Winter's coming...

It’s a clear but cold day. The dogs and I have just been to the park to blow away the sofa cobwebs. I’ve been wearing a jumper this last week or so but the weather’s been relatively mild, today however, I needed a coat and scarf on our walk, winter is coming…

(Although depending on which reports you read/watch it’s going to a warm, wet winter or it’s going to be a freezing cold winter!)

As much as I like meeting friends and other dogs on our walks, I like it when it’s just us because I can switch off and daydream. The park is looking beautiful; the ground is covered in acorn husks and there are big piles of fallen leaves in various shades of red, brown and gold, that even at 34 I can’t help but kick through. The only other beings we saw were squirrels (being harassed by Pluto and Bess) stocking up their winter larder, and the crows ‘cawing’ and hopping about drunkenly. Apart from that it was just us: the dogs chasing each other – or the squirrels – and me relaxed and lost in thought.

Now we’re back in the warm which is nice but I suspect that one of the dogs has been at the chicken feed because someone has vile wind and it’s not me. My peaceful reverie is over to be replaced with the worry that one of them now has a tummy ache…

I’m off out this evening to help celebrate a friend’s birthday. He specifically said no presents but we’re giving him a jar of homemade marmalade! The marmalade turned out to be gorgeous and we’ve already received several requests for jars.

Tomorrow my mum is coming over for tea and to look at the ‘official’ wedding photos in case there are any she would like a copy of. I’m making hazelnut brownies, which could go either way. I either make great cakes or lousy cakes – I’ve yet to discover a middle ground. We also need to pick up a storage chest we’ve bought for the garden. Our small shed is literally bursting at the seams, so we’ve bought something to store all the chicken stuff in, and we should still have some room over left for pots. No doubt we’ll take the opportunity to do a garden tidy up before winter sets in. We should be doing some planting at this time of year, but with us desperate to move by the end of the year/very beginning of next, we don’t really want to commit to working hard to plant lots of seeds that we can’t nurture and subsequently harvest. We’re in vegetable limbo!

A new gadget arrived today. It’s a stand-by plug set and remote control. You plug in all the stuff you don’t want on stand-by (but which might be awkward to get to) into a special plug and then when you want to switch everything off, you just use the remote control – from up to 30 feet away! No more scrabbling around on hands and knees… unless you want to and that’s entirely your own business…

Right, I need try and work out how my new MP3 player works. As with everything that arrives in this house with a set of instructions, I may end up giving it to my wife with a plaintive look and a request for her to please help before I end up throwing it out of the nearest window…

Magical mystery dog walk

There’s a word that can describe the autumn/winter seasons: cosy. You don’t get cosy in summer, it would, I imagine, lead to excessive sweating and nobody wants that. I was walking the dog this morning and because it’s so much darker when we worker ants get up in the mornings now, lamps and lights are being switched on to ensure damage limitation on things like stubbed toes, bashed elbows, underwear being put on inside out etc. As we walked past our neighbours, I thought how cosy the lights looked in the windows, warm and golden. I sometimes construct stories about people and houses as I walk by. There’s nothing in particular that leads me to make up a little story about one house and not the other… but I am intensely curious about people’s home lives. I wonder for example, whether they are happy? Whether they like rugby? Whether one person likes vegetables and the other one doesn’t? Whether they look ordinary enough but are actually other-world folk… when they close the front door and step down into the basement, where does it lead? To fairy passages, small underground towns, meeting places for magic folk… do they make witches potions and herbal concoctions…? Or do they just enjoy a glass of wine and a bit of telly?

The dog, it has to be said, is far less whimsical. He concentrates on left over bits of chicken, dog wee (his own and others), friends he spots on the way, cats and getting to the park in a timely manner.

He enjoyed his walk this morning, terrorising the squirrel population and playing with two Westies. I enjoyed the fresh air and that lovely – but all too brief – moment of the day, usually when walking the hound, when you pretend you have nothing to do and all day to do it.

Yesterday I got so much done it was like I was supercharged! Lot’s of housework and sorting, as well as proper ‘we pay you to do this’ work. And, AND, I cooked a delish meal for my partner who didn’t get back till 9pm. I do enjoy being a housewife!

Tonight, rugby and a birthday party – dilemma! Tomorrow a game of rounders for a another friend’s birthday party and then drinks at the pub. Sadly I shall have to be a watcher not a partaker in the rounders. My running days are well and truly behind me, although I can still wallop a ball a fair old way…

By the way, we posted out the wedding invites yesterday, hurrah!

Feminism

On Tuesday I went to a debate on feminism organised by the Women's Resource Centre and it was ‘mazing! I was actually there working; I was asked to do the photography for the evening. I was late: it took over 2 hrs to make a 36 minute journey. I’m not going to moan about traffic again, I’ll end up shooting myself. So hot, harried and feeling a touch unprofessional about being late (even though it wasn’t my fault) I didn’t so much park the car as throw it to the side of the road…

The speakers were fantastic; passionate, articulate and very inspiring and the most inspiring of them all? The Chief Executive of the Girl Guides, Denise King! Sorry, not sure that deserved an exclamation mark except that I honestly didn’t think the Guides were at the forefront of modern feminism. How wrong was I!? Quietly spoken but with real passion and knowledge she basically shattered any and every stereotype I’ve ever had about the Guides and our children are now going to join the Guides. Whether they want to or not.

I found it really powerful to hear that the majority of Guides when polled, replied that they identified as feminist; that they wanted to be more involved in politics and the environment, and that they felt they had a part to play in tackling poor self-esteem and unhealthy body image that plague so many young women – and men, and so had helped produced a booklet on the subject. And that all over the world Guides were doing really valuable work in their communities and for society. Go Guides!

I’ve always been proud to identify as a feminist and don’t understand the baggage and nasty stereotypes that dog the word and the ideals (but then I don't understand stupid people either and I suspect there may be a link). I want to be no more equal than anyone else, but I certainly do not want to be less than anyone else – for reasons of my gender or any other feature. And to be perfectly honest with you, I genuinely can’t understand why with the amount of violence perpetrated on women around the world (to pick just one issue), anyone - regardless of gender - with a sense of justice and humanity wouldn’t want to be able to say, I was never part of the problem but I did try to be part of the solution... whatever you end up calling it...

If anyone notices the changing of the seasons its dog walkers. We’re out at the same time each day, rain or shine and today as I was having a lovely walk with Mr P I noticed that it had become quite cool in the mornings. Car windscreens had to be de-misted where the temperature had dropped overnight and walkers were wearing jackets. It’s beautiful weather now, but autumn has definitely stepped up a gear. And I was looking rather excitedly at some Halloween events that are being held at a National Trust house in Richmond only yesterday. I can’t deny that although I muchos love sunshine, I am a winter baby. Rich colours, cold weather, fire and candles, Halloween and Christmas, lovely big jumpers, winter walks wearing a woolly hat that makes you look, well, special… I love shopping for Christmas and choosing a tree and decorations. I even bake more for god’s sake! Yes, there’s really no hope for someone who gets giddy about Christmas on September 13th… oh dear…