MissElaineous

Sometimes

Sometimes
For a while now I’ve been debating whether I should write anything about the crazy election that’s been raging in the US. After silently watching our own crazy election unfold in the UK earlier this year, I felt I had to say something in my little corner of the Internet.   Because sometimes—most times—the person who makes the most noise isn’t… View Post

A Flying Blog Entry

A Flying Blog Entry
Believe it or not I actually plan out what I intend to blog about. I find a rough outline of topics helps focus the mind and keep to schedule. Right now on my list is a trip to Westonbirt Arboretum, the reflections from my Welsh trip that I am eager to capture in writing, and musings about the ongoing craft shows. But sometimes, quite frankly,… View Post

Around Lacock

Around Lacock
Twenty years ago, the BBC produced a film version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice that has gone down in the history books as not only being incredibly faithful to the original novel, but also for showcasing Colin Firth in a wet shirt. It also has perhaps the smarmiest Mr. Collins to have graced the screen, a truly formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and Alison Steadman at… View Post

‘Tis the Season

‘Tis the Season
I had intended to follow up my recent travelogue with a more thorough reflection about my disconnected trip to Wales, but I suddenly seem to find myself in the midst of craft show season.  I have been busy stringing up new gift tags, wrapping sets of cards, and drilling crates (don’t ask) in preparation for three forthcoming craft fairs.  Or fayres.… View Post

All Roads Lead to Machynlleth: A Welsh Adventure (Part 3)

All Roads Lead to Machynlleth: A Welsh Adventure (Part 3)
[ INTRO ] [ PART 1 ] [ PART 2 ] [ PART 3 ][ Are You the Spider or the Fly? 11 Lessons for Health and Wellbeing after a Digital Detox ] I’ve spent the last few blog entries writing about everything we saw and did while in mid-Wales, which probably isn’t that surprising—after all, isn’t that the point of going on holiday? Yet none of the things I’ve… View Post

For the birds: I haven’t had a chance to finish up the third blog entry about our recent trip to Wales, but here’s a sneak peek at a few of the avian activities we got up to. View Post

All Roads Lead to Machynlleth: A Welsh Adventure (Part 2)

All Roads Lead to Machynlleth: A Welsh Adventure (Part 2)
[ INTRO ] [ PART 1 ] [ PART 2 ] [ PART 3 ][ Are You the Spider or the Fly? 11 Lessons for Health and Wellbeing after a Digital Detox ] The second full day in Wales dawned grey, cloudy, and wet. However, having enjoyed two days of sun and blue skies, we really couldn’t complain, especially since we had planned on this being an inside day—we had… View Post

All Roads Lead to Machynlleth: A Welsh Adventure (Part 1)

All Roads Lead to Machynlleth: A Welsh Adventure (Part 1)
[ INTRO ] [ PART 1 ] [ PART 2 ] [ PART 3 ][ Are You the Spider or the Fly? 11 Lessons After a Digital Detox ] It was, I’ll admit, not the most auspicious of starts to our WiFi-free Welsh holiday. Autumn colds had been making the rounds of the office, and this plus work stress meant… View Post
Staylittle, Wales

Over the Hills and Far Away

Over the Hills and Far Away
[ INTRO ] [ PART 1 ] [ PART 2 ] [ PART 3 ][ Are You the Spider or the Fly? 11 Lessons for Health and Wellbeing after a Digital Detox ][ As we make the transition from one year to another, it’s a great time to look ahead to new horizons as well as turn around to see how far we have come. I wrote All Roads Lead… View Post

Several years ago we were up on Berwick-upon-Tweed when I snapped this flotilla of swans on the river.  It’s a photo that always made me laugh when I thought about it – swans appear so graceful, but that one in the back didn’t seem to get the memo.  Yet I’ve been thinking about it more and more lately, and perhaps… View Post

Birds of a Feather

Birds of a Feather
I’ve never considered myself an avid bird watcher. I don’t keep lists of what birds I’ve seen when and where, nor do I dash about the country to see a rare species when it’s been blown off course. I do, however, enjoy watching the antics of our garden birds, from the tiny blue tits and robins to the squabbling starlings… View Post

The Language of Flowers

The Language of Flowers
The bits and pieces of my fiction that I’ve posted over the past few months have come from a collection I wrote as a challenge to myself a few years ago: could I write something with a beginning, middle, and end in one day?  Today’s fictional interlude is a bit different and more recent. It was inspired by a visit to a… View Post

Change your view

Change your view
Like many people, I work in an office.  My co-workers are absolutely lovely people (and a big hello to them if they’re reading this), but I must admit the view from my desk is not the most inspiring.  So I recently swapped the desktop wallpaper on my computer for the view of where I’d rather be working instead. It’s not… View Post

Seasonings

Seasonings
I grew up in Florida. Unlike the rest of the world, we had two seasons: hot and hotter. When I went to college in Pennsylvania, I would press the autumn leaves in heavy books and send them back to family and friends in the south. Most of them had grown up in the north, so for them this was a… View Post

Squaring Things Up

Squaring Things Up
Over the last 18 months, I’ve read a number of books about starting your own business. There’s Screw Work, Let’s Play by John Williams (no, not that John Williams); Build a Business from your Kitchen Table by Sophie Cornish and Holly Tucker, who started NotOnTheHighStreet.com; The Idea in You by Martin Amor and Alex Pellew. Two of my favourites are Marianne Cantwell’s Be a Free Range Human… View Post

On Reading (Part 2)

On Reading (Part 2)
[ PART 1 ] [ PART 2 ] A brief, spoiler-free synopsis: In 1958, a group of children band together to defeat the monster that is stalking the (fictional) town of Derry, Maine. In 1985, they re-unite, hoping to kill the creature once and for all. I first read the book when I was 14 or 15, just a few years older than the characters in the 1958… View Post

On Reading (Part 1)

On Reading (Part 1)
[ PART 1 ] [ PART 2 ] When I was a child, I did nothing but read. From the moment I learned how, I always had a book in front of me. My parents joked that I would never be able to find my way home because I was always reading in the car, not paying attention to our… View Post

The view at 6 months

The view at 6 months
It’s been nearly six months since I started this blog with a photograph of sunrise from the Swindon train station.  In that time I feel I’ve lived up to the blog’s tagline and have truly written a little bit of everything, from wildlife and travel to sharing fiction and my home base in Chippenham.  Writing the blog has been an interesting experience – and… View Post

“What’s in a name?”

“What’s in a name?”
Shakespeare wrote these immortal words over 400 years ago and people have been arguing over exactly what IS in a name–and what makes a good one–ever since.  Most recently, names have been in the news for a variety of reasons: Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver named his latest offspring River Rocket. Little River joins siblings Buddy Bear, Petal Blossom Rainbow, Daisy… View Post
MissElaineous Travel Blog: Escape, Explore, Discover, Enjoy