"Remind me of your arguments in support of a boiled egg?" I ask my daughter. She raises her eyebrows in exasperation rather than surprise. I had suggested to her that poached eggs negate the need for a boiled egg because they taste pretty similar and you have no shell to deal with once you've … [Read more...] about Looking For A Deeper Meaning
Relationships
What You Do And How You Do It
I had a wall built this week, an experience that was more stressful than it needed to be. After missed phone calls, the bricklayer failing to turn up when he said he was coming due to rain that never materialised, and confusion over a gate I was wishing I'd left the old wall up until it crumbled … [Read more...] about What You Do And How You Do It
Dealing With Disappointment
The jasmine that I grew some years ago across a huge piece of trellis appeared to have died. Thin strands of sorry-looking wood stretching up in disparate directions from the ground it was hard to see anything much on it that looked like green shoots. It was hard to hide my disappointment in … [Read more...] about Dealing With Disappointment
What I Really Want On Father’s Day
We're driving to Hereford to look at some puppies. The rain is falling in biblical style and has been since leaving home, nearly four hours ago. I call ahead to let the breeder know we're running late. "Oh, is it raining? We've had none here at all," he tells me. The sky clears when we … [Read more...] about What I Really Want On Father’s Day
Perfectionist Tendencies
I wake up thinking about how this week's post isn't the way I wanted it to be and wonder if it was wise to have drafted it in bed after a late night with friends. The angst makes me think about words written by the Reverend John Ames to his young son in Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning … [Read more...] about Perfectionist Tendencies