So I can get out in the garden to write, to research, to weed and cut back and plan, and, quite often to simply sit with a mug of tea or coffee and watch the cats using the trees as an adventure playground. It’s only a little garden but then it’s only a little Victorian terraced house with a fifteen minute walk to the sea on either side of it and a ten minute walk down to the shops and another five after that takes me down to the weekly market where some gorgeous local producers bring equally gorgeous local food.
It’s funny, you know. When Covid meant I couldn’t do crowded indoor spaces any more I thought I’d really miss eating out, but three years on I’ve replaced restaurants with a passion for locally sourced or small provider food and we are so spoilt for that in Dorset. You’ve probably noticed how often I focus on food in my books (sorry about that if you’re on a diet) but I do think it’s important and not just nutritionally. Food brings us together and eating a good meal together gives us a chance to slow down and catch up. And yes, my plan for there to be less of me is very much a work in progress, but that makes every mouthful I take all the more important because it has to be the very best mouthful. Bigger is not better; either for me or for portion sizes! A treat is fine, but it has to be exactly that. And, most of all, I am a work in progress and I hope I always shall be. I’m determined to be better tomorrow, but I’m pretty good today as well. And this body is the only one I’ll ever be issued with so I need to take good care of it.
That means exercise I like doing. I had another amazing long walk yesterday, and paddled on my little beach that I’d walked to. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of being able to say that because it really is a dream come true for me, and it’s thanks to a Lottery Grant that has turned a shabby, scruffy, dirty area that didn’t feel safe into a gorgeous new harbourside park with a site of special scientific interest, segregated paths for walkers and cyclists (Its going to get better next year because they’ve just got another grant! Yay!) And I volunteered to help with the work that brought it back to life and now I’m enjoying it whenever I want to and am all the more grateful for the lovely, easily worked soil in my own garden where no one else tells me what to plant.
So this weekend I shall cook and walk and work and sit in my garden. I shall write, because I’ve had an idea for a project and I love writing so much that I can’t imagine not wanting to do it. And I shall dream dreams and work towards making them come true. I shall also accept that my dreams quite often evolve while I’m working on them and I come out with something else entirely.
So what are you dreaming about? Let me know, won’t you? Because it’s far more fun to share dreams with a friend…
Today’s picture is of my gorgeous black cat, Catling, Queen of the night and Swiper of her son whenever he pushes the limits. Which he does… And yes, that fountain that I thought was an ornamental feature has become a cat water fountain because it’s in just the right place for her, which proves what I mean about making plans and then enjoying what actually happens, doesn’t it?
