Autumn

Posted on June 11, 2024 by Gloria

Daily writing prompt

What is your favorite season of year? Why?

Autumn is my favourite season. I love the colours of nature and the crisp cool air. The dark evenings are approaching and I start to light the fires again. I look forward to buying new woolly jumpers and new boots. It’s not particularly a wet month, so beach and forest walks are enjoyable.

In autumn I begin to look forward to Christmas and my birthday, and making stews and hot toddies. My husband and I celebrate our wedding anniversary in October, usually in a nice restaurant. There are many reasons why I love Autumn.

I’m so glad that summer is not my favourite season because I’d have to leave my country! I love Ireland and I hope I’m never forced to leave, but we don’t get much of a summer here. Of course, I complain now and again as much as everyone about the lack of sun. If we could just have at least one full month of sun and heat, I’d be content. A month in which we could pack up our tent whenever we fancy, and camp comfortably — without the rain gear and wellies!

The summers we experienced in Ireland before the 90s; we won’t ever get them back. Sigh!

On a different note; do you read?

Wanna have a peek inside the pages of my fictional novel? It might just be your cup of tea!

Set in a gossipy small town in Ireland at a time when marriage is for keeps and sexuality is repressed, Secrets in the Babby House is a family saga over three decades that starts in 1956. It is a story of love, deception, and stolen diaries filled with sins and secrets.

Moisturiser

Posted on June 10, 2024 by Gloria

What’s the one luxury you can’t live without?

I can’t live without hand cream and I won’t rest dead without it!

I told my friends that when I die, they need to apply hand cream to my hands at regular intervals when I’m laid out.

And if they really loved me, they will go the extra mile and buy Clarins.

I’ll be lying there in my coffin, (an Irish wake can last 2-3 days) with my hands joined, rosary beads wound neatly around my fingers, and the only thing I’ll want is moisturiser.

They probably shouldn’t touch my face because the mortician will have me made up nicely. (Hopefully)

If I don’t smell Clarins, there’ll be trouble! And if I get as much as a whiff of the stuff from Dealz, there’ll be bigger trouble!

Thank you, girlfriends!

Cotton

Posted on June 7, 2024 by Gloria

Today’s WordPress question.

Who do you spend the most time with?

I spend most of my time with my little dog Cotton.

She sits at my feet while I work. She sits beside me on the couch in the evenings. She comes on walks with me to the beach and down by the river.

During the school holidays, when my daughter is off school, nothing changes. Cotton is still the one who’s by my side most of the day!

And here she is!

How does she earn her keep?

Well, she helps me with my writing. She listens to all my ideas, hugs me on my crap days, hugs me on my good days, supports me when I feel the need to ‘get rid’ of certain characters – because it’s hard losing characters – and when I need a break she tortures me until I take her for a walk.

Cotton was with me during the creation of Secrets in the Babby House. 😉

Would you like a peek inside the pages? It might just be your cup of tea!

Flying with Green

Posted on June 2, 2024 by Gloria

What fears have you overcome and how?

I used to be afraid of flying. Not so much fear of the plane crashing, more the fear of having no control and of being stuck in an enclosed space with no way out.

It didn’t stop me from flying though. I gradually got over it by changing my mindset. I began to focus more on the positive aspects of travelling and I practiced breathing techniques.

I also learned about colour therapy and started wearing the colour green every time I flew. Green is a good colour to wear or meditate on if you suffer from claustrophobia.

Green has since become my favourite colour!