On One Foot

…brief updates about me and those I love

*Still feeling a bit like I just woke up from a bad dream. Like the last 14 months were some kind of poorly written horror show. But now I have found the remote and happily change the channel.

*Meanwhile Spring is blooming everywhere around me. Birds twitter in the trees, hum and hop in my garden.

*And I’m buzzing again too!

Returning to yoga via ACB’s weekly Zoom sessions.

Walking daily with J.

Even dabbling on the piano as I try to reclaim a few tunes.

*And while the sunflower seeds we planted mid-April seem to have been duds or perhaps succumbed to late frost, our most recent plantings are sprouting!

*silver haired blind ladycartwheeling amid blooming trees*

So how are you, my Darlings?

And how are you blooming?

Wishing you sweetness and Love!

Sally Cronin is a wonderful blogger and a huge supporter of the blogging and writing community. Her blog Smorgasbord is styled along the lines of a magazine and she has published numerous books, both fiction and non-fiction.

Welcome, Sally, it is an honour to host you on Robbie’s Inspiration.

Over to Sally

Thanks very much Robbie for your invitation to join you today and for the great questions.

You have a successful blog, Smorgasbord, with a large following.

What gave you the idea of a blogging magazine?

When I began blogging it was to promote a recently released men’s health book, but after a few weeks, I discovered I loved the immediacy of blogging and the response to the posts, and was hooked. It evolved from there as I began to share my other passions.

It was called Consequences…

I am incredibly excited to announce that I have been recognied as a Book Excellence Award Finalist for my book,The Year the Swans Came in the Romance Category.

Founded in Toronto, Ontario, the Book Excellence Awards is an international book awards competition dedicated to recognising both independent and traditionally published authors and publishers for excellence in writing, design and overall market appeal.

For me, it has proved a worthwhile experience. An earlier book, Broken, was also entered and sales in Canada were the unexpected result. But with Swans, there was a dilemma. There was a fantasy category but I always think of fantasy as set in some far-distant world in which everything is very different from what we have come to call ‘normal’. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a magical realism category, which is set in our world but with a twist. This is a pity because the genre has, in the…

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Wanda Luthman’s Children’s Book Blog!

Today, I have our favorite Child Psychologist, Dr. Valerie Allen, sharing with us some very timely information as we begin May, the month of graduation.

Here’s some excellent tips to help you teen as they graduate and contemplate next steps…

After High School: What Next?

There are five basic considerations after you graduate from high school. Number 1 to 5 which you think would be best as you move into the world of work. What are the benefits of your #1 choice?

___ Take a year off

• Travel – enrichment, learning; costly, consider safety and welfare issues
• Work – income, new skills; time consuming, restricted freedom; consider time and money management
• Move – more freedom, new friends; consider cost , resources, and loneliness
• Pursue a hobby – satisfaction, enjoyment; consider no or limited income, dependence on others

___Join the U.S. Military…

To end National Poetry Month, here’s another blast from the past, a review of a delightful poetry collection I read last year. Enjoy!

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I like the way the author has arranged this collection. Starting with poems about relationships that tell a story of love, loss, and new beginnings, she moves on to poems about her blindness and injustice, then finally to a section she calls “Miscellaneous,” including poems on other topics. Being a widow, I could identify with many of the relationship poems, although they have more to do with loss due to separation or divorce instead of death. These poems will help you see things in a way you may never have seen them before.

Read more.

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By the way, for those of you who use the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, The Red Dress is available for download from their site

I am very excited to welcome author, Jane Risdon, to Robbie’s Inspiration today to tell us a bit about her writing and her books.

Welcome Jane Risdon

Background

Robbie, thanks so much for hosting me on your lovely blog, I am so happy to be here.

For those who may not know me or know of me, I thought I’d tell you something about my background.

I am an author, a dream come true for me having spent the best part of my life living in silent despair of ever being able to achieve my life’s ambition. After years of living another life — well, two really — I have managed to become a published author and one represented by an agent. Something I had never imagined.

My early life was spent working for various (British)…

Hi SEers! Denise here to talk about animals and writing.

When I was young, I was drawn to books about animals. A few that have stayed with me are “Where the Red Fern Grows” by Wilson Rawls, “Charlotte’s Web” by E.B White, and “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” by Beatrix Potter.

As an adult, I’ve read “Call of the Wild” by Jack London, “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” by Richard Bach, and “All Creatures Great and Small” by James Herriot. I’m adding “Pet Sematary” by Stephen King as an example of what I don’t like in a story with a pet.

Do you have some favorite animal stories?

Animals are a part of our lives. Even if we don’t own pets, we will certainly run into one along the way. Birds can be outside the window or a cat cuddled on your lap, their tail twitching, watching that bird. On a walk…

Since this series began in January 2018 there have been over 1000 Posts from Your Archiveswhere bloggers have taken the opportunity to share posts to anew audience… mine. The topics have ranged from travel, childhood, recipes, history, family and the most recent series was #PotLuck where I shared a random selection of different topics.

In this series I will be sharing posts from the last six months of 2020

This series is now closed for new participants but there will be a new series in August sharing posts from the first six months of 2021.

This is the first post from author Barbara Spencer and she shares her passion for cricket which would lead to an eventful trip to the West Indies, a hotel management position and her first freelance journalist article.

Don’t Stop the Carnival

My mother, a sedentary sports fanatic, introduced me to cricket…

Welcome to my kitchen where I cook almost everything from scratch…Last week I revealed all and one of the reasons why I cook from scratch…

Sourdough bread is a lovely thing and seeing that starter bubbling and rising is a sight to behold…I read copious books and blogs and all very successful…Don’t that fool you…You may be lucky and Take 1 may be the one which is perfect and you then have a friend for life and of course, they will have a name as everyone names their sourdough starter…

sourdough culture

I started using expensive unbleached bread flour…that bombed…eventually after much handwringing and cursing it worked…maybe it was the humidity here or the water…I read up about water and followed the guidelines,  changed my flour…Trial and error…and then miraculously…It worked!

My point is do not start a sourdough starter if you are not prepared to fail…BUT when at last…