Alex Gutteridge's Blog, page 4

A Creative Challenge

I'm a firm believer in the restorative power of creative ventures. I believe that everyone possesses creative flair, although it can often be stamped out during our school years and take a lifetime to re-discover. When I was growing up, one of my favourite things was to draw. In my teens, when time seemed to stretch in every direction, I spent hours drawing and painting. It helped me to see the world in a different way. It helps you to marvel at the ordinary - a little like that feeling...

A Cluster of Clocks

"What's that noise?" my two year old granddaughter asked the other day as she played in our bedroom.
"It's a clock," I replied.
In fact it's a travel alarm clock which my husband had at boarding school. We have recently ditched our radio clock alarm and brought the old wind-up clock out of retirement. Despite years of not being used it still works perfectly well and it has a medium sounding, quite fast tick which is probably why it tends to gain a little.

It's interesting how you can know s...

Broccoli Soup

Sometimes you just need some comfort and one of the most comforting things for me is making soup. I try to make a big batch with whatever catches my eye or is on offer that week. The intention is always to freeze some so that we have home-made soup to hand on those days when everything is rushed or it has turned very cold and you really need something warm and nourishing. More often than not we eat all of the soup before it gets to the freezer stage!

I'd never made broccoli soup until about th...

New Year's Resolutions

To be honest I'm not sorry to have said goodbye to 2014. It wasn't a bad year but at times it wasn't particularly easy so I'm hoping that 2015 will be better and good for you too.

Just after Christmas we went for a walk in the country. It was a cold, sunny day and although the canal surface glistened with ice, the towpath was, in parts, churned up and deeply muddy. We had to watch where we put our feet at every step and by not looking ahead we almost missed a beautiful heron skimming...

Thinking Time

"How's the writing going?" someone asked the other day.
"Fine," I answered. "It's good."
A clear gaze, a pause; they were waiting for more.
"Actually," I said, "I'm not writing at the moment. I'm planning."

Why did this statement make me feel so guilty? Probably because, as some of you will know, I'm not a great planner when it comes to writing. Also probably because I had an idea that the person who had asked me the initial question now had a vision of me making copious notes, with charts and ch...

Cranberry and Orange Relish

Winter is well and truly here. Outside it is one of those grey cloud-laden days which barely seems to get light. It feels like a day to hunker down and catch up with all of those jobs on my to-do list. One of those jobs is to make some cranberry sauce to go with the Christmas turkey. I first tried this Delia Smith recipe several years ago and honestly have to say that I don't think I've ever bought a jar of cranberry sauce since then. The homemade variety tastes so different and is incredibly...

Everyday Heroes

Picking up any newspaper or watching the television news these days you could be forgiven for thinking that there are very few good people left in the world. But of course that isn't true. There are everyday heroes who are kind and considerate and generous. On Friday I met three of them and they turned my day, which could have been quite stressful, into a really rewarding experience.


My daughter was spending the weekend in Oxford with old friends. On Friday the two of...

Wordless Wednesday - The Walk to Church, Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshire

Boarding School Survivors

Occasionally I wake in the deep of the night from a recurring dream. I've been having this dream for over forty years but, when I first wake, the feelings of despair, of fear and of my world closing in are as strong as they ever were. In this dream it is the night before I am to return to boarding school. I have to leave the safety of my cosy bedroom with its sloping walls, uneven floor and diamond-paned windows overlooking the garden and the village green, and take my place in a dormitory fu...

Christmas Pudding Memories

Quite some time ago I read an article by Helen Dunmore where she said how important it was, when writing, not to forget about taste, texture and smell. I've always tried to remember this when attempting to describe something in my own writing because the smell of something can evoke so many memories and give rise to such strong emotions.


Today is stir-up Sunday and I have made my Christmas pudding or as an American friend described it to me 'that cake you Brits set fire to'! Stir-up Sunday is...