Lisa, Author at Conversations through the middle

Horses and cars – king of the road?

May 18, 2011

Out riding a couple of weeks ago John and I were met by a 4×4 pulling a livestock trailer, one of those closed-in trailers with open slats along each side. My horse just doesn’t like them and started to mess around. I wasn’t worried and put my leg on to get him past, but he wouldn’t go. The friend I was riding with moved her mare in front and we all went through fine.

I was completely shocked when the driver of the 4×4 – who admittedly had turned off his engine to avoid frightening the horses further – shouted to me ‘they shouldn’t be on the road, they are too dangerous’.

Now I’ve heard that some people believe such guff but I’ve never come across anyone like that before. Call me naive but I always thought, and still think, that people are pleased to see horses and riders; they’re a reminder of a more peaceful time when life was lived at a slower pace and folk were not so stressed out and materialistic, when things other than possessions mattered.

The road we were riding along is not busy with traffic, it is close to Dedham village, it is rural. Our horses are educated and mature. John is not a youngster, shying away from the slightest object or noise, he is a school master in every sense of the word.

The livestock vehicle was noisy with metal jangling and creaking, and quite frankly it scared him. Obviously. If the driver had stopped earlier we might well have passed without problem, but he didn’t. At no time did we present a danger to anybody.

Why do drivers think they own the roads? What represents the biggest danger – a horse quietly walking, enjoying a country hack or a large, heavy 4×4 towing a trailer, which was frankly going too fast? I know which one I would rather run into.

The value of blogging

May 10, 2011

I’ve been reading a lot in the past few days about what blogging means to different people, what should and shouldn’t be said, whether you should allow ads or not and if you do, whether this makes you a good or bad blogger. I’ve also been reading about things I know nothing about such as ‘linkys’, which make me realise once again that I have so much to learn about the whole thing.
For some people, sponsored posts signal the end of grass roots blogging; ads detract from the experience and reviews, well, from what I can make out they are frowned upon too.

But I fall into the camp of opinion that says an individual’s blog is an individual’s self expression. If somebody wants to include ads, sponsored posts or paid for reviews in their blog then that’s up to them. As so many comments on the subject point out, nobody is forced to read a blog, if you don’t like a blog then don’t visit it.

For me, blogging is a way of writing creatively. I can comment on my life or things around me that otherwise I wouldn’t get to do. It allows me to explore subjects I don’t write about in my day job and it means I can follow my interests – for example, I love writing about beauty, skincare, hair and general fluffy stuff. I do get to write about that stuff in my work life, but not as much as I’d like.

When it comes to product reviews, I say what I think of any product I’m reviewing. I’m not paid by PRs to post, I do so because I love products, and beauty, and skincare (see above). If anything, blogging generates PR leads for me, keeps me in the loop about new services, products and launches valuable for possible freelance work that otherwise I might miss. In the same way, services or products or events I come across in my day-to-day work can prove useful for my blog. It’s all one big cicle, with overlapping areas feeding into each other.

I love to write, even about nothing in particular, which is why I love to blog.

Post wedding thoughts…

April 30, 2011

Well as we all know William and Kate were married yesterday – and in other news, the residents of our little street got together for a 21st century street party aka a BBQ and we all got along wonderfully.
I was a little worried about how it would turn out as I’d heard there are a couple of feuds simmering between certain people in the street, but any bad feeling was kept under wraps and everybody talked to everybody else.

It made me think about community: the last street party I attended was for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 I think. It was a grand affair, held on a hilly field, with probably hundreds of kids and mothers sitting at long tables. There was a fancy dress competition and my sister went as a caveman with her toy monkey as a prop; my little brother was dressed as Tarzan but refused to utter his rehearsed ‘ah e ah e ah’ so it kind of fell flat. A little girl dressed as a bride won first prize I recall. It was a sunny but windy day, which was and still is par for the course in the North East in summer.

Back to community. I bet almost everybody at that party in 1977 knew everybody else. The children played together outside (practically unheard of today) as well as going to school together; the mams knew each other from the school run, from shopping, from being neighbours, from chatting in the street. And it wasn’t just the residents of one street on the hilly field that day; it was all of our immediate area. Neighbours weren’t those people just directly next door, they were people three, four, five, more streets away.

Back to 29 April. Not everybody turned up to our little gathering (for a couple of people it was just too much for whatever reasons) but most of us were there. And we laughed, joked, drank wine, ate food and got to know each other. Some of my neighbours I don’t think I’d even seen before – and we’ve lived here five years – some I’d only just said hello to in passing. It was the same for most of the guests. We all wondered why we hadn’t met up before, all said it was a great idea, and all agreed it was something we should do again. Whether or not we do remains to be seen but at least we’ve established the will is there.

Community may have changed from what it was – our street party was just our street – but it’s still there. It has changed as everything else in the world has changed, everything moves on. But whatever form it exists in today, I’m happy and proud to say it still exists.

Chocolate overkill

April 26, 2011

Moving on from the fragrant eggs of my last post, we are now the other side of the Easter festival and the lure of the chocolate variety is wearing thin. Not that my daughter would agree with me, as she happily tucks into yet another sweet treat.

I have thoroughly enjoyed these last few days – we’ve spent the holiday with my family in the North East – but I don’t know when I’ll be able to look at a chocolate bar again.

Why is it that usually moderate people overdose on confectionary at Christmas and Easter, and not the rest of the year? One to ponder while I stock up on cakes for the Royal Wedding on Friday….

They’re an ‘afters’ to the BBQ street party my neighbour and I are planning. A bit different to the traditional street party but it should be just as much fun (feuding neighbours not withstanding).