The first was Falling Slowly, but I hid that [...]
Are you working on a novel for NaNoWriMo at the moment? Having a creativity crisis? Or simply in need of a blogging boost? Are you hoping to collate your best blog posts into a published book some day? Here’s a book I’d recommend by Hugh Macleod of Gaping Void, a blogger who did just that.
I’m [...]
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thoughts ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley”
It’s sunny, but the lace curtains are billowing in a breeze as I write. I can hear the thudding of my son’s football in the street and the droning of planes criss-crossing the sky above the house.
My eighty-four-year-old dad has just freshened [...]
We’ve had a madly busy week. My teenage daughter’s been performing in two theatre groups and has had band and choir practice; my son’s had football trials, won three sports day races and a house cup. My husband and I smile at each other as we pass the car keys back and forth, one of us leaving, the [...]
We watch American Idol every season, a small nuclear family sitting in a Scottish living room, eating pizza, my husband and I drinking wine, all of us enjoying not only the talent, but the stage-managed drama and entertainment of it all. It cuts across the age gap and gives us common ground to discuss.
This year, Adam [...]
I have a strange, intense relationship with music. It affects me so much that there are periods where I choose not to listen to any at all.
Some music from my past is so special that I deliberately avoid it; I don’t want the potency of the memories eroded by constant exposure.
Other albums, tracks and voices can unlock memories so [...]
I ADORE this song. Love this version. My daughter and I sing and play it together and it always moves us to hugs or smiling tears. There are some days when it says everything I’m feeling.
I used to sing and perform my own songs in tavernas, bars, college haunts and concert halls. I don’t any more. When [...]
Cradling a coffee to my lips like a prayer in a begging bowl, I sat alone, half hidden behind a pillar and a potted palm. The owner of the hotel, a friend, kept throwing me reassuring glances. The lights on the huge Christmas tree twinkled and raucous laughter and the smell of beer drifted in [...]
