I am annoyed. We could change the name of the blog to I AM ANNOYED, as I’m pretty much always annoyed, but that would be really annoying, as ANNOYED is one of the words I struggle to spell. Mind, so is the word RESISTANCE, and I put that in my book title. So, I’m annoyed.…
30 Days of Giving begins today! If you remember, I give a gift a day to make the run up to the Solstice. You can read more about it here https://borderinggrey.com/2023/11/21/30-days-of-giving/ Despite my love of giving, I am not good at receiving gifts. When faced with gifts (and that language says it all), when faced…
Despite what others might say, I am not a collector. I mean, you casually say that you like teapots and suddenly, every birthday and Christmas, it’s a teapot! Pink tea pots, red tea pots, vintage 70s matching tea and coffee pots. There was even an exquisite early 20th-century suffragette teapot, which, by the way, I…
Greetings, gorgeous ones. How has your week been? I’ve been visited by the Lady Covidia; throat scarred with razor blades, mind numbing fatigue and muscle aches that have left me winded. After a long weekend in bed, I was feeling if not better then less ill, but then my sense of taste disappeared, I felt…
The far right marched through my small market town this weekend. Like many places, flags have appeared on lamp posts. Sat at the traffic lights, men, and I only saw men, beeped their horns - at each other? Or at the flags? They gathered, wrapped in their England flags, their Draig Goch, their Union Jacks…
Do you ever feel like you are doing life wrong? Like you should be doing loads of stuff, but instead you are quietly just doing you? July started with a much-anticipated trip to Barry in South Wales. There to perform an extract of my work for Folding Rock magazine, I took the chance to catch…
Sorry, I’m late. I seem to be snowed under, but with what I’m not sure. The truth is I’ve been feeling a little anxious. Did I mention I’ve been writing a book, that has a title and a cover and everything? No? It must have slipped your mind. Well, the book is about to go…
Can you guess what I'm saying? Ooh, I have news! Top secret news! I’m not allowed to share it with anyone, but you, dear reader, are not just anyone, so I will tell you anyway. But first, in other news, I was temporarily banned from Facebook. Do you want the long or the short version?…
The great declutter has taken on Olympian proportions as the son is down from Glasgow to empty the attic. Long-time readers will be aware of the oppression of the attic. It's not so much what's up there, though there's a lot of shite that isn’t mine, but not being able to get up there and…
What are you reading my lovelies? Continuing to share books and writers I love, let me introduce the wonderful Vik Bennett and her memoir. I loved this book so much, an exploration of grief and motherhood and the making of something wild and magical to heal and grow. More than a book about gardening, this…
I’ve lost my reading classes, so if this post has more than the usual number of spilling mistakes you’ll know why. The last time I remember having them, I was squinting through one lens attempting to dye my eyebrows, the other half of the glasses balanced on my head, all skew-whiff. I’d look where I’d…
I’ve been thinking about words. I write, so words literally fill my world. In English, we have an average vocabulary of between 20,000 and 40,000 words. (You know I am competitive so you can absolutely bet that I went online and did a test to measure my vocabulary.) The measure of our vocabulary is…
I’m struggling to read. I don’t know if it’s all the writing wearing out my eyes, or my brain sinking into a stupor, but after a morning writing in bed, all I want is some Disney + and my knitting. I’m missing books. The house is filled with them so it's not a lack of…
I’m full of rage. It’s not my husband this time – though he is still a dick, just in case he does/has done something annoying in the past, or the future. It's not even the dog. What, you ask is the problem, then? (or at least you’d better ask, or this is going to…
So, I’ve written a book. Well, to be fair it's nearly two-thirds done. It's a bit like this blog, only bigger and more personal, though I’m not sure how much more personal you can get than discussing your boobs on the internet. It’s a bit weird, writing about yourself. Even though I do it every…
I was lucky enough to be chosen to be part of the first A Writing Chance Award and it changed how I felt about being a working class writer. It made me feel like a proper writer. Aplications are now open for A Writing Chance 2024/25. If you are from a working class or low…
Have you ever wanted to know how to address the Eldest son of an Earl? Or how to whitewash your ceiling? Or mend a wicker chair? Then I have the book for you. I am currently obsessed with News Chronicles Housewife’s Handy Book. Printed in 1930 it declares itself a ‘firm, reliable friend in every…
I love stories. I love to read and watch and hear all kinds of tales. I love the sway and swoosh of words, the almost-not-there creak of the turn of the page. I love the sing and dance of stories in my ear, suspended in a world that, for a moment, only I can feel.…
It's my blog-aversary and coincidentally this is my 100th post. Two whole years writing to you, and I don’t even get a card! I told a friend that it was my blog-aversary and she looked at me sideways, ‘God, do you still have anything left to say?’ It sounds worse than how she meant it.…
What a real writers room looks like. Hey! How are you doing? Did you have a good holidays? The summer is over and the Autumn, after that weird little heatwave, is finally here. And with that, I am back to writing – so hello and thank you for coming back to read. I am writing…
I have too much on. It may not seem like a lot to many of you, but it is too much for me. There is writing, of course, writing this my priority, our weekly little one-sided chats. And of course, there is the puppy, who is settling into a routine – not my routine –…
I am writing this with the puppy. We have had him for a while now. He has been fed and watered. We have been outside for wee’s and poos. We have been outside again just to check. We’ve played catch and savaged a poor innocent stuffed banana and ripped the guts out of a stuffed…
I should be writing. I mean that’s what you are here for. And I’m trying, really I am but there is only so much a woman can say before she runs out of words, right? Only Joking! Well only a bit. See, I just got distracted. I went to a training day on how to…
Oh, my days, I am so excited! It’s begun! It started yesterday! Oh, I can’t tell you how excited I am! (I know that’s a lot of exclamation marks, but this is exciting!!!!!!!!!) I look forward to this every year. Planning as the summer ends, by now I have reached a fever pitch of giddiness.…
The one where I can't write for the tunes in my head.
Imposter syndrome is alive and kicking. Sat there in the crook of my arm, right next to the dog. It sneers as I sit here on the sofa, trying to type. ‘A real writer would have a desk,’ it whispers, ‘or a shed, or a table. A real writer would have a room of one’s…
Image chosen by my Grandson, pointing out that we need to hurry so we can play another game. I used to really admire stories of women who’d get up at 5 am, before their kids woke, to write their novel - banging out 2000 words before breakfast or staying up into the wee hours to…
I am a writer of lists My life could be measured in my to-do lists, their contents varying depending on the stage of my life. Early lists might have included Do Homework Try not to argue with sister STOP BITING NAILS Find missing library books Early motherhood saw lists as the only way to function…
I once said to Michael Sheen - you don’t get to say that very often, do you? I once said to Michael Sheen that saying you wanted to be a writer when I was growing up was like saying you wanted to be an astronaut. For a girl, growing up in the relentless poverty of…
Remember me going on about winning A Writing Chance Award with New Writing North and the very lovely Michael Sheen ? No? Well you cant have been listening! Back in the summer I won a place on a writing program for underrepresented writers and this weekend we are all heading off to the BBC in…
Do you write? Are you a writer? Obviously, I do because I never stop bloody going on about it. It’s a weird thing writing, a weird passion. And that’s what it is for most of us – a passion, an obsession. Not an anguished struggle – well it's that’s as well. It’s certainly not something…
I meet her down the bottom of the alley. Litter needs picking again. She’s off to get her paper, leaning on her stick, dodging curled lottery tickets and discarded masks. She’s a bit Daily Mail, if you know what I mean but she’s always out in her garden. Her roses are stunning, not a black…
In spring 2021, in an uncharacteristic moment of bravery, I decided to practice getting rejection letters for my writing. hands trembling I hit send and entered my first writing competition. In all honesty, I didn’t read much about the prize, there was a bursary, the chance to work with a mentor to develop your writing,…
I quilt. Bear with me, there is a point to this. I make beautiful quilts. They are quirky, unusual, stunning - ask me nicely and I’ll show you my Harry Potter bookcase quilts. I have no difficulty in calling myself a quilter, even when meeting fabulously famous quilters, whose skill I could only ever dream…
Bordering Grey 