Are you going to BritMums Live 2013? I am!!! Hope to see you there!

Are you going to BritMums Live 2013? 

I am going this year and have entered the Linky here so I can hopefully get to know some of the other lovely bloggers who will be there. Why don't you enter too ??

Name: Sarah

Blog: The Secret Life of an Unknown Housewife

Twitter ID:  @ugglymuggly       (it used to be @secrethousewife,but I stupidly lost my password.Doh)

Height: 5ft 

Hair: Blonde   

Eyes: Blue

Is this your first blogging conference?    

                                                                            

                                                                                                 

No. Its my second. I came to BritMums Live 2012.

Are you attending both days?

Yes I am and I'm really looking forward to both. This time I'm staying for the BiBs too as I'm on the long shortlist for the Lifestyle category. Will find out soon if I'm lucky enough to be on the short shortlist!!! But even if I'm not I'm looking forward to seeing who wins ... so many good bloggers!

What are you most looking forward to at BritMums Live 2013?

I am hoping to be able to meet up with some of the people whose blogs I read and who read mine. I am also really excited about hearing Katie Piper speak.

What are you wearing?

Probably purple jeans and pink laced cat boots (comfy & not as lary as they sound) and a weather dependent top ( I thought a top was advisable...)

What do you hope to gain from BritMums Live 2013?

I want to learn more about blogging. I hope I am not as shy as last year and actually have the guts to go up and chat to people. 

Tell us one thing about you that not everyone knows

I have dived with sharks whilst having my foot nibbled by a moray eel ...

Thanks for reading this! If you see me at BritMums Live I would love to have a chat! I may look like I know what I'm doing,but its all a facade!! I will be chuffed to meet you!!

A blogger looking to the future ...

I received a tweet today from the lovely Actually Mummy who was asking how long I had been blogging. It may seem ridiculous, but I had to sit down and work it out. It seems as though I have always blogged!! But of course I haven't. I have been blogging since New Year's Eve 2006, which makes my blogging career six and a bit years. The other thing she asked was "Why haven't I come across you before?" and I really had no answer. I was just glad that she had found me now!

I suppose the truth is that I am an amateur. I write because I need to write to keep myself sane. My blog doesn't have a particular niche - I can't say that I am a Parent blog or a Sports blog or a Craft blog ... I am just a Me blog. And when you just write about your own life, with no real particular focus, you don't draw the attention of advertisers/sponsors. You have to rely on people being interested in ... you ....  and the things you do. Which is not always a given when you are a little old housewife from the South of England!!

me with my Comic Relief hair

I decided a while ago to write because I loved writing and any followers or readers I gained would be an added bonus. Over the years I have built up a very loyal following of readers and I love that they enjoy reading my scribblings. I know that if I am down they will appear like knights in shining armour, angels from the ether to support me or tell me to get over myself!! People like Inkling and Urban Cynic are women I would love to meet and share a glass of vino with!

 Actually Mummy's blog is amazing. I don't think, in fact I know, that I don't have the skills to achieve such a professional site, but I love that she found me and, I hope, liked my writing. And I love the fact that there are so many of us out there, mainly women, who write and share and support each other. We are all so different, but we are linked by our love of writing and our interest in other writers and bloggers.

There is nobody I know in my real life (other than my lovely uncle) who blogs. None of my friends are into it at all, although more and more are starting to read mine. I have found my way through trial and error and still get a thrill when people leave comments or follow me! Last year I went to BritMums Live - a blogging conference and was a bit overwhelmed by it all, but in retrospect it was a fantastic experience. For the first time I had the chance to meet other bloggers, hear how other people managed their writing and I saw, first hand, the burgeoning community of bloggers.

Someone asked me, when I was there, how long I had been blogging and seemed amazed when I told them. I hadn't realised that I was an old hand!! This year I am going again and this time I really hope I can meet up with some of the people whose blogs I read and with whom I tweet ... people like Selena and Kat .

I know some people ... professional writers ... think that we bloggers are an odd lot, rambling on about our children, our fears and our joys, but we are not odd ... Most of us are women who have busy lives, careers, but we also enjoy writing. We don't profess to be journalists and we don't expect to make money from writing, but together we are beginning to be a force for good and a strong community, aware of each other and the realities of every day life. I know, from my membership of BritMums, that there are bloggers out there who have climbed Snowdon to raise money for Comic Relief - others who have joined together to help clean, paint and decorate the house of a struggling mum, and others like the amazing Kate who inspires and works tirelessly for charity.

I am rather ashamed to say that I am a bit of a back seat blogger. I like reading and listening to what others have to say, but I am not as involved as I should be. I think I am going to try and find something that really inspires me and try to do something good through my blogging. What I really love is teaching children to read and to enjoy books so I am going to try and find a way to get more involved with that ... we'll see.

What is certain is that I am going to keep on writing and I hope that people, like Actually Mummy, find me and enjoy what I have to say. Thanks for reading! x

A little patch of Paradise.

For years now I have walked along a certain road and at a certain point my stride has slowed to drink in the joys of a beautiful garden that nestles behind a clematis covered fence. Through rain and snow, sun and cloud I have marvelled at the care lavished upon it by its owner. Its not attached to a spectacular property, rather to an ordinary looking semi-detached, but its lawns are manicured, its flower beds perfect and I have admired it for a long time.

Yesterday I was wending my way home, slowing once again to gaze over the fence, when I saw an old man going in through the gate. Our eyes met as he turned to shut it and I smiled and asked if this was his garden. He grinned back and said that it was. When I complimented him on its beauty and said that I had admired it for years he asked if I would like to have a tour! Well, I quickly summed up the chances of this nice old man being a psychopathic axe murderer, rapidly dismissed them and pushed open the gate ...

I spent the most lovely half hour wandering around with him in the sunshine. What a wonderful man! He told me that everything in the garden has been nurtured by him, mostly from seed, some rescued when other people thought they were dead. He has at least six greenhouses dotted around the garden, each filled with seedlings and young plants waiting to go out. And never has he bought a greenhouse! Each was taken in payment for work done, or rescued from gardens where they were unwanted.

His lawn was dotted with Japanese maples and acers. Dahlia tubers waited patiently to be put out into carefully prepared beds. And around a corner he showed me a little patch of paradise - his vegetable beds! Call me old fashioned, but it was like being in Mr McGregor's garden. Potatoes poked their heads up from beds of straw. Carrots pushed their way through rich dark soil in specially built brick raised beds. He told me he shows his carrots and leeks and grinned as I ran the soil through my fingers - like black gold!

Cabbages and cauliflowers grew protected by mesh cages and stakes awaited his prize dahlias to grow inbetween the vegetables.

In a corner by his crystal clear fish pond he had a table weighed down with bedding plants grown from seed. Wind chimes clinked in the breeze.

You can imagine the joy of that half hour for me. I have never seen such healthy looking plants. There was not a yellow leaf, a wilting stem in sight. Each one was plump and green and ready to spring into greenery and blossom. I stood as he told me the stories of his trees as his wife sat in the sunshine on a straw bale, nursing a cup of tea and a biscuit. I felt so privileged to be given a glimpse into his little corner of Heaven and his enthusiasm and quiet happiness bathed me in contentment.

After half an hour I left with thanks and goodbyes and the invitation to bring my husband to visit too. All that joy because our eyes met over a garden gate and we took a chance of talking to a stranger. Its one of those experiences which will stay as a golden memory forever!

potato beds