Humour

You know I love you but if you come to my house and throw my plants in my pond again I’m going to put you outside the front door and not let you back in. I am very attached to my plants — way more than I am attached to you. I hope that doesn’t hurt your feelings; I’m just being honest.

I have told you before that if you run riot in my house or garden you simply will not be welcome. I know it’s not easy for you to control yourself cos you’re gifted in the way non-normative…

50 & 100 WORDS

Ever read Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem Tell Me Not In Mournful Numbers? One of my faves. I had the line ‘Dust thou art, to dust returnest,/Was not spoken of the soul’ inscribed on my mother’s funeral program.

Numbers. From the moment of our births to our last breaths, numbers feature throughout our lives; in our ages, time, and all manner of places, people, and things. In whatever we can count, indeed. Sometimes they almost feel magical — carrying meaning and symbolism within their simple shapes.

I’ve recently discovered for example, that gardeners like to plant flowers, shrubs whatever in odd…

DIARY OF A MAD MUM

If you’ve been following the saga of my family life you’ll know I’ve been struggling with the youngest member (YT) of our household. She first disappeared the day after the first lockdown (March 2020) and since then has gone missing from home at least thirty times.

It’s taken me eighteen months but I’ve developed strategies to cope with the continual worry and disruption, and it’s working for me.

Misper*

In her latest escapade, she missed her 11 pm curfew and failed to respond to my phone call or text asking her to come home. …

If you read the TBI newsletter in July, you will know I have been hellbent on creating the garden of my dreams. I’ve ordered so many plants, my husband keeps looking outside muttering something that sounds like ‘rooky gardener mistakes,’ but I’m ignoring him.

I’m happy with how it’s coming along — the path is tres gawjus, I just need to plant up the trailing herbs which I’ve repotted to grow up a little more; the pond is in; the alpine garden is halfway there; the bamboo plants are in two huge planters, surrounded by grasses. …

50/100 WORDS

Twenty-seven,. That’s a number that’s popped up continually in my life for as long as I can remember. I spent half my childhood living at 27 Yakubu Avenue Avenue. It’s also a multiple of 9; my birth date. There’s something magical about the number 27, it being the first composite numeral not divisible by any of its digits.

And then there’s the fact that some of the greatest musicians who ever lived died at that age: Hendrix. Morrison. Joplin. Cobain. …