life bits - JUMBLED RAMBLES

reflections on lockdown

Post published:30 April, 2020
Post category:mental health / life bits
Post comments:0 Comments

Hi, how are you all doing in these incredibly uncertain and surreal times we find ourselves in? I haven't been writing. At all. Writing about anything other than covid-19 or…

it’s the end of the year as we know it

Post published:31 December, 2019
Post category:life bits / mental health
Post comments:0 Comments

Turns out the run up to Christmas was way worse than the day itself. Or should that say 'days'? I mean just how long is Christmas actually? Sometimes it feels…

on the outside of Christmas

Post published:23 December, 2019
Post category:life bits / mental health
Post comments:0 Comments

Christmas is not for the likes of me. Not because I am a Scrooge, a bah humbug who grumbles at the mere mention of anything festive. I really like Christmas.…

in the blink of an eye

Post published:11 August, 2019
Post category:life bits / mental health
Post comments:2 Comments

We mark the years that pass. We celebrate the birthdays, the anniversaries, the good times. Mourn the deaths. We mark the passage of time. I have been flying solo for…

and I’m back…again…

Post published:2 August, 2019
Post category:life bits / writing
Post comments:4 Comments

Turns out I was just a teeny tiny bit ahead of myself when I wrote the post back last September boldly titled 'and I am back'. I was wrong. And…

and I am back

Post published:18 September, 2018
Post category:life bits / mental health
Post comments:1 Comment

I didn't mean to stay away. I simply stopped. Stopped writing. Stopped reading. Stopped being. Life was complicated. Life is still complicated. I needed to step back. Had to step…

unplugged

Post published:31 May, 2018
Post category:life bits / mental health
Post comments:0 Comments

Usually I plug myself in when out in public on my own. Protect myself from how the noises and movements overwhelm. Hide so there is no risk of engagement. Distract…

how have I ended up with a gym membership?!

Post published:13 April, 2018
Post category:life bits / mental health
Post comments:2 Comments

Somehow I have turned into someone who goes to the gym. Regularly. I’m not quite sure how it happened. One minute I was minding my own business enjoying my walks…

counter to the snowdrops

Post published:15 February, 2018
Post category:life bits / mental health
Post comments:1 Comment

Three weeks ago I posted 'Blame it on the snowdrops'. A post filled with the sadness of what was left behind when we moved. What I still miss deep in…

blame it on the snowdrops

Post published:26 January, 2018
Post category:life bits / mental health
Post comments:0 Comments

It was the snowdrops in the park that did it in the end. Caused the tears. You see I remembered the ones springing into life in my graveyard. The graveyard…

and we have moved…

Post published:15 January, 2018
Post category:life bits / mental health
Post comments:2 Comments

We have done it. We have swapped the open fields of Cumbria for the urban sprawl of Leeds. Outside my windows, concrete and tarmac stretch unseen. Traffic hums, the darkness…

walking goodbye

Post published:7 January, 2018
Post category:life bits / mental health
Post comments:1 Comment

Today was my last walk. The path my steps have followed day after day has been walked for the last time. We move tomorrow from countryside to city. It is…

moving times

Post published:27 December, 2017
Post category:life bits / mental health
Post comments:3 Comments

Apparently what you don't do to someone who copes one day at a time, sometimes one hour at a time, is get them to move house. To a whole new…

taking a year off christmas

Post published:24 December, 2017
Post category:life bits / mental health
Post comments:0 Comments

This year the unimaginable has happened. I am not celebrating Christmas. I am taking the year off. I love Christmas. The warmth of the twinkling lights, the feeling from a…

earworms II

Post published:18 November, 2017
Post category:life bits
Post comments:0 Comments

When I wrote my first Earworms post back in August, it was a one-off. A curiosity. Nothing more. Seems like my brain had other plans though. Something in the examination…

roadblocks

Post published:13 November, 2017
Post category:life bits / writing
Post comments:1 Comment

It has taken me many years to feel quite how much writing means to me. The release it gives to the jumbled tangled inner me. Let's not go into quite…

16 years on

Post published:25 October, 2017
Post category:life bits / mental health
Post comments:1 Comment

If you must work, Work to leave some part of you on this earth If you must live, darling one. Just live. Keaton Henson - You Yesterday was my transplant…

earworms

Post published:19 August, 2017
Post category:life bits / mental health
Post comments:0 Comments

Do you ever get a song stuck in your head on repeat for hours or even days? I do. Constantly. One song always replaced by another. Sometimes only briefly. Others…

strolling and street art in Sheffield

Post published:21 June, 2017
Post category:life bits
Post comments:0 Comments

We went to Yorkshire Cosplay Con in Sheffield a few weeks ago so Phillip could do his thing and take lots of awesome cosplay photos (check out his ColobusYeti Instagram feed…

in love with a map

Post published:30 May, 2017
Post category:life bits
Post comments:0 Comments

Day Seventeen: A Map as Your Muse I have a confession to make. I once fell in love with a map book and still have feelings for it. There,…

my Disney World top 10 ~ vegan adventures in Orlando (part 2)

Post published:17 May, 2017
Post category:life bits
Post comments:0 Comments

Ooops got a little distracted with my 'Everyday Inspiration' posts and almost forgot I promised you part 2 of my vegan adventures in Orlando....yep it's Disney World time! So let's dive right…

jumping = life

Post published:7 May, 2017
Post category:life bits
Post comments:0 Comments

Day 4 - A Story in a Single Image Today I needed to pick a photo out of four and use it as a starting point, a springboard into…

home is everywhere and it is anywhere

Post published:5 May, 2017
Post category:life bits
Post comments:0 Comments

Day Three – One-Word Inspiration: Chosen prompt ‘home’ Until 3 years ago, my view of what made somewhere my ‘home’ was very different. My home was one place, the flat…

vegan adventures in Orlando

Post published:3 May, 2017
Post category:life bits
Post comments:5 Comments

"The only thing I like better than talking about food is eating" - John Walters Whilst away in Orlando this was the blog post I was really excited about doing on…

sakura, springtime and reflection

Post published:11 April, 2017
Post category:life bits
Post comments:0 Comments

I appear to have got distracted from my planned next post! I fully intended to write to you a little bit about my trip to Orlando...and then I kept seeing…

discovering a love of urban photography

Post published:23 February, 2017
Post category:life bits
Post comments:0 Comments

I didn't really start wanting to take 'proper' photographs until I was in my thirties. Sure I took holiday photos and snapped away at events such as birthdays or whenever…

my Veganuary experience

Post published:14 February, 2017
Post category:life bits
Post comments:0 Comments

Have you heard about Veganuary, the campaign launched in 2014 to encourage people to try going vegan for 1 month in January? I heard about it for the first time…

Sun setting over frosty moorland in Geltsdale, Cumbria.

in defence of winter

Post published:6 February, 2017
Post category:life bits
Post comments:0 Comments

It seems that as soon as New Year has been and gone (if not even sooner), I start hearing people wishing the winter away for warmer and longer days. You…