New beginnings!

Well so much has happened since I last wrote, but now I am settled and happy and back in the saddle so to speak.

I have moved back to Yorkshire and I'm loving it.
I love the fresh air, the green fields and the hills.
I love seeing more of my friends - the joy of being able to pop in for coffee as I am going to do later
I love spending more time with Em and Izzy, really love that!
I love laughing more with Flissy
I love taking Mum out for lunch
I love being able to drop everything for an impromptu drink
I love the fact that I can take Ted out whenever I want, even off his lead, and not have to worry about traffic
I love the fact that even though I've only spoken to someone once they call out 'hello Fiona' when I see them
I love fresh eggs from my neighbours
I love the fact that I used to see sheep from my office window (and I'm trying not to dwell too much on the fact that they are no longer there...)
I love standing in my garden in the evening, looking across the valley and hearing mooing and bleating in the distance

Do I miss Wimbledon? Of course I do! People I love are still there and I miss them very much. But it gives me a good excuse to go back and of course I hope that they will visit often so that I can show them how beautiful it is here.

BRRRRR GRRRRR!

More snow, more chaos, no school visit!

I am more than a little sad as I was really excited about my first school visit of the year. Appropriately enough I was going to go a little 'off-piste' and rather than do my usual workshop based around 'The Extremely Very Scrambled Up World of Little Doogs' I'd been asked to do workshops which fitted with the curriculum and the topics being covered at Grayswood Infant school this term.

With a little (make that A LOT) of help from Flissy (my genius sister for those not in the know) I'd planned some fun things....hopefully I'll get to do them in the not too distant future.

In the meantime I just wanted to share with you my favourite ever letter from a child. After my visit to St. Mark's school Tunbridge Wells last year I received a letter from each of the children in Year 1. They were all illustrated beautifully and said such sweet things, but the one from Kai (above) takes some beating. It reads:

Dear Fiona
Thank you very much for coming to visit us and I am sorry for being aslep

BRIILIANT!

Snow....well everyone else is talking about it!

I'm having a bit of a love/hate relationship with the snow: I love going out in it when I've all wrapped up and it's crunchy underfoot, I LOVE seeing Ted running in it with his ears flapping like he's the happiest dog in the world, but I'd really like to get on with my life now please and not have to wait for weather reports and gritters. I want to make plans and know that I can stick to them. But that's life I guess.

I've got a school visit down the snowed-up A3 on Monday and I'm really looking forward to it - I'm clued up on dinosaurs and fairy stories and presents and toys and I've got props and everything. So I hope the snow drifts off completely now....me and driving are not the happiest of friends at the best of times, throw in a bit of ice....and well, I can foresee disaster looming!

2010: The Year of Friends

It's that time of year when we're all making resolutions and looking to the future. I think it's important to be positive so my main resolution for the year is to see more of my friends. I haven't seen anywhere near enough of them recently, but ironically the less I've seen of them, the more I've realised how important they are to me.

I have warned them that I'll be around a lot more, it's OK!

My other resolutions are to play the piano for at least 15 minutes every day and to FINALLY finish writing 'On The Flipside'!

...and I've a couple of private ones too but I don't want to jinx those by making them public!