Sunday Scatterings

Good Morning All! I have decided to try and reactivate this blog, on an occasional basis (but more occasional than once every three months, I hope!) so it can run alongside The Book Trunk, and I can write about things that are not book related. It will be good to try and get it up and running again, because this was my original blog, started when I was a very novice computer user – I never, ever got to grips with the in-house system at work, and remained petrified of computers until, following redundancy, I embarked on an IT course at our local college.

Then, during the snowy winter of 2010, I broke a toe, hurt my back, and had a cold I couldn't shift, so I sat at home feeling very sorry for myself. My younger daughter, trying to cheer me up, said: “Do something positive. You're learning about computers - write a blog.” So I did, and you see my very first post here. Gradually the books took over, and I set up The Book Trunk, and although I tried to keep this one going, it kind of lost direction.

So for starters, while I try to organise myself, here is a piece posted on The Sunday Salon, hosted by Carrie K, which only mentions books once, and shows that I don't spend all my time with my head in a book. So this is what I'm doing today:

Embroidering: I bought a kit of a map of Yorkshire for £3.49 in a charity shop - a real bargain, because it had never been taken out of the pack, and usually sells for almost £36. I've oversewn the edges of the linen, to stop it fraying, and done lines of running stitches (horizontal and vertical) to mark the centre. Now I have to put it on a frame to keep the material taut, and then I can start stitching. Looking at this, I realise that large parts of Yorkshire were settled by the Vikings, so there is a Nordic connection going on in my life today.

Reading: 'A Winter Book', by Finnish author Tove Janssen (who wrote the Moomintroll stories). This a collection of short tales, drawn from her own life, which I am enjoying very much, and would recommend to anyone. See what I mean about the Scandanavian links?

Listening: 'Finlandia', by Sibelius, is one of my favourites, and seemed a suitable choice. Music from the far north – blame my Norwegian ancestry.

Enjoying: The sun is shining after days of rain, high winds, and low temperatures, so I may venture into the garden at some point to do battle with the snails and weeds, which are flourishing after all that rain. And I have some plants my mother gave me last week, which are still sitting in containers, and really need to be planted out. Did the Vikings have gardens I wonder?

Shopping: We are like Old Mother Hubbard and the cupboards are bare. The vegetable basket is empty, because yesterday I used all the left-over vegetables to make soup; the fridge is empty, because I cleaned it, and threw out all the oddments lurking inside, and the freezer is almost empty - it contains ice-cream and chips, but precious little else. Plus, of course, we need cat food. We always need cat food. It doesn't matter how much I buy, it disappears really quickly. I like to think The Cat is helping himself, but in reality it is our fault, because every time anyone goes in the kitchen he mithers for food, so we all feed him, several times a day and he is, as you can see, a Fat Cat.