Thorns and Gold

It had been about four months since our lives had been irreparably split open and we were on the sofa together, watching TV.   It had been four months since I gave birth, since the exertion of labour tipped my illness into ‘severe’, since the world outside had become closed to me; friendships paused, visits [...]

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I was going to write a (slightly overdue) supercool Blogoversary post. But I can’t do that right now.   At some point I shall probably write about my experience this week of being rushed to A and E (Emergency Room) in a cool ambulance while they tried to work out if I was having a [...]

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What is your favourite book?   I remember ‘Each Peach, Pear, Plum’ – the first book I carried home from school on the bus at the age of five. I left it on the bus and there was no end to my distraught tears. I loved it because it had a whole cast of characters [...]

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I have a confession: I am an extravert. Let me paint you a picture of a typical dinner with friends at our house.   My introvert husband gets the dinner ready. I say, ‘Now, don’t just stay silent the whole time like you usually do, you need to make an effort.’ Jon reluctantly acquiesces. Then [...]

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I remember sitting on the stairs, halfway up the stairs, in my childhood home. In a family that was bouncy and exuberant, full of colour and noise, it was important to me to spend some time half-way up.   There I would sit, bony knees touching my chin, hand resting on the white paint of [...]

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It’s ‘Five minute Friday’ time, joining with Lisa-Jo Baker. She gives us 1 word, we write for 5 minutes flat – no backtracking or editing, throwing caution to the wind. Check out others’ five-minute offerings by clicking on the button below.   This is my best five minutes on ‘Beyond’.   Sometimes I get a [...]

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It’s ‘Five minute Friday’ time, joining with Lisa-Jo Baker. She gives us 1 word, we write for 5 minutes flat – no backtracking or editing, throwing caution to the wind. Check out others’ five-minute offerings by clicking on the button below. This is my best five minutes on ‘Enough’. My apologies for my recent absence [...]

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This is my ‘Five minute Friday’, inspired by Gypsy Mama.  The idea is that you write for five minutes flat on a topic, without worrying about whether it’s right or not.  This was my first time doing it – and it was kinda fun!  Check out others’ interesting 5-minute posts on the topic here. I [...]

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It was Saturday, the evening before Mothering Sunday and I was chatting to my husband as we ate dinner. We were discussing the Mothers’ Day tradition of handing out posies of flowers to all women at church.   “I really don’t think it’s a good idea,” I explained. “I worry that the positives about giving [...]

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M.E. is a relapsing-remitting illness, much like M.S.  This means that there are times when the body suddenly ‘crashes’, with a worsening of symptoms and an increase of disability. This is a relapse.  Remission for me is not like cancer remission, where there are no symptoms at all.  Rather it means that the symptoms are [...]

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