Things/Habits/Quirks About Meme

Another meme! I love these things (thank you Sally and Pacha) they make me think and then I have fun checking out everyone else's answers, which always make me think too. I tag Annieye, Aliqot, L-Plate Author, Leigh, Gonna Be a Writer (if you haven't been tagged already by the time I get to post this ... crazy here as usual at this time of day!)

The small print: Link to the person that tagged you. Post the rules on your blog. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on his/her website.

Perhaps not an interesting thing about me as such, but an incredibly interesting thing to do: I home-schooled youngest daughter last year (mostly because she was being bullied at school) and learnt so much fascinating stuff. It was fun to go back to old-school 'project' work, taking a topic of her choice (Horses/Australia/The Farm) and using it to study as many different subjects as usual. We even looked at RE for the Horse project!

(Youngest daughter back to (a very lovely new) school. I miss it. I miss her.)

I worked as a labourer on the Canary Wharf building site (many many moons ago when I was very fit, in the old-fashioned sense!) As the only female labourer on site, I was spoilt rotten (even the tradesmen would down tools and rush to help me out with something or other!), something that drove the younger (very independent, staunchly 'feminist', and thoroughly stroppy) me completely nuts! (Would love to be spoilt now!)

I have a total weakness for books and music and it's a good thing I live a fair distance from town, or the girls would starve (reminds me of Jenny Joseph's 'brandy and summer gloves'!) and nobody would be able to get into the house. I am terrible at not getting rid of books 'way past their use-by date' too. I still have ladybird books from when I was at school, and the complete Beatrix Potter set, all falling apart now and some are mostly illegible.

I have to have windows open all over the house, even when the fire is on, and my bedroom window is never closed.

Youngest daughter and I raised a baby sparrow and a starling last year. Both of which we rescued from the horrid cat! (I know. It's natural. And she always looks so offended when I don't accept her lovely gift very graciously. I just can't help freaking out.)

I nearly always make the gifts I give people, ranging from textiles to clay. My favourite gift to make for anyone is a 'Passion Pebble' ... inspired by the collection my daughters and I have built of heart-shaped stones we have found over the years, they are made in clay, painted, then I write a word or saying on them, special to whoever they are destined for.

I began by making them in salt dough, when we went through a sudden period with NO money (thank you, Inland Revenue!) I threw myself on the flooor and howled for a while, then realised that wasn't really going to help, and that I had to actually do something to earn some money, very quickly. The solution kept us fed and warm for more than two weeks!

(Eerie story: One of the students I was working with at the time, had a dream about me picking up heart-shaped pebbles from the beach, at almost the very same time that I thought of it!)