Every week Rory posts 9 questions. If I think I can answer them I do.

What do you find yourself splurging on the most?

In my case that would probably be dolls. Even though I have lots of them already every now and then something comes up for sale that I must have even though I probably should not spend the money. I’ve got to the stage where if I see a vintage fashion doll or even a new one at a good price that I really like I think I should get it because it might not come up for sale again.

What is your top writing tip?

I guess my top tip would be to be yourself when you write, be sincere and write about what you know. My other top tip would be to proofread your work before you hit publish.

Are you a regular recycler, and if so, what are five of your top recycling tips?

I’m pretty regular. We save all our paper goods, bottles, jars and tins for the fortnightly council recycling collection. We take old batteries to the council chambers where they have a recycling box and foil from medications goes back to the chemist. Some things are harder to recycle than others, especially soft plastics. We use cloth bags for our shopping but the stuff that is delivered comes in plastic bags since Covid and the store doesn’t recycle them anymore. I take them to local businesses like Op Shops or the visitor centre where I volunteer so that they at least get a second life. The visitor centre is happy to take my bubble wrap too for wrapping the merchandise we sell there.

My top tips. Be a responsible shopper. Try not to be wasteful in the first place. Do like our parents’ generation did and find other uses for things that have outlived their purpose. Research ways you can recycle what you can’t use yourself. Start a compost bin.

Are you someone that wants to be or needs to be heard and seen, or are you content to be found behind the scenes?

No. I’d rather stay in the background.

How approachable do you think you are in real life and away from the keyboard, and do others feel the same way about you?

I think that I am reasonably approachable. I hope that others think so too.

Do you sit more on the fence or the edge of the knife?

I’m probably more of a fence sitter because I dislike conflict. I have strong opinions about some things but I don’t always want to get into a discussion about them.

What do you remember the most about your grandparents?

One of my grandfathers died before I was born. The other when I was six or seven. He smoked a pipe, I do remember that. Most of the rest of what I know about him is from what I have been told.

My paternal grandmother used to stay with us occasionally. She had iron grey hair and wore it in two long braids wound round her head. I’d never seen anything like that before. Dad’s family came from the East End of London but she was born in Canada. I do remember mum telling me that. I learned much later that she came from Halifax, Nova Scotia although her father was English. She had a darker complexion, mum used to say she thought that grandma looked like a native American woman. She was deaf and I think that she may have been in the early stages of dementia so we could not communicate with her very well. We were a bit scared of her which is sad.

Mum’s mother was the grandparent that I remember the most because we spent the most time with her. She had an unusual hairstyle too, her hair was very frizzy. She was a good cook and always made cakes when we came to stay. She used to save the toys from cereal packets for us to play with when we visited too. I remember the house where she used to live in England as we stayed there every summer. We spent the most time with her during the last year of her life after we had come to Australia as we all lived in the same house. I was nearly nine when she died.

How important to you is validation from your readers to your written content – do you need acknowledgement from others to create?

If I ‘m honest I probably wouldn’t still be doing this after ten years if nobody was reading it. I blog to share and if nobody was interested in what I had to say I’d probably stop.

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What is it you would have liked to have been asked about your life but have yet to be?  

Sorry, I really can’t think of anything for this one.