Fran Macilvey's Blog, page 2

A beautiful season

A beautiful season

It’s a beautiful season. The crocuses and snowdrops have emerged among the bright, triumphant narcissi, only to be succeeded in their turn by the bulging, generous bunches of pink, white and red blossom of flowering cherry trees and the docile, large-blossomed magnolia all weeping generous petals by suburban roadsides. The sky is blue and the sun is warming gradually.

The world of nature, though we have thoroughly lassoed it to our own purposes, always reminds...

Have lateral flow tests, will travel

Have Lateral Flow Tests will travel

After a break of two years, I’m taking my three novels, now completed, to the London Book Fair 2022.

They are printed double sided, on lighter paper, which I calculate will save me about a kilo of carrying weight, which is a significant blessing. I’ve been triple vaccinated and will take a clutch of lateral flow tests, masks and sanitiser, which I hope will see me through the two-and-a-half days of my attendance at the Fair without major misha...

Change and Progress

Change and Progress

Spring is a good time to think about how we would like this year to unfold. Everywhere the daffodils and crocuses are budding and flowering and after the cold of winter, as we emerge from the rigours of Covid, we are hopeful that this year will bring something special to us all: new beginnings, new ideas, new hopes and plans.

At horse-riding recently, I was distracted and tired – I’m not complaining, just setting the scene – and my hands refused to stay le...

An Exciting Week

An exciting week

This has been an exciting week. With the turn of the year, and the return of notifications in my email feed, something magical seems to be happening in my ‘to do’ list. Yes, there is still lots to fix and sort and tidy at home, but I’m also getting on with my own work, reaching out and making new connections.

I am in touch with Catriona Kirkpatrick, Head of Development at ‘Engender’ an advocacy organisation with a feminist agenda based in Edinburgh that collects ...

Plans for 2022

Plans for 2022

When I look at that date, I can hardly believe it’s already 2022 – where do the years go?

But unlike the somnolence of last year – the lingering uncertainties around lockdown, movement and meeting people anywhere but on Zoom – it looks as if travel will be possible this year and I hope to take full advantage of that freedom. I won’t be taking it for granted; which is another way of suggesting that I intend to enjoy my travels, in the full awareness that travelling ...

All I wanted for Christmas

All I wanted for Christmas

Having had an ambivalent relationship with the Festive Period for many years – I’ve only recently learned how to truly enjoy the cooking, the jollifications and the present giving – I have often said that all I wanted for Christmas is to be happy. And we have had a truly wonderful Christmas and New Year. As, I hope, did you.

While tidying, mindful of wrappings and boxes to recycle, I reflected on the presents we received: many books, blankets and things...

The Year in passing

The Year in Passing

The year in passing has taught me a great deal: about the value of patience, humour and empathy, and about the need to be clear about our choices, and unafraid to make them. I wonder how many times I’ve accepted a situation because others have suggested it, or organised it around me, and I’ve just nodded, as is my wont, and allowed it to happen.

I’m a great believer in fate, since I realise that there are some things that, no matter how much we might ...

Not as easy as it looks

Not as easy as it looks

Life, sometimes, is not as easy as it looks. Before my usual riding lesson this morning – a lesson which was cut short because Mr Bob has caught a dose of the flu bug going round the stables – I went shopping for groceries for my mother. I was up against the clock and thought it would be simple, forgetting that traffic in the morning is a bit congested.

But having arrived and parked, remembered to wear my mask and having skipped as fast as I coul...

A Bad Habit

A bad habit

Last Saturday we went to visit our daughter at University, and at the close of a lovely afternoon – during which it stopped raining for long enough to allow a lovely bright blue sky to emerge, with warm sunshine, a fitting end to British Summer Time – we had the ritual trawl around the supermarket and then back to her digs with several shopping bags.

As husband stood from the car and daughter went to fetch her provisions, I automatically assumed – bad habit – that I w...

Busy doing nothing

Busy doing nothing

I used to ascribe my almost legendary ability to sit still, to a simple – or perhaps, not so simple – realisation of the physical effort of getting a life.

If, as I do believe, it takes me a lot of energy to do a thing, that tends to mitigate against doing it. Thus, I have spent a lot of my time doing little except either reading about other peoples’ exciting lives, or worse, watching other people doing things.

Perhaps there is another factor at play.  ...