Writing by Crowe

Writing by Crowe

Blessings

Monday 19th July

There’s nothing like a stint in hospital to make you both feel sorry for yourself and count your blessings.

I had major abdominal surgery on my birthday last week. The first surgery I’ve ever had and I very much hope that it’s the last. Being me, it had to be a drama so 1.4 litres of my blood decided to go AWOL during surgery and a senior consultant was rushed down from hospital Mount Olympus to keep me alive. I knew nothing about that until afterwards, of course.

Stoneface

Monday 21st June

Stoneface

I took my pup to play in my elderly neighbour's garden this morning. While I was there, I noticed this odd little face looking up at me from the ground, like a stone tumour with features.

"What on earth is that?"...

Meet Finn

Monday 31st May

Finn Finn

We picked him up yesterday. He's 8 weeks old and his hobbies are playing with stuffies, chewing stuff, sleeping, eating for Britain, nudging people, and having his tummy rubbed.

...

Onion Creek

Friday 28th May

(I'm in travel reminiscence mode at the moment for some reason)

We camped at Onion Creek, among cypress trees just down from the falls. While we put up our tent, the five lads on the site next to ours battled with theirs. They acted like they knew what they were doing, all the while shooting sideways glances at our splendid tent home. We pegged our final peg just as their tent collapsed for the fourth time.

Maybe we should give them a hand, I said.

No way, said Rebecca....

The Kafka Trail

Thursday 20th May

So a few years ago we went to Prague, Will and me, just for the hell of it. We stayed at the Kafka Hotel, where else, Mediterranean white in the shadowed heart of the old city. The concierge folded her massive arms and watched us with iron-cold eyes. “Preeety boy,” she said to Will, with his spiked white-blond hair, his Matrix leather coat and man-bag. “Preeety!”

Oddyocities and ideas

Wednesday 5th May

Yesterday my dad sent me a link to an online auction catalogue because there are a couple of vintage plate cameras in the sale I might want him to bid for. Unfortunately he forgot to tell me the lot numbers so I had to trawl through 1000 or so listing to find them. Most were very dull - a lot of furniture, pottery and china. But mixed in among them were some intriguingly eccentric items, including:

A model of a gypsy caravan made from matchsticks in Dartmoor Prison
A death...

Fartlegging

Thursday 29th April

What with caring for and then losing my beloved dog, then becoming seriously ill (ongoing ...), I haven't done much writing since around Christmas. I've tried but I just haven't been able to focus until this week. So now I'm easing back into it but I'm writing incredibly slowly. I don't seem able to write a sentence unless the previous sentence is perfect and polished. It's a rubbish way to work and this morning I moaned about it to my partner.

"Have you tried fartlegging?" he said....

House-hunting

Saturday 24th April

My partner's house has just sold so our plan is to keep my house as a townhouse and buy a second house out in the (commutable) sticks somewhere. We've been looking online at properties for a while but yesterday we went to visit a couple of places.

No Fishing

Thursday 15th April

No Fishing

A couple of years ago it was decided that a big cultural festival would take place in part of the 300 acre park close to my home. Contractors with heavy machinery arrived and, over many months, proceeded to rip up the...

Don't do this

Monday 8th March

A few years ago I was taking pictures along a rocky stretch of the coastal path in Cornwall. A coastguard was yomping the same stretch and stopped to give me a warning. "So far this year we've had to rescue six photographers who fell off the cliff taking pictures," he said. "So you be careful!"

"I will," I promised, thinking that would never happen to me, nuh-uh.