My blog now has a new Email Subscription option (just put your email into the box on the right, it's the proverbial piece of cake).
This means my mum can now receive and read my posts, and maybe your mum too. Do you think your mum would be interested?
So I though I should make an announcement of some kind. I used to work in public relations, you know. Then I thought:
I really need to say what Incense and Peppermints is about, so people can decide if they want my stuff in their inbox.
Then I thought: I don't really know what this blog is about, there's no theme.
Then I thought: Hey, I could do a round up of my most popular posts, to kinda say 'what this blog is about', and seamlessly push some old posts under the nose of my newer readers.
So here it is. A Blog Commercial Break...
In Which I Humiliate my Mother
"It’s 1951 and my seven-year-old mother is the new girl in school. She cannot speak the language. She cannot see the black board, because no one’s noticed she’s incredibly short sited. She knows her mother was hit with a cane across the knuckles for speaking Welsh in a Welsh school, so in this English school, she keeps her head down."
Bookshelves and Brick Dust
"...Without pausing for Lemsip, I stopped reading spines and started seeing colours. Aiming for contrast, I stacked greens over purples and reds, and blues over yellows and oranges. Blacks created a solid foundation on the bottom shelves, whites the top. So much easier than working out where you are in the alphabet. So much kinder than forcing books into clichéd genres. Grabbing and slotting by shade felt wonderfully liberating...."
This Twitter Thing
"...With its 140 character limit, Twitter’s a hostile environment to the boring, dominating or waffling. As it’s on the internet, it attracts the tech savvy. As a public space (anyone can read your updates) it also asks you to be a bit brave. So to be on Twitter you’re already my kind of person. But what do people on Twitter do?
Click here to read the full blog (this link goes to another blog)
The Honest Scrap Blogger Award OR Spot the Lie
"... I was once threatened by a knife wielding, junkie, lesbian who'd just been released from prison. Let's call her 'Karen'. That was her name anyway. She looked like a zombie version of Limahl. I escaped thanks to an extensive knowledge of the back gardens of Grimsby and the decision to wear baseball boots that night.
Awful Antique Shops
How do you get your thrills on Halloween? We just take a tour of our local ‘antique shop’. Owned by a house clearance company, it's the end of the road for dead people's stuff, and the sight of all those personal things piled-up high - as if a JCB was involved, not a human hand - is more chilling to me than any horror film.
Gormley's Field in a Shoe Box
Our first Gorms waiting to be put in the shoe box. Note Ruby's alien Gorms with several eyes, and Emelia's super tall ones with Dr Seuss wobbly grins. It does take a while to do all the Gorms, so the more hands you can get involved, the better.
Sharbat Gula and Me
I first saw her in June 1985 when she appeared on the cover of National Geographic. I guessed she was about my age and I was fascinated, and envious, of her beauty. At that time, boys walked right by me to chat-up my friends, so attractiveness was something to be dissected and tentatively copied. This girl, without make-up or the enhancements of Photoshop, had a face that could launch a thousand ships. What was her secret? Click here to read the full blog
How to Build a Fairy Garden
"...You can see we are getting in the swing of things now. We have a glass table top, up-turned pinecone seating area, daisy garden, curtain ring tunnel, lantern summer house (in case it rains), rope bridge over the pond, razor shell railings to keep baby fairies out of the Deep Water, sea shell hidey hole, skeletal leaf fishing nets and pom pom street light. This photograph was taken after I removed a few hundred white petals (someone had got a bit carried away)."
Found: The Chantry, The Church and The Artist!
"...within 24 hours of my original post I know the exact location and history of the Chantry depicted in my junk-shop find, and I know the name of the artist, a little of her background, and that her work regularly comes up for auction. I cannot thank you enough. A picture I love anyway has gained a whole new level of enjoyment. And let this tale waggle its bare bum at anyone who thinks Twitter is just about broadcasting what you had for breakfast.
So that's the sort of thing I blog about. Plus lots and lots of photographs in my Wordless Wednesday posts.
Hope you enjoyed the commercial break, and that your mum will be subscribing by email.
