It's a Saturday morning. Under a wide blue sky, the big-hearted autumn sun warms up a world which had cooled off overnight. Everyone is asleep. Hubby, my not-quite-two-year-old Little One, and my Puppy-Girl. I'm standing at my laptop at the kitchen counter, a hot teacup at grateful hand. I could take my laptop and go and sit on the couch and curl up beneath a warm rug. In fact, I'd like very much to go and do that. But then Puppy-Girl, who's sleeping at my feet, wouldn't be able to follow me through the child-proof gate. And I don't want to lessen our little pocket of quiet time together. Just me and her. Not to mention, she will then move to sit at the gate so she can regard me reproachfully. So I tell myself that standing to type is good for me. In this little oasis of time, I breathe and my thoughts start to settle. I can stop having to react to everything, and let my thoughts slow and stretch. Think a little bit. Mull. Be introspective. Turn inwa
I don't remember how the bag came into my possession. Suffice to say it got well played with over the Christmas season, and is now cumpled, tatty and generally, quite the worse for wear. I was trying to decide whether to throw it in the recycling or do something crafty with it before chucking it out. So I decided to try drawing a flower on its crumpled but blank innards. As you do. There was a logic to my madness - which was that I'm not very good at drawing flowers, and doing a doodle inside a hidden and soon-to-be-thrown-out bag is as good a place to practice as any. I grabbed one of my LittleOne's colouring-in pens. Again, it reduces any expectations and pressure. (I think I've previously mentioned that I have a pretty savage inner critic?) Anyway, I came up with this. Photo taken in the kitchen with as much fluorescent light as I could get into the gift bag with one hand, while holding my phone with the other. Actually, you know what? I thought to mysel