Melissa Lawrence

Hi everyone. Happy Easter! I hope you’re enjoying this special time of year although rather like Christmas, it does seem to have become less about celebrating a significant Christian festival and more about how much money the retailers can make. Anyway, at the risk of sounding like a cross between Scrooge and the Easter Bunny, it did get me thinking about why Easter has become so synonymous with chocolate. After all, I don’t think Jesus ever tucked into a bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk (other chocolate bars are available) when he was on the road with his disciples, so why do we feel the need to consume our weight in chocolate every time Easter comes around? Back in the day, there was no chocolate at Easter. (Can you imagine it?) In fact there was no chocolate at all. (Yes, I know. A world without chocolate. How did they survive?) Although the cocoa bean which forms the basis of chocolate was first cultivated by the Aztecs and Mayans over 5000 years ago, sweetened chocolate didn’t ap...

Hi everyone. Is it just me or does Valentine's Day get more OTT every year? Once upon a time it was just cards, roses and the occasional fluffy pink "teddy" (in every sense of the word) but now it's personalised star maps, digital radios, spa days, scratch off posters, heart shaped egg boards and hand-casting moulding kits. Check those last three out on Amazon if you don't believe me! Of course if you are single at this time of the Great Love In, whether by choice or necessity, it can feel even worse than Christmas. At least then you can probably find the odd relative or friend (odd often being the word) to help get you through the day and make you feel less of a Social Pariah. And unlike Christmas, there is the ignominy of the postman knowing that you have only received some double glazing junk mail rather than a card that is too big to fit through the letter box. As it happens, I try to treat Valentine's Day in exactly the same way as I do Christmas Day whi...

Hi everyone. So this is Christmas, as someone once sang. Well, almost anyway. This time next week you will probably be knee-deep in non-recyclable wrapping paper, planning that detox diet for January after one Brussel sprout too many and wondering if you can possibly face watching The Sound of Music with your Auntie Pat for the 27th Christmas in a row. Of course, you might not be doing any of these things if a)You don’t celebrate Christmas b)You try to ignore Christmas c)Christmas has been cancelled or at least severely curtailed (yet again) following the worrying impact of the omnipotent omicron variant rearing its ugly head. Do viruses have heads? I should have paid more attention in Biology at school. Anyway, whether Christmas in your household is a chore, a bore or a wonderful furore, I hope you have a Happy One. Stay safe, stay at home (for as much as you can manage) and stay away from those pesky roast parsnips. They must be the most disappointing vegetable in the world.

Hi everyone. Sorry it's been a while since I last posted. Where has this year gone? I know that September is often referred to as the new January but I didn't mean to miss out on half the year!  I won't deny that it has been a frustrating few months and I guess I'm not alone in feeling that. Since the start of the pandemic, everything seems to be taking far longer to achieve and no one seems to be really on top of things any more. Add to that the anxiety and uncertainty about the future and it does feel at times like it would be a lot easier to just curl up on the sofa and watch Netflix until about 2027. But when it is something you really feel you just have to keep going with, the amount of strength and energy you need to galvanise yourself can be really exhausting and debilitating. Self-care tends to go out of the window but actually, as I know only too well, that is when you really need it the most. And when things do take a turn for the better, it is one of the most...

Hi everyone. I hope you are well and if you are in the UK, enjoyed the warm weather which finally arrived and the greater freedoms we are having. Make the most of them while they last! A couple of years ago, as a present to myself for a rather Big Birthday, I bought a Brother ScanNCut cutting machine. If you are not familiar with electronic cutting machines, they are a desk-top sized machine that allows the crafter to cut out virtually any 2D shape in a wide variety of materials including paper, felt, vinyl, fabric and even wood or leather. You can even cut leather. The Brother ScanNCut may well be the “daddy” of them all as it has a built-in scanner and so many other functions including giving you the option to draw your own images with the machine and you can even foil and stamp with it. Although the machines are primarily aimed at crafters, they are great for artists, designers, sewists and model makers too. I had never owned an electronic cutting machine before so although I di...

Hi everyone. What motivates you? One thing I've discovered through the long, weary months of lockdown is what doesn't motivate me.  For example, looking like the Wild Woman of Borneo because I haven't had my hair cut for over 12 months isn't going to motivate me to make a hair appointment any time soon, even though (thanks to the government's "road map") hairdressers are allowed to open in England from tomorrow. Following the Government's Road Map And being able to trace not just my name but my entire family history in the dust on top of the piano is not going to persuade me to switch off Netflix and get jiggy with a J-cloth and a bowl of warm water. But if I analyse those examples, I know immediately what it is that is standing in the way of me accomplishing two things which actually I'd really like to get done.  Anxiety about catching Covid, despite being vaccinated, is definitely one of them and a perceived lack of energy as in "What's...

Hi everyone. There comes a time in the life of a writer, unless you are JK Rowling of course, when you have to accept that the book you’ve been working on for a really long time and which you were counting on for both personal and financial gain, might not actually get published. It’s a really unpleasant moment and it happened to me a few weeks ago while I was still basking in the euphoria of having finally finished writing My Dear Elsie , the non-fiction book I’ve been writing on and off since 2012. The book is based on a collection of old letters and postcards I found in the back of my late mother’s wardrobe and they are not just any old letters and postcards. They were written to my maternal grandmother by a friend of hers called Ethel North who was employed as lady’s maid to Lady Winifred Burghclere, the sister of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, from 1919 to 1933. George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon (Public Domain) Ethel travelled all over the world with Lady Burghclere, including...