A View From My Summerhouse

A Lingering Look at Windows: Muted Light

Posted on January 16, 2014 by Sherri Matthews

This has been a different and unusual week for me in many ways. So many thoughts swirl about my head at the moment, full of the twists and turns of every day living and the way life can turn on a dime, just like that, with even the most simplest of actions or the quietest of words spoken by another.

Taking part in the Weekly Photo Challenge this week has been a revelation for me, and not just because I got to share all about my obsession with old windows, shutters and doorways. I’ve realised that having a weekly challenge like this will enable me to focus on a better writing structure which is just what I need to keep me on my writing path.

I will share more about this in tomorrow’s post.

Meanwhile, a few of you have suggested that I might want to think about sharing more ‘travel’ posts and photographs and so I am very much looking forward to Mondays now as my new ‘Weekly Photo Challenge’ day. All part of the new discipline!

I love having a new project to ‘get my teeth into’ and I’ve been so excited and thrilled to see all the interest in my first-ever photo challenge post, thank you all for coming over to my summerhouse and taking a peek through the window!

Which brings me onto – yet more windows! Yes, it is quite the coincidence that the Daily Post chose windows as its theme for the photo challenge this week and here I have bleated on and on all about my window obsession (hope I’m not boring you with it by now) but wouldn’t you know it, I have come across another photo challenge except that this one runs with ‘windows’ as its theme every week.

For some time I have followed my lovely friend Jude (Heyjude!!) over at her amazing travel and photographic blog Travel Words (she is one of my wonderful ‘Spamgate’ friends!) and she recently shared a post called A Lingering Look at Windows. Do pay her a visit if you would like to see some of her stunning photographs and read about her many and varied travels.

Jude shared a link to Dawn’s blog ‘The Day After‘ in which she hosts a weekly challenge inviting anyone who might be interested to post photos of any windows that they might find particularly inviting, curious, picturesque or just plain photogenic. Any window that tells a story in fact. You can read more about Dawn’s ‘Lingering Look at Windows’ challenge by clicking here.

Having caught the ‘challenge’ bug and thinking I would stick to just one, when I went over to Dawn’s blog and saw the weekly window theme I was hooked. Even though it seems that I’m taking on even more than I need to at this stage, this is actually a good thing and it helps me greatly. It stirs me up!

Again, more on this tomorrow (and don’t worry, I will still be posting in my ‘normal’ way for what it’s worth!)

Dawn’s challenge runs from Thursday to Thursday so what better day than today to start. I hope to take part every Thursday after this.

So for my first ‘Lingering Look at Windows’ challenge I would like to share this photo which I took from the inside of a farmhouse near Tocane in Southwestern France where we stayed with friends back in August, 2009. We were cooling off inside as it was a good 38C (100F) outside.

The beauty of the way the light bounced off the heavy, dark wood of the window panes, very typical of French homes, and the way it filtered through the muted softness of the voile panel so loosely hung there really grabbed me.

Farmhouse near Tocane in the Dordogne region of Southwestern France (c) Sherri Matthews 2009

Farmhouse near Tocane in the Dordogne region of Southwestern France 2009
(c) Sherri Matthews 2014

This photo is very reminiscent of my time living in California, when it would be blisteringly hot outside with that big-country wide-open sky stretching as high as the heavens and which contrasted so heavily with the dark-cool of having to retreat indoors, radiating as it did from the cold, granite tiles underfoot and the surrounding pale walls.

The white heat and the cream, muted light. The eternal stillness of this moment as I took this shot leaves me alone with my memories of another life once lived and which whispers to me still.

Posted in A Lingering Look at Windows, Photos, Travel | Tagged A Lingering Look at Windows, California, Foreign travel, France, Light, Memories, photo, photograph of a window, travel, Windows | 55 Comments

WPC: Windows of Pefki, Crete

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Sherri Matthews

What better way to start a new blogging year than with a few challenges to add to the mix? For a little while now I’ve been thinking about taking up the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge for the simple reason that I rather like the idea of a task such as this which gives free rein to interpretation of the weekly theme while sharing a photo or two.

Quite a few of you already take part in this challenge and you have inspired me to do the same, so many thanks for that! I hope that you enjoy this little detour which, after this week, I will try to post every Monday if all goes well.

This week’s challenge is: ‘Window’. This excited me greatly as I happen to be obsessed with windows and shutters. Doors too, especially old ones with peeling paint. I love taking photos of them.

The photos I have decided to share for this challenge were taken in 2008 when Hubby and I spent a magical holiday in a delightful town called Makrigialos (Makry-Gialos) which lies on the South-East coast of the Greek Island of Crete.

One sun-baked afternoon and acting on the very enthusiastic recommendation of our holiday rep, a really lovely guy called Pete who lived somewhere up in the hills above the town and who just happened to hail from Brighton originally (small world, eh?), we hired a car and took a drive along a very dusty and narrow trail some 7 kilometers (just over 4 miles) up into the mountains to spend the day in the tiny village of Pefki.

Pefki was first recorded in the Turkish census of 1671. Electricity arrived in 1970 and telephones in 1972. To this day there are no facilities in Pefki such as cash machines, banks, hotels or post offices (no bad thing but just be sure to bring cash with you should you ever decide to visit!).

Yet Pefki boasts one of the most famous tavernas in the area called the Piperia (‘Pepper Plant’) which just happens to offer absolutely stunning, panoramic views of the valley and coastline far below while you sit at trestle tables underneath the shade of an ancient olive tree eating delicious home-cooked traditional Cretan cuisine.

Which is precisely where we spent the most glorious afternoon on this particular day, chatting away with a lovely Hungarian couple. Neither of us spoke each other’s language but we made an afternoon of it anyway, bonding over and helped greatly by a ~~glass or two~~ carafe of the locally produced raki and wine.

As the harsh, afternoon light dimmed into early evening and the cicadas quieted their midday song, fairy lights lit up the old olive tree as if by magic as the locals serenaded us with their song.

I am getting carried away with my Cretan memories. This post is supposed to be about windows. With these photos I can share with you just a tiny glimpse of this treasure of a village-world hidden away at the top of a mountain. A short poem I felt inspired to write follows. A very quick look through the window is all it takes.

One more thing, I’ll warn you now; if you ever do visit Crete and the village of Pefki, beware. You will never be able to get it out of your mind.

A typical window in dire need of repair at Pefki Village, Crete
(c) Sherri Matthews 2008

Vine covered windows, Pefki Village, Crete
(c) Sherri Matthews 2008

I love the way these flowering vines grow around many of the windows. A beautiful and natural way to deflect the searing heat of the day away from the window.
Pefki Village, Crete
(c) Sherri Matthews 2008

Typical window in Pefki Village, Crete (c) Sherri Matthews 2008

Typical window in Pefki Village, Crete missing it’s frame, no glass, just wooden shutters
(c) Sherri Matthews 2008

Arch window overlooking the main street through Pefki Village, Crete
(c) Sherri Matthews 2008

Summer’s Dance

Cracked paint peeling from the window pane
as mid-summer’s sun bleaches the wood raw
As if it seeks, of an afternoon, to carve out its name.

Weary and fruit burdened
heave the blushed grape vines
Tendrils weaving, full of promise
of their freshly-pressed wines.

White-haired matriarchs smile
slashing creased, brown skin as their
Eyes, still bright, dance to the light
never dimmed, ever glows within.

A glimpse of my reflection caught
in the window’s glare against the ancient olive tree
Gives away my coy thoughts against this statue
As it bows to honour, far below,
The crystal-studded sea

Where, as I wait beneath its shade,
Veering far from the given path
To meet and remember my Cretan god who
took my hand beneath Diana’s moon and
Taught me Summer’s dance.

Posted in Poems, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge | Tagged Crete, Foreign travel, Pefki Village, Photographs of windows, Poem, Poetry, postaday, Weekly Photo Challenge, Windows | 62 Comments

Time to Celebrate – My One Year Blogoversary!

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Sherri Matthews

So it happened, I did it and I honestly don’t know how.

One year ago today, 9th January 2013, I published my first ever blog post. Perhaps rather fitting then that this is my 110th post to celebrate my one-year blogoversary!

Looking back, I remember going on and on to my family and friends about starting a blog for months before I actually did something about it but I couldn’t get my head around the best way to approach it, what to call it, what to write about, how I should present it. It didn’t even occur to me to look at other blogs.

What is a blog anyway?

Then last Christmas, eldest son’s lovely girlfriend gave me the book ‘Blog, Inc.‘ and that was the final shove I needed. I didn’t understand much of what I read at first but it certainly helped point me in the right direction. That is, I was introduced to the world of WordPress for the first time. A great place to start for newbies like me, and it was free!

So, you may ask, if I didn’t know what I was going to blog about, why did I start a blog in the first place?

At the time, I was caught up in the thrill of having had my first-ever article submission accepted by Prima magazine. Not only that, they had invited me to a photo shoot in London! To say I was excited is an understatement. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before.

I thought that it would be a good idea for me to start a blog so that, on the off-chance that somebody, even if just one person, wanted to read more about my writing aspirations after my article came out, they could find me on my blog.

I’m a nobody in the writing world but my reasoning was/is that everybody has to start somewhere, right?

In the end, I came up with the title and my first-ever blog post which turned out to be about my garden robin because I had absolutely no idea what to write about. I called it ‘Welcome to my first post – About a Robin‘. I had one ‘like’ and six comments, all family and friends, except for one comment by a fellow blogger much to my delight!

Sweet Robin in the snow taken last spring 2013. I haven't seen him yet, I do hope he returns soon! (c) copyright Sherri Matthews 2013

Sweet Robin in the snow taken last spring 2013. I haven’t seen him yet, I do hope he returns soon! More photos of him can be seen under the category ‘Sweet Robin’
(c) copyright Sherri Matthews 2013

When I received a ‘like’ from another blogger on my next post in which I wrote about the photo shoot, (and a fox!) I was stunned. Amazed! How could someone find my blog like that, and then not only read my post, but like it and then comment on it?

I caught the blogging-buzz and fast.

However, my ideas for my blog very quickly changed. I soon realised that I wanted it to be so much more than just getting myself ‘out there’.

I wanted to show others that it is possible to make changes to your life no matter how late in the day you may think it is. I realised that I struck a chord when I started to write about my daughter’s struggles with Asperger’s Syndrome and also about my alcoholic, jail-bird dad.

When once I thought I had nothing to offer, you who read this blog showed me otherwise and I was astounded.

I knew that what really mattered to me was that I could somehow offer some kind of hope to others that no matter what you’ve been through you can find a way to climb out of the darkness and once again walk in the light of redemption, of hope and of forgiveness.

So I rewrote my About page many times until I found the words I wanted to convey just what I wanted this blog to be all ‘about’. At last I knew the way!

The rest, as ‘they’ say is history (well, one year’s worth anyway). According to my WordPress stats just checked, in one year I’ve had 17,500 views, gained 245 ‘followers’ (I like to say friends), written 110 posts and a total of 3,264 comments. I’m not even sure if this is good, bad or just plain normal.

What I am sure of is that I still can’t quite believe that people actually read my blog, and I really do mean that! That you take the time to read what I write, even when some of my posts, like this one, are long, never fails to truly encourage me.

The other thing that caught me completely off guard were the lovely comments I began to receive for my photographs. I started off thinking it might be a nice idea to illustrate my posts with my own photos so I was delighted at the encouraging responses to them, especially as I am an amateur photographer.

Having the appreciation from others for our work, no matter what shape or form it takes, is something that helps us all thrive and grow. Goodness knows that is a blessing in and of itself given that in this dark world in which we all live there seems to be so much that wants to cut us down and steal our joy.

I’ve had some interesting search-requests, courtesy of google, which have led others to my blog. For instance:

‘how to store a summerhouse’
‘as I knew him for a hamster’
‘a walk in the woods with young girls’ (very creepy this one…)

When I started out I didn’t use tags because I didn’t know how to or what they were. I published several posts before my daughter one day showed me how to use them. I had no idea. She also warned me against trolls and such and to be careful about what I wrote. She is a prolific blogger on Tumblr and other sites so she should know. She also told me that I would probably become obsessed with my blog.

As if…

One thing I didn’t do was to visit other blogs much at first as I didn’t know how to find them. This changed when, in March, and much to my utter disbelief and joy I received my first ever blog award! I had seen them on other blogs but assumed they were only for the elite. I came to understand that many awards are a great way to meet and encourage new bloggers and to recognise them for any number of achievements and this set me on the hunt for new blogs. I’ve made many new friends in this way.

I am very humbled and incredibly honoured to say that my summerhouse now proudly displays a total of 19 awards (two of which I’ve yet to write about, watch this space as I always say!) and I am truly thankful for every single one and the people behind them, and for their uplifting, kind and incredibly encouraging sentiments given me when sending them my way.

Besides, up until now, the only awards I’ve ever received were for swimming 100 yards and a few for gymnastics. Oh yes, and one from my son’s teacher one year for helping out with class parties and field trips. Hey ho.

In the whole time I’ve been blogging I’ve never scheduled a post and actually don’t know how. Maybe I should learn. I sort of know what I’m going to write week by week but then again, my plans have been scuppered so many times.

It took me until just a few months ago to figure out what the notification button on the dashboard was for – that helped I can tell you – and I didn’t figure out how to use the reader for a long time. I haven’t done anything with the Daily Prompt either although it looks interesting from what I’ve read on other blogs.

To be honest, my entire blogging experience can be described best as ‘flying by the seat of my pants’. I hope I can still get away with it, ha!

When I read my first few blog posts now I can sense my enthusiasm at the time and my delight in the way my writing career was starting and yet, despite a year which saw great strides in my personal fulfillment as a writer and some wonderful ‘happenings’ these many highs ran parallel against a backdrop of a year filled with crushing lows and great personal struggles and I was devastated by an event that left me grief-stricken for a time.

From that point on and for some time to come, I struggled with everything and I didn’t think I could carry on blogging. I couldn’t think straight, I was floored with grief and locked up inside with my own dark self. Then something happened.

I had planned to share some photographs but the posts I had wanted to write no longer mattered, seeming irrelevant in light of all that had happened. Instead, I went for broke and wrote what was laid bare in my heart and I ended up with what I can only describe as photo-poems, words pouring out from deep within my soul and captioned with my photos by way of illustration. This was my way to write the grief, to expunge it and to sort my head out. Publicly.

I was overcome by the messages of love and support from those of you who stood by me, thank you seems so inadequate.

I took this in November before the storms. It is in a village in Somerset a short walk from where we live. Behind me is the church. The gate is usually closed but on this day it was open. Will you walk through it with me? (c) Sherri Matthews 2014

I took this photo on my mobile phone using a vintage effect.
It was taken in November before the storms in a village in Somerset, a short walk from where we live. Behind me is the church. The gate is usually closed but on this day it was open.
Will you walk through it with me?
(c) Sherri Matthews 2014

The same thing happened when I shared with you my younger son’s heartbreak by writing ‘Smoke & Mirrors – My Son’s Way Back‘ which became one of my most popular posts. The support my son and I received from you all truly blessed us and I honestly can’t thank you enough.

Some very interesting things happened on my blog during the summer months. Firstly, I learnt that even when I had to take some breaks from my blog, readers still came by to visit my summerhouse and were kind enough to leave likes and comments and even sign up to follow. This surprised me greatly as I really thought more than once that my blog would disappear at such times.

Then of course, and no one-year blogoversary post would be complete without mentioning the scandalous Spamgate and Followgate, in which I, along with many others, saw my comments on other blogs being sent to spam and I ‘lost’ all my followers.

Yet incredibly, Spamgate in particular turned out to be a turning point for my blog. I put a plea out for help with springing me out of my spam prison and I quickly discovered that I wasn’t the only one! We didn’t do the crime but we did our time! Through it I made some wonderful friends and through them my blog began to blossom.

In terms of numbers, I saw my blog grow from 50 followers to 245 between July and December but more important than numbers are the people behind them. When I thought I couldn’t write you urged me on, when I was down you lifted me up, when I had something funny to share you laughed along with me and when I felt like quitting you made sure I didn’t. This I say to all of you who read my blog and to family and friends who don’t!

My blog may not be the most successful or the largest by any means but I love my little corner of the blogosphere and my wonderful community which shines so brightly over here in my summerhouse.

Since then I’ve written two guest posts on other blogs and I hosted my first guest post here in early December. I won a flash-fiction blog-run competition thanks to your support. I also took part in a huge ‘opinion project’ in which I took the chance and shared some things about my early life which I never thought I would (publicly that is!) and through it all I’ve made so many lovely friends.

I read once that you should never share on your blog, or on the internet, anything that you wouldn’t shout across a bar. Well, as I’ve said before I’m sure that I’ve shouted a few things across a bar in my time but hopefully nothing that would incriminate me! Certainly I hope that I can say the same about my blog!

As I come to the end of my anniversary post (and many apologies for it being so long but this is my line in the sand) I need to mention one more thing. My book. The one I keep saying I’m going to write. Which I have actually started. Amongst the many things my one-year of blogging has shown me is that now is the time for me to write it. My story of me and my American GI. Then maybe about my dad.

You have shown me that not only can I do it but that I should do it. More than that, you have told me that you want to read it! So now I have no more excuses. I’m using that dirty ‘c’ word – commitment. You can hold me accountable, here and now, that 2014 is the year when I shall do this. There, I’ve said it. I’ve put it in writing. I’ve shouted it across the bar. No going back.

All I ask is that you better throw me a lifeline when I need it because I’m barely keeping my head above water now as it is.

In a nutshell then, this is what I’ve learnt from my one year of blogging:

Write, and they will come, no question
It’s alright to take a break, your blog won’t disappear nor will your readers
Blogging has restored my faith in humanity
If you have a technical problem you will find help if you ask for it
Even when I thought I couldn’t write, you helped me find a way
The friendships I’ve made here are real and genuine
I’ve learnt that to be a writer takes guts, staying-power and single-mindedness
I am not alone in my writing journey
My daughter is right – blogging is an obsession
Forget all the rules – do what feels right to you
Keep smiling

So what of the future of this blog? Well, simply this: To keep on blogging!

With you all by my side I can do it! I honestly never take for granted every single time you visit me at my summerhouse and spend a moment or two to share your thoughts, ideas and stories with me. It’s wonderful to be able to drop in and visit with you all, at any time of the day or night, to catch up with you and see what you are all up to. Writing at home can be very isolating but knowing that you are all ‘there’ helps tremendously with that.

The kindness you have all shown me here has touched my heart in a very deep way and I will never forget it.

Thank you to you all so very much my dear friends and family (who don’t read!) and dear blogging friends who have been with me from the start and those who I’ve continued to meet along the way, some very recently, for celebrating my one-year blogoversary and for walking this journey with me. I can’t wait to share another year of blogging and writing with you. You really are the best.

Love Sherri x

‘Go out of your way to encourage someone with your words today…a word spoken at the right moment, how good it is!’ Proverbs 15:23

Posted in Blogging, Writing | Tagged Blog, Current Affairs, family, Followers, One Year Blogging Anniversary, Photography, thank you, WordPress, writing | 117 Comments

Christmas Storms, Thunder for New Year’s Eve and Thank You Classic FM!

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Sherri Matthews

Well here we are, it’s 2014 and I can hardly believe it! How are you all my dear friends? I do hope you all had a truly wonderful Christmas and that you saw the New Year in with style? We saw ours in with a bang, literally. The irony wasn’t too lost on me after the year we’ve had. With mere hours to go before the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve, here, in a very wet and windy Somerset, we had a thunderstorm. Yes, that’s right, as in booming thunder and white sheet-lightning and hail too!

2013 wasn’t going quietly. After all, who needs fireworks to see the New Year in when mother nature can do the job far better?

Happy New Year!
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013

Back to Christmas, I do have to ask, did it really happen or was it just a dream? I still have all my Christmas decs up so it must be true. We had the most wonderful time together, although it was touch and go with the travel plans, thanks to not one, not two but THREE vicious storms which assailed us all the way to Christmas and back.

Here in Somerset we seem to be prone to flooding at the best of times and it was no exception on Christmas Eve. Eldest son was due to arrive by train from Brighton by noon on Christmas Eve. He ended up arriving at 8.30pm by coach due to cancelled trains because of all the storm damage but we were very grateful that he arrived at all, and safely.

It could have been much worse as indeed it has for many in other parts of the country who have had homes flooded and have been without power for days on end. Just awful.

Then there was younger son Nicky who had to work that day only to find that he couldn’t get back due to his train also being cancelled. So early evening on Christmas Eve saw me taking a little road trip. The roads leading to the main dual carriageway out of our town were closed due to flooding so there was only one way left to go, through the villages.

A very pretty route but part of the roads were so badly flooded that at one point I seriously thought I wasn’t going to get through and Nicky would not be getting any Christmas lunch. I made it though and brought my boy home so that once again I had all my chicks safely back in the nest!

Cosy Christmas Nest!
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013

It was an interesting journey as on the way we saw:

Four dead cars on verges
One stranded car in the middle of a flooded road blocking everyone else. I managed to get around it, just
Two tow trucks pulling more dead cars
Several police cars
One delightful village church, lit up by candlelight from within so that it looked like a scene painted by Thomas Kinkade himself with eager carolers walking excitedly along the church path with torches in hand for the Christmas Eve service. We should have been there.

The last several days before Christmas saw me doing a lot more driving than normal but thank you Classic FM – listening to you on the car radio kept me sane! I not only listened to beautiful renditions of two of my favourite carols, What Child Is This and Coventry Carol but I was also entertained by Stephen Fry narrating the story of Rudolph (he really does get everywhere doesn’t he? Stephen Fry I mean, not Rudolph) and the delightful children’s story, The Snowman, as put to music.

It was not the Christmas Eve I was expecting but it turned out to have unexpected blessings as these things so often do.

Driving through the wild, wet country roads of Somerset that Christmas Eve evening listening to the radio, I was stirred up by memories of watching The Snowman with my eldest son as a little boy when we first moved to America, one long-ago Christmas Eve night.

As we sat cuddled up together on the sofa watching the story unfold, I couldn’t believe my eyes when it came to the part where the little boy (the one in the story, not my little boy!) was flying through the air with his snowman and there below them as they flew above the English countryside was the instantly recognisable Sussex coastline with Brighton’s famous Pavilion and Pier.

As the years went by I shared with my son my memories of lazy, hazy days spent in Brighton. How I spent many happy times there as a young girl in the early 70s and in particular of roller skating across the uneven wooden boards of the original West Pier but had been saddened when it was closed in 1975 and left to deteriorate.

(It went on to be destroyed by storms and fire (its second) in 2003 and still stands to this day as a burnt-out relic, awaiting possible renovation one of these days).

Shell of the West Pier in Brighton
(c) Sherri Matthews 2012

Never, in a million years, would I have guessed that my then four-year old son would grow up in California only to move to Britain as a young man of twenty to study at the University of Sussex and live in Brighton for many years to come, to this day in fact some ten years later.

This weekend we will be helping Nicky move back to Brighton (he used to live there too) where he will be starting his life anew after his recent break up with his ex-girlfriend. Further away from home but he is much happier. Bittersweet for me. Life really is stranger than fiction at times.

I will be back to ‘normal’ blogging next week and will do my best to catch up with you all in the meantime as best I can. Next week also sees me celebrating my one year anniversary of blogging! Here then to a new start, a time to reflect on the old but put on the new and look forward to the future with renewed hope and vigour.

(This, I might add, in the face of yet another storm, together with severe flood warnings, gale-force winds and high tides heading our way just in time for the weekend…)

So then I leave you with you this from Out of the Heart which appeared on my Facebook news feed. I thought it so inspirational and timely and I hope you will too as I wish you all a very Happy 2014, filled with blessings galore 🙂

Out of the Heart

See you soon! Love Sherri x

Posted in Childhood Memories, Family Life | Tagged America, Childhood memories, Christmas, Family Life, Happy New Year, Musings, My California, New Year's Eve, Storms, travel | 81 Comments

Christmas In All Its Glory

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

Holiday Tea
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013

It’s Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year!

The time of year when we think of family, hearth and home, the season of peace and goodwill, glad tidings to all men.

Like so many of you, I could write about a thousand Christmas memories.

Mine would be mostly good, some not so good, and one or two that are so spectacularly bad and, dare I say, laughable, that I wonder if I am actually imagining them.

Like the time when I was 19 and took my American GI boyfriend to visit my by-then-full-blown-alcoholic-dad at his dingy flat somewhere near Sutton.

I came down with the flu (first time) and spent the entire time lying on the couch shivering and coughing. My dad, very drunk for the duration, decided to take a swing at my boyfriend for no particular reason (he missed) and so my boyfriend spent his Christmas Eve down at the local pool hall which ended up with him having a punch up with the local lads, having dared beat them on their home turf.

Or of a happier time when my friends and I spent one Christmas Eve going on a massive pub crawl through the streets of Ipswich, where once I lived back in the day, and of being kissed by every bloke we ran into, mistletoe or not. We were full of Christmas cheer you understand.

Melding memories of Christmases from my childhood and those spent with my own children. Of living in America and wanting to bring a traditional British Christmas into my home and so making not only a Christmas pudding but a brandy-laced heavy fruit Christmas cake, beautifully decorated with royal icing adorned with a tiny plastic santa, snowman and reindeer to look like a snow scene.

Only to discover on Christmas morning as I staggered in to the kitchen to put the oven on in readiness for the turkey that an army of ants were devouring it. No great loss to my children, they didn’t like the darn cake anyway.

Christmas Pudding
(c) Sherri Matthews

Of a cat from our distant past who loved nothing more than to strip the Christmas tree of all it’s ornaments as high as it could jump and one year managing to bring the entire tree down.

Let’s face it, cats (or at least kittens) and Christmas trees just don’t go together. Some years ago, when Maisy was much younger and naughtier, she got it into her head to scale the inside of our tree. There we were, oblivious to this as we sat on the sofa, when, without warning, the tree started swaying from side to side before a very spooked Maisy quite literally flew out from the middle of the tree looking like a flying squirrel, so huge and puffed out was her tail. I don’t know who was more shocked, us or her. We didn’t see her again for hours, days even…

Maisy & Eddie love their new made-for-cats Santa hats, complete with Santa beard
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013

We all hope for those Norman Rockwell moments at this time of year, yet for some Christmas polarises the expectation of a perfect family life as bitter resentments otherwise hidden lurk in the heart of an unhappy marriage all year-long and which are suddenly exposed, becoming like touch-paper needing only the merest spark to ignite them leaving a black, charred mess in its wake.

Certainly, Christmas sparked off some of the worst times between my ex-husband (EH) and I. Our last Christmas spent together in California saw us have the almightiest of rows over him eating some Christmas cookies which I had put aside for the children to decorate later. Sounds ridiculous now but of course it was never about the cookies…

Yet, I adore Christmas and always have! Some of my happiest early childhood memories are of Christmases spent with my mum, dad and brother together, snow falling gently outside, the coal fire burning in the grate, honeycomb paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling and beautifully wrapped presents around the Christmas tree. Not forgetting, however, the horrendous stomach-aches I would get from eating too many of those delicious cocktail onions at Granddad and Nana’s house on Boxing Day!

I was often asked over in America, what IS Boxing Day? I would answer that it is a national holiday, a traditional day for visiting those relatives who you were unable to spend Christmas Day with. In actual fact, it got it’s name not from the sport but from the days when tradesmen and servants received a gift from their employers which was known as the ‘Christmas Box’. Christmas in America always seemed to be incomplete without Boxing Day and it was at this time of year that I missed my family back ‘home’ the most.

So many sweet new memories to make then!

Happy Christmas Kids!
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013

One in particular is the tradition that we started as a family of driving around our neighbourhood when it was dark to see all the magnificent Christmas light displays on everyone’s houses. I had never seen anything like it in England. They truly were magical and the kids loved this annual tradition, as did I!

Once, we found ourselves driving along a rather precariously winding, unlit road having taken a wrong turn. Suddenly, a deer jumped out in front of us. We stopped and stared at this beautiful creature as it stared back at us for an instance before darting off and of course, we told the kids that it was Rudolph.

From that moment on, every year we took the same precarious drive with the churning sea below us and the tall, wind-blown pines reaching up to the starlit sky by the side of us but we never saw Rudolph again.

Christmas sagas, we’ve all had them. For us, many seem to revolve around the ‘Christmas Tree’. The getting of, the setting up of, the decorating of. Last year we got a nice, cheap traditional tree. The needles started falling off immediately despite it standing in water. It was the classic Charlie Brown Christmas tree. By the time we took down the decorations, it looked like this:

Poor Christmas Tree
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013

Not a little ironically, the last Christmas Tree Saga that was the catalyst for more problems between EH and I happened the same year as the Christmas Cookie saga – that is, during the last Christmas I spent in America. Actually, it wasn’t so much about the tree but more about what happened after we got it.

Not many months before we had bought our very first brand new car, more like a truck really, a dark green Chevy Suburban. I loved it. I didn’t see a problem with putting the tree on the built-in roof racks to bring it home but EH insisted on us getting a trailer as he didn’t want to scratch the truck. As it turned out, he got much more than he bargained for.

On the morning that I had to return the trailer I simply forgot it was there. I put the car into reverse and backed out of our driveway as I had done a million times before to do the morning school run (rushing as usual) except that this time a sickening thud, both felt and heard, stopped me in my tracks. I hardly dared look in my wing mirror but as I did so I could see the jack-knifed trailer nicely embedded in the side of my brand new Suburban.

The entire panel had to be replaced and several weeks later I thought it looked good as new. EH, however, was not impressed.

Many years have passed since that time. I am so thankful for all the great blessings in my life. I still get to spend Christmas with my grown children and there are no arguments about cookies – yes, I still make them, every year – and the happiest of times spent together as a family far outweigh the crazy, wilder and yes, unhappy times. At least nobody could say it’s boring around here!

Christmas Decs on the Tree
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013

My life and the world in which I now live is far removed. Like the world that a certain baby was born into some two thousand years ago. I saw a cartoon in a paper last week. It was the classic nativity scene with baby Jesus, swaddled and sleeping in his crib but Mary, Joseph and the donkey were looking on with rather perplexed looks on their faces. That is because the three wise men were standing behind the babe posing for a selfie with a mobile phone.

It made me laugh, I just know that God has a sense of humour. He has to!

The world that Jesus was born into may as well have been another planet compared to the world that we live in today, yet the message which was given by the angel to this very lost world of ours back then remains the same as it ever was to us today.

‘And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people’. Luke 2:10 King James Bible

So then, it is with this thought, and this image, that I leave you and wish you all, my dear friends, a very Happy Christmas filled with joy, love and peace and a New Year filled with every blessing so that wherever you are in the world and whoever you are with, that you are able to take some time out with your loved ones and ponder the true meaning of the season and so be filled with the joy, peace and hope for the future that comes with it.

Nativity made by my daughter when she was four years old. There used to straw under baby Jesus but that disappeared years ago. (c) Sherri Matthews 2013

Nativity made for me by my daughter when she was four years old.
There used to be straw under baby Jesus but that disappeared years ago.
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013

This will be my last post until the new year (although I will do my best – and may fail – to dip in and out for the next couple of days here and there before signing off completely) so that I can spend as much time as possible with Hubby, my family and my chicks who are back in the nest for Christmas! I will miss you all but I look forward very much to catching up, fresh and ready to write, write and write some more in 2014!

As I always say, ‘Watch this space’!

Love Sherri x

Posted in Alcoholism, CATalogue, Childhood Memories, Christmas, Current Affairs, Family Life, Family Traditions, Memoir, My California, My Dad's Alcoholic Prison | Tagged Alcoholism, Angel, Ants, Blessings, Boxing Day, CATalogue, cats, Childhood memories, Christmas, Christmas Cake, Christmas tree, Family Traditions, God, hope, Jesus, joy, love, Memoir, My California, My Dad's Alcoholic Prison, Nativity, Norman Rockwell, Peace | 75 Comments

The Glow of Friendship

Posted on December 14, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

Driving back from my friend’s house yesterday in the late afternoon I was lost in thought as I barrelled down the dual carriageway, bursts of rain hitting the windscreen and short, sharp gusts of wind buffeting against my car.

I find times like these quite therapeutic as I enjoy driving (although I have been known to have moments of ~~road rage~~ annoyance when someone tailgates me when I overtake on the fast lane – and I drive fast – or takes an age to get their car moving when the traffic light turns green or cuts me up on a roundabout) and although the inclement weather didn’t make for perfect driving conditions, the Christmas music playing on Classic FM certainly helped.

Late afternoon was rapidly turning into evening, such are the short days of Winter. A subtle darkening of the cloud-filled skies was just beginning to emerge when it was if God decided at the last minute before bedtime to paint the sky orange. Not just any orange, but one that gave off such a warmth of sunset-light that it bathed everything inside my car, all around me and as far as my eye could see with it’s glorious hue.

I was overcome by the extraordinary touch of this ethereal light that seemed so suddenly to come out of nowhere, as if it wanted to grab a chance to say hello one last time before disappearing into the rapidly descending dark of night.

As if God was saying, ‘I’m here and always will be’.

Bathed in this burnt-orange glow for many long minutes I had to pull over, grab my mobile phone and take a photograph.

Glorious December Sunset in Somerset
(c) copyright Sherri Matthews

Darkening December Sunset in Somerset
(c) Sherri Matthews 2013

Alone with my thoughts, alone on that road, alone in that heavenly glow. Missing friends, thankful for friends I have made since I returned to England ten years ago. Remembering a quote that I have kept all these long years –

“Every close friendship offers the same fundamental thrill; someone has singled you out and chosen you, someone who had no obligation to do so.”

(Credit: Jenny Offill and Elissa Schappell)

Before the sun goes down on you and the night-dark prevails once again I hope that you are basked in the warmth and beauty of the glow of friendship and that you may know that you are never alone.

Posted in Friendship, Photos | Tagged Christmas, Current Affairs, Driving, England, Friendship, God, loneliness, Memories, Musings, Photographs, Thoughts | 63 Comments

Let’s be silly – I Have A New Name!

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

Back to normal blog posts next week but meanwhile wanted to share this fun reblog from ‘Chris The Story Reading Ape’s New (to me) Author’s Blog’ for some silly, light-heartedness. What’s not to love about that?

I will be catching up with you all as best I can later today and over the weekend, just a bit side-tracked , as are we all, with all things Christmas. Pounded the high street yesterday for hours upon hours (am I still sane I wonder?) and the present shopping is just about finished, now onto the food shopping….fa la la la la laaaa, la la la laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa……

Have a great day.
Love Candy SugarBells x

Posted in Reblogs, Uncategorized | Tagged Humour, Reblogs | 12 Comments

Guest Post from T. B. Markinson – An American in London!

Posted on December 11, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

Great excitement all around and more to come so hold on to your hats! As some of you already know, I had a great time with T. B. Markinson over at her blog Making My Mark last week when she so kindly hosted my guest post.

Well, now it’s my turn and today I am thrilled and delighted to be hosting T. B.’s guest post as part of a ‘Book Blog Hop’ that she is taking part in throughout this month to promote the release of her second novel, ‘Marionette’ due out this month.

With that said and enough from me, I hand you over to T. B…

Sherri has been kind enough to let me write a guest post for her blog. I’m an American living in London, England. Sherri is a Brit and she used to live in America. It’s a small world. She asked me to write about my initial thoughts on London when I moved here in 2011.

Oddly enough the first thing that came to my mind was my cab driver. I moved to London in September. My partner, who had been transferred to London for work, had been living in England since July. I was busy closing up our apartment in Boston and getting our “boys” ready for the trip across the pond.

We have a Boston Terrier named Miles and a cat named Atticus Finch. For weeks this move consumed my every thought. I was worried about our boys arriving safe and sound. We hired a company to help us with the flights, customs, and all the other hoopla. Then there was the issue that I was in charge of getting all of our belongings packed up and on a boat. We had a moving company to help, but it was still stressful.

Sleeping Miles

Atticus Finch

It wasn’t until the day before my flight to London did I realize something. You see, I was arriving ahead of the boys so I could prepare the flat for them. Such as get cat litter, dog and cat food, and figure out where in the heck my flat was. There was one tiny detail I didn’t plan for: I had never been to London. My partner had to work the morning I arrived. So when I landed, I was on my own and had to find my way to my partner’s temporary flat. Actually, I was directed to hang out at the pub across the way from the flat. How would I get there? Should I take the Tube? A cab?

The Tube was out of the question. I used the subway system in Boston, but once above ground, I’m completely clueless about finding my way around in a new place. A cab seemed like the perfect solution. However, in the States, not all cab drivers know their way around the city they work in. For instance, once we got hopelessly lost in Queens New York in the middle of the night. Finally we found the street that our hotel was on, but city blocks in New York are massive. It was nearing two in the morning and I just wanted to get to the hotel fast. When I spied a cab I practically threw myself in front of it so he had to pick us up. Now I mentioned we were on the right street. I asked the cabby to drive us to our hotel. He wouldn’t budge until I punched in the address into his GPS. Seriously, all he had to do was drive down the street and pay attention to the street addresses. Giving in, I punched in the address and waited for the GPS unit to instruct the driver to proceed down the road. I wanted to scream. The entire time the cab driver looked terrified. Maybe Queens isn’t his usual borough.

So when I approached the cab stand at Heathrow Airport I was a tad bit scared. All I had with me with the address of the pub scribbled down on a notepad. Nervously I handed him the address. He smiled at me and studied my horrendous handwriting. I couldn’t print instructions for the cab driver since when I realized I need to make arrangements for myself, my computer and printer were on a boat somewhere in the middle of the ocean. All I had was a cell phone.

You can’t imagine my relief when the cab driver said, “Oh, I know that pub.” There are hundreds of pubs in London. Hundreds and yet he knew the one I needed. The drive took over an hour. His confident manner put me at ease. I called my partner to announce my arrival. We couldn’t speak for long since my partner’s job is very demanding.

I sat back and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the cab. We neared the city and the excitement started to build. We drove along the Thames, Parliament, and Big Ben to name a few landmarks. I was finally in London. Safe and sound.

Then the cab driver told me that he couldn’t drop me off at the front door of the pub since the road was closed to cars during the day. He pulled to the side of the road and pointed me in the direction of the pub. I was fairly certain I saw it, but wasn’t sure. Before I could say anything, he grabbed my bag and walked me to the pub. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve been in a few cabs all over the world, and never before had I met one who was so courteous, professional, and sweet.

I soon learned that cab drivers in London have to pass a test to get their license. They have to know their way around the city—I’m thinking that cab driver in New York could learn from this.

That’s my first impression of London. We signed up to stay for two years. Our two years have come and gone. But we weren’t ready to leave so we extended our time here indefinitely.

Thanks Sherri for hosting me today. In case any of you are curious about my novel, I’ve included the synopsis below.

Cheers,

Synopsis:

Paige Alexander is seventeen and has her whole life in front of her. One day her girlfriend comes home to discover that Paige has slit her wrists. Paige isn’t insane, but she acts like she is. Why?

After the incident, Paige agrees to go to therapy to appease her girlfriend, Jess. However, Paige doesn’t believe that therapy will help her. She believes she’s beyond help. Paige doesn’t want to find herself and she doesn’t want to relive her painful past in order to come to terms with it. What Paige wants is control over her life, which she hasn’t had since her birth.

During her childhood, Paige is blamed for a family tragedy, when in fact, her twin sister, Abbie was responsible. Abbie doesn’t come forward and Paige becomes the pariah of the family.

To add to Paige’s woes while attending a college in a small town in Colorado, the residents are in the midst of debating whether or not gays and lesbians should have equal rights. Tension is high and there’s a threat of violence. She isn’t out of the closet and pretends to be straight at school since she fears what will happen if her parents find out she’s a lesbian. Will she end up dead like her best friend, Alex?

About the Author:

T B Markinson

T. B. Markinson is a 39-year old American writer, living in England, who pledged she would publish before she was 35. Better late than never. When she isn’t writing, she’s traveling around the world, watching sports on the telly, visiting pubs in England, or taking the dog for a walk. Not necessarily in that order. Marionette is her second novel. A Woman Lost was her debut novel.

Mailing List:

Sign up to TB’s New Release Mailing List here. Your email will never be shared and you will only be contacted when a new book is out.

Links:

Twitter Facebook Blog Goodreads Amazon Author Page

Purchase Links:

Amazon (US)

Amazon (UK)

What a great story, thank you so much T.B. for this wonderful guest post! It’s so great to know that you had a good experience when you first arrived here in Blighty! I hadn’t realised that the cab drivers in New York don’t know their way around like our boys here do! The London cabbies are excellent I must agree and from my understanding the test that they have to take is quite stringent. Also wonderful to know that you have extended your stay here indefinitely…great news indeed!

Posted in Guest Blogs | Tagged Blogging, England, Guest Blogs, Guest Post, London, New York, United States, writing | 92 Comments

Going Out In Style – Blog Of The Year Award 2013

Posted on December 10, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

Third and final awards post!

Christmas definitely came early this year. As if I hadn’t received enough gifts already, two more surprise packages arrived! One from my lovely friend Mike over at Eye-Dancers and another one from dear Sandra at quirkybooks who have both nominated me for Blog of The Year 2013 award, twice in Sandra’s case! I was not expecting this at all!

From the early days when I started my blog almost one year ago, Mike has been a consistent reader of my posts which is a great encouragement to me. Mike is a a published author of his book ‘The Eye-Dancers’ (which I am reading and loving!) and he is adept at weaving his everyday thoughts about life and all it’s peculiarities and coincidences into his own stories and brilliant blog posts.

I am not one for maths but I always felt a pull towards science at school and for some reason I am fascinated with all things to do with the possibility of a ‘parallel universe’ which is why I love my conversations with Mike about mutual favourites like The Twilight Zone stories!

Not only do I love reading Mike’s blog, but he is an all-around wonderful guy who found my little blog sitting quietly in a corner of blogland in what seems like an age ago now! I’m so glad that he did 🙂

Lovely Sandra has been so generous with giving me several awards and you can read more about her in the first award post of this series of three here. More than that, she is a busy lady working on her book for 2014 and many other projects. She has a heart of gold, never failing to encourage and help anybody who needs it in any way she can. We have become good friends through blogging and Sandra is a real treasure.

Thank you so much Mike and Sandra for thinking of me and sending this wonderful award my way, now I get to have some stars on my blog but I think it is you who are both the stars!

Right, onto business.

The instructions for the Blog of the Year 2013 Award are simple:

1-Select the blog(s) you think deserve the Blog Of The Year 2013 Award.

2-Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen- there are no minimum or maximum number of blogs required and ‘present’ the blog(s) with their award.

3-Let the blog(s) that you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the instructions with them- (please don’t alter the instructions or the badges!)

4-Come over and say hello to the originator of the Blog Of The Year 2013 Award via this link :http://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/blog-awards-2-/blog-of-the-year-2013-award/

5-You can now also join the Blog Of The Year Award Facebook Page.Click the link here:https://www.facebook.com/groups/BlogoftheYear

Share your blog posts with an even wider audience.

6-And as a winner of the award- please add a link back to the blog that presented you with this award-and then proudly display the award on your blog- and start collecting stars!

stars

Who doesn’t love collecting stars? I can see a bright smile on your face and stop being shy. Come on! It’s all yours and grab the awards

Unlike other awards which you can only add to your blog once-this award is different!

When you begin you will receive the ’1 star’ award- and every time you are given the award by another blog- you can add another star!

There are a total of 6 stars to collect.

Which means that you can check out your favorite blogs- and even if they have already been given the award by someone else- you can still bestow it on them again and help them to reach the maximum of 6 stars! You can either ‘swop’ your badge for the next one each time you are given the award- or even proudly display all six badges if you are lucky enough to be presented with the award 6 times!

You can find all the badges and banners and information you need via this link: ‘Blog of The Year 2013′ Award Badges.

……………………………………………………………

Well, according to these rules, it looks as if this means that I start out with three stars so I feel extremely ‘blinged’ out. What a way to end the year! Christmas definitely came early to this blog but now it’s my turn to hand out some gifts and I really love this part!

These blogs are just a few of my favourites (and I call the bloggers behind them dear friends) and this is my way of saying ‘Thank You’ for all you’ve meant to me during my blogging, writing and life journey.

Now, without any further hesitation, here are my nominations for Blog of the Year Award 2013 –

1. Fascinations of a Vanilla Housewife
2. Playful Kitty
3. Lorraine Reguly’s Life
4. Moggiepurrs
5. iChristian
6. Searching For The Happiness
7. Plain Talk and Ordinary Wisdom
8. The Mirror

So that’s it. A huge thank you once again to all of you who took the time to send all these wonderful awards my way, and many congratulations to all of you on your nominations. The hardest part for me was choosing who to nominate and so please know that all of you my dear friends and readers mean so much to me and I don’t mean to miss anybody out.

Over to you all now to spread the good news. Then I’ve really got to get on with Christmas…

Have a lovely day everybody! Love Sherri 🙂 x

Posted in Awards, Blogging | Tagged Awards, Blog, Blogging, Christmas, Gifts, stars, thank you, The Blog of the Year Award 2013 | 33 Comments

Just Imagine…a Beautiful Sisterhood Award – Part Two

Posted on December 10, 2013 by Sherri Matthews

As promised from my previous awards post the celebrations continue!

I was very pleasantly surprised when Jazzybeatchick not only visited my blog but nominated me for the Sisterhood of the World Blogger’s Award!

It was a pleasure to visit her site which, as her blog name gives just a little hint to is ‘all about Jazz, Life and Love from the Pacific Northwest’.

My joy was doubled when my lovely friend Pat (with whom I enjoyed a wonderful ‘walk’ last week in the feshly fallen snow at her home in the beautiful Colorado Rockies) from Plain Talk and Ordinary Wisdom also gave me the same award!

Thanks so much Jazzybeatchick and Pat, I am very honoured that you would think of me for this award. I didn’t have a sister growing up so this award means even more to me knowing that you think of me as one and in turn, it gives me the opportunity to recognise and honour some wonderful women from my newly-found sisterhood who I’ve come to know and admire greatly.

So let’s go! Here are the rules:

~ ~The Rules ~ ~

Provide a link to and thank the blogger who nominated you for this award.
Answer ten questions.
Nominate 10-12 blogs that you find a joy to read.
Provide links to these nominated blogs and kindly let the recipients know they have been nominated.
Include the award logo within your blog post.

~~Ten questions to be answered~~

Your favourite colour …. Sage Green
Your favourite animal … Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright…
Your favourite non-alcoholic drink …. Tea of course (I’m a Brit!)
Facebook or Twitter ….. Facebook. No Twitter – yet…
Your favourite pattern ….. ?? Not sure I get this question, but I love quilts!
Do you prefer getting or giving presents? Giving, definitely
Your favourite number … 7
Your favourite day of the week … Any day that I accomplish all I set out to do, which is rarely
Your favourite flower …. Freesias and Roses
What is your passion? ….. Writing, naturally!

Now onto the nominations but first, a spiel –

There are so many of you lovely ‘sisters’ of mine who I would love to nominate. All of you dear friends who visit me so regularly, without fail actually and take the time to share with me your personal stories, offer me your insight, ideas and advice, pray for and with me, make me cry (in a good way), make me laugh with your wonderful sense of humour, put up with my rants now and then, encourage me when I’ve feeling useless and keep me on track with my writing…you know who you are!!!

Thank you for taking me under your wing. Thank you for the very great blessing you are to me each and every day. You are as sisters to me and it’s wonderful having you by my side.

Oh…and for those of you who no longer accept awards, consider yourself awarded anyway, ‘cos I love ya. So there 🙂 x

For the purposes of this award then, I have decided to nominate the following amazingly, talented and beautiful ladies, some of whom I have met only fairly recently, others I’ve known longer and although we may not ‘see’ each other as often as we’d like, we both know that we are ‘there’ as and when, which is very comforting. One of you has been with me from the very start. All their stories are truly inspirational, they have blessed and encouraged me greatly. Please take the time to visit them.

So, at long last, my nominations for this wonderful Sisterhood of the World Blogger’s Award, and in no particular order (goodness, I sound like Tess Daly on Strictly… ) are :

1. Jennifer K Marsh – Writer
2.   Jo Robinson – Writer
3. Quirkybooks -‘Read the difference‘
4. God, Autism & Me – ‘Faith, hope, courage‘
5. Moggiepurrs – ‘This site is all about CATS!‘
6.   Reflections and Nightmares – ‘Irene A Waters (Writer and Memoirist)‘
7.   Speculations Impressed – ‘My Perils With Writing‘
8.   Willow-Marie .real. – ‘Coming of Age – Keeping our Soul’
9. Lost in the Labyrinth – ‘Welcome To My Journal of Thoughts…’
10. Chopping Potatoes – ‘And other metaphors for motherhood’
11. Lessons in French – ‘Life is a journey…’
12. Rising Woman – ‘Obsessive Writer, Non-Practicing Alcoholic…’

………………………………………………………………………………

In addition to the wonderful Sisterhood award, Lilka of B is for Blessed so very kindly nominated me for The Imagine Award. I have not seen this award before and I discovered that:

‘The Imagine Award is an award created by Jenn Mulherin (who is the writer of the blog “My Fibrotastic Life!”) in October of 2013.

This award was made in order to recognize the bloggers who express their passion and dedication towards their blogs through their creativity.’

Therefore, I am all the more thrilled that Lilka chose to nominate me for this award knowing and understanding the beautiful sentiment behind it. Thank you so much my dear friend!

The rules for this award are as follows:

Copy and paste The Imagine Award into your post.
Thank the blogger who nominated you and link their blog page to your post.
List 3-5 things about the nominator’s blog that you like (which you think are very creative).
Nominate 5 other bloggers/blogs which you think display a fantastic use of creativity and imagination.
Notify your nominees.
Display The Imagine Award to your blog’s award page.

Lilka and I have only been following one another’s blogs for a short while but right from the start we formed a strong connection. These are just five of the things I love about her and her blog –

Lilka is a published author – how’s that for creative!
Lilka is a lady who know what it is like to face adversity in her life but meets it head on with courage, strength and true faith
As a mother of two teenage boys, one with an ASD diagnosis, she has chosen to inspire others by advocating for Autism particularly in her posts on her other blog God, Autism and Me;
Her posts and comments here never failt to uplift and bless me
In giving me this award she said that we were ‘kindred spirits’ 🙂

Here then are my five nominations for the blogs that, in my mind, make fantastic use of their imagination, creativity and passion –

1. Moodsaplenty – Incredible artwork
2. Lisa Walker England – Passion for all things steampunk!
3. Simplyilka – Science with a smile
4. Catherine Johnson – Wonderful artwork and poems
5. Where Words Daily Come Alive – Beautiful, heartfelt, faith-filled poetry