blogging

The trouble with time

February 16, 2020 By Ellen

Days By Philip Larkin What are days for? Days are where we live. They come, they wake us Time and time over. They are to be happy in: Where can we live but days? Ah, solving that question Brings the priest and the doctor In their long coats Running over the fields. It’s fair to […]

The Journey by Mary Oliver

January 18, 2020 By Ellen

The Journey One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice— though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. “Mend my life!” each voice cried. But you didn’t stop. You knew what you had […]

Be careful what you wish for (the back in the office edition)

December 27, 2019 By Ellen

Yesterday, I was all ‘get me off the sofa, I need some structure in my life’. Today, I went back to the office for a day. For the longest, slowest day in the history of days. How I wished I was back there on the sofa even with the existential angst… Therefore, to avoid another whinge […]

The Boxing Day words

December 26, 2019 By Ellen

It’s the limbo of it. Christmas Day was full of traditions and purpose. Even the anarchy of consumption and indulgence is ambitious: A systematic approach to emptying fridge and filling belly. Boxing Day, though. That’s a different story. The plan never rolls this far. Shiftless drifting from chocolate box to small screen, pottering, with a […]

The Christmas post

December 26, 2019 By Ellen

Here we are in the quiet between the unwrapping and the overeating. And as the rest of the world seems to feel compelled to write a festive message, usually, because I’m contrary, I don’t bother. Instead, I’ll tell you a story. Once upon a time ((the day before) yesterday), a dashing prince (the Panther) and […]