When we first got a dog twenty-six years ago and I started walking almost every day of the year come rain or shine, I started making little notes in my diary about the things I saw – what wildflowers were around, when the swallows arrived, what the weather was doing. I think even then on one level I was planning for a future career as a fiction writer. I wanted to be sure that if were ever to write about the natural world I was accurate. I wanted to be able to remember what the different seasons felt like.
In the middle of the night on Saturday our neighbour’s burglar alarm went off. As they were away and we have a spare key to their house, Frog trotted down in his caftan to turn off the alarm and have a look round – while I waited nervously at home. When he eventually returned I couldn’t sleep and I started writing things in my head (as I do). I realised that I wanted to do something with my nature notes. I wanted to take them to another level. Another blog I thought.
I’ve described it as ‘An English country diary’ and called it ‘Her Outdoors’. (Did you ever see ‘Minder’ on television and fall for Arthur Daley like I did? If not, you won’t know that he called his wife ‘Her Indoors’.) You can reach it on www.englishcountrydiary.blogspot.co.uk . Whether I can keep two blogs going, remains to be seen. (Right at this moment however the new blog has frozen so many apologies if you come across a half-done post.)
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